Scorpius couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. He had a job to do. The sooner he got it done the better. The only problem was he had no idea how to go about it.

After his little chat with Rose in the library, he knew he had to return her memory. It was going to be the most awkward, embarrassing encounter imaginable, but if Rose thought she was being possessed, the consequences could get so much worse for the both of them. He went straight to Professor Flitwick.

"The spell to break a memory charm?" The professor echoed. "There is none. The only known way of returning memories is through torture."

"What?! I mean, interesting. That's, that's really unfortunate."

"Yes, which is why we must always tread carefully with memory charms."

"Of course."

Luckily, Professor Flitwick, being very elderly and nearly blind, didn't see the tears forming in Scorpius' eyes.

Now he sat staring at her across the library, hating himself because he knew that soon she would be in pain and it would be all his fault. He felt his eyes start to water, which was entirely unacceptable in public, leaned his head into his hands.

He breathed deep. On three, he said to himself you're going to get up, walk to the Hufflepuff table and talk to Rose. You're going to ask her to follow you. You can do this. You will do this. One...two...three. Slowly, he slid out of his seat and stood, partially amazed at himself. Get it together. You're a Malfoy; you can do whatever you want.

He pep talked himself all the way over to the Hufflepuff table, where the entire house stared at him with wide eyes. Except for Rose.

"Hey," she said, completely at ease.

"Hey, can I borrow you a second? Or more than a second, just-"

"Whatever you need." She smiled. Scorpius nodded.

"Good." He grabbed her arm and led her off.

"So," he began as he led her outside, "theoretically, if you were obliviated, and the only way to get your memories back was to be tortured, what would you do?"

Rose stared at him, eyes wide as the world rapidly began making sense again.

After a while of understandably stunned silence, she responded, "I'd go for torture."

"I figured you would." They stepped into the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. "One more question. Do you trust me?"

She had every reason to scream "no" and run, but slowly, she nodded.

"More than anyone."

Scorpius wanted to kiss her then and there, but this was anything but the time. He mirrored her slow nod. "I've read up on this, I'm going to make it as brief and tolerable as possible."

"I trust you. Scorpius?"

"Yeah?

"These memories—are they good?"

Scorpius hesitated. "You seemed to enjoy them, for the most part." Rose nodded solemnly. "Okay, I have some rope in my robes, I think it may be best if I tie you to a tree, but if you-"

Rose leaned against the nearest tree. Scorpius carefully looped the rope around her and tied it loosely.

Rose tapped her fingers against the tree nervously. Scorpius reached out and held what he could of her hands.

"It'll be okay," he whispered.

Rose nodded, closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.

Scorpius cast a Flagrate curse on a fallen yellow leaf so it would burn on touch, and directed it over to Rose's arm. He laid it carefully on her forearm, right below her elbow.

Rose winced and failed to surpress a bit of a squeel.

Scorpius let it up. "The end of 4th year, there was a really bad storm. You sat outside watching it, because it made you feel brave. Who joined you?"

"I-I don't know."

Scorpius hated seeing her so scared. He considered offering to stop, but he knew she'd refuse, and he worried that merely offering reprieve may lessen the effectivity of the torture. To say the least, these were thoughts he'd hoped to never have.

He placed the leaf a little lower on her arm. "The train ride to Hogwarts this year. You left your friends for a while. Where'd you go?" Rose winced, kept her eyes squeezed shut, thinking as hard as she could.

"...I don't know."

Scorpius burned her lower, wishing he could shut his own eyes. "When you had detention this year, because you skipped class for your friend, what did you do?" Despite the fact that he was literally torturing his best friend in the forbidden forest, the 16 year old in him couldn't help blushing at his own word choice.

"I still don't know, Scorpius." Tears began to leak from her eyes out of pain and frustration.

Scorpius was crying too, and it took all he had not to run over and untie her. He decided to try a different tactic. He placed the leaf on her other arm.

"Why do you trust a family enemy and a Slytherin to torture you alone in the woods?"

This answer came immediately.

"Because you love me."

Rose's own mouth dropped and her eyes flew open to meet his of their own accord.

Scorpius smiled sadly, "Yeah, I do love you, Rose." He took a moment to keep himself from going to her. "Shut your eyes again." She did.

"When did I tell you that?"

"Last week."

Scorpius began to smile, hope trickling through him.

"Where?" Her eyes squeezed tight as she concentrated.

"In a-oh!" she said, green eyes wide and confused, but also filled with pride and mischief because she remembered.

He went straight to untying her.

The moment the ropes fell a hand pulled him up and then Rose was kissing him.

She had him against a tree when she pulled back suddenly.

"Oh, and I love you too."

Scorpius kissed her back.

Then it was Rose against a tree, with her legs hooked around his back.

"I erased your memory without your permission repeatedly. Why aren't you mad?"

She kissed him once more. "The past five years, I always felt like I should hate you. But I never did. I can't be mad at you." Another kiss. "I know you too well, I know you were scared. It sucked and if you try it again I'll beat you up," another, "but I'm not actually mad, so I'm not going to pretend to be for the sake of logic."

He kissed her hard.

"I love you. I swear, your mind is untouchable from now on."

She laughed a bit. "One more thing."

"Anything."

"Stop obliviating yourself to reread To Kill a Mockingbird. It's not safe."

"Good thinking."

"I usually do."

They laughed and kissed and laughed.

"I lied." Rose whispered, even though nobody was around. "One more thing."

"I'm not sure how to get you the moon, but I know people—or at least my mom does—and I'm Slytherin. We usually get what we want."

"I don't want the moon. I want you to take me to the winter ball."

"As you wish."