Author's Note: This chapter is a bit of a departure from tradition in the way it starts and carries out. I'm also trying to show things going on outside of Rose and Hogwarts. It'll be more Scorose centered later on I promise.

Also I'd like to add that you may have noticed I have made a few tweaks here and there to canon (i.e. McGonagall was supposed to retire earlier, the events of this chapter should've happened a few years before) but it's all for good reason. I won't try to change anything large that'll disturb the masterpiece that is the Harry Potter series. :)


April 2018

Neville Longbottom was getting married. At the ripe age of thirty-seven, he finally had mustered the courage to ask his long time girlfriend, Hannah Abbott, to marry him. And she had said yes.

Celebrations were under way, as he and his fiancee reunited with their old Hogwarts friends one late Saturday night in Hogsmeade. Seamus Finnigan was plastered almost immediately, claiming he had not had a good drink since he and Dean Thomas had adopted their daughter, Zoey. Parvati Patil cried upon reuniting with her friend Lavender Brown, whose beautiful face was still scarred deeply after several years, and Padma Patil cried upon reuniting with her friend Cho Chang, who cried in return for no apparent reason.

Hannah showed the modest ring off to her friends; Ernie MacMillian whistled and Justin Finch-Fletchley claimed he had given a better ring to his wife, Susan Bones, but she eyed the piece of jewelry longingly. Aberforth shouted that he was far too old to be handing out drinks to the lot of them, but the Weasleys heartily called another round to order, Hermione and Harry shaking their heads at the drunken state of their family.

Music played loudly in the background, only drowned out by the bustle of the partygoers.

"Damn, Neville. I didn't think anyone could get married so old, but you're full o' surprises, aren't ya?" Seamus said, his words slurred.

Lee Jordan, whose dreads hung down by his back, put an arm around Neville. "Man, lay off him, will you? Neville knows what he's doing. He's made a good choice, waiting this long. At least he knows his marriage will stick around." Lee had three failed marriages.

Neville looked sheepishly at the others, he hadn't drank as much, but had maintained a cheery mood the entire night. "I mean, taking this long just means I've really found the one, you know? It's never too late for love."

Ron groaned. "Neville, you have got to be the most—"

"I think it's sweet," Hermione intervened, beaming at him. Ron's eyebrows lifted, suddenly finding a new appreciation for Neville's words.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "All that matters is that you and Hannah are happy, isn't it?"

"Right."

Luna Scamander spoke, "Will Hannah be moving into Hogwarts?"

Neville shook his head. "I've got a flat, Luna, you've been there. But actually, I was thinking about moving in with her."

"To the Shrieking Shack?" George asked, his hand shaking with what seemed to be his millionth shot of firewhiskey.

"No," said Neville. "To the Leaky Cauldron."

"Will you work there then?" Michael Corner asked.

"I don't know yet, maybe."

Now Hermione was aghast. "But Neville you love teaching Herbology! And you've only been working at Hogwarts for a few years."

"Settle down, Hermione, I didn't say I'd give this job up," said Neville, and Hermione relaxed. "I reckon I'll be old and shriveled up before I quit."

"That's m'boy," said Dean, extending a shot to Neville.

A familiar Weird Sisters tune filled the room and some people started dancing clumsily, bumping into each other as if they were teenagers again. Aberforth huffed and set out plates of pub food in front of them and went to the back room, mumbling under his breath about needing something stronger to drink. Ron bit into his greasy sandwich as Hermione poked at hers with a fork, earning a eye roll from her husband.

"What? I don't know how safe this is."

Harry laughed. "You think Aberforth would give us something inedible?"

Ron pulled away from the sandwich and made a face. "His vision has gone a bit wonky in the past few years." He peeked under the slice of bread and shrugged before continuing to finish it off.

Luna pushed her food away. "Neville, how many people are you inviting?"

Hannah approached then, smiling brightly at all of them. "I'm trying to convince him not to invite all of Hogwarts. There's only so many Gryffindors I can handle all at once, their children is another story."

"Kind of disappointed Neville went for a Puff, if you ask me," Seamus laughed.

"I didn't get the chance to get a Gryffindor girl, all the good ones were taken," said Neville, putting his arm around Hannah. "It didn't even occur to me to ask any of the blokes. Smart thinking, mate."

Seamus grinned. "Cheers."

Hannah shook her head. "But for sure everyone here's invited, along with their families. 'Course both of our families. Some other Hogwarts people, the Fawcetts, Alicia Spinnet and her husband, the Malfoys—"

Ron coughed. "Wait— what?"

"Not this again," Ginny groaned.

However, Hannah didn't seem the least bit perturbed. "Well, of course I'll invite Draco and Astoria. We did go to school with them, it's only fair."

Ron sputtered, looking from Neville to Hannah, surprised. Hermione glared at him, silently warning him it wasn't his place.

Harry put a hand on Ron's shoulder. "The Malfoys are much better now, Ron. I know you've got some reservations but after what their son did to save Albus..."

"Albus didn't need saving! He would've been fine on his own!"

Ginny fumed. "You wouldn't be saying that if it was Hugo—"

"—he's got no business fighting people—"

"—Or Rose," she finished. "You and I both know what a nasty temper she's got. It'll get her in serious trouble one day."

Immediately, the image of George hopping on one foot while clutching the other swollen foot on Christmas day three years ago jumped into their minds. "You should have just told her where you hid Les Miserables, would've saved you a lot of trouble," Ron had said as his daughter laughed maniacally.

Ron sighed and pulled Hermione's untouched drink towards him. Hannah shrugged, "If it makes you feel better, I know the Bat-Bogey Hex just as well as your sister. We can double team him if we need to."

"There won't be any double-teaming necessary," Ginny said sternly. Her words were to Hannah but she kept her eyes trained on Ron.

Lee cleared his throat, trying to break the tension, then raised his glass and said, "Here's to the lovely couple!"


August 2018

The wedding was in Cornwall, on a hill adjacent to a sparkling, beautiful, blue body of water. Various sized stones dotted the edge of the coast, soon merging with the beach, where drunken guests went far enough, seeking an alcove in the rocks to share a furtive kiss. The marquee was filled with music, booming so the entire world could hear it seemed, and only a Cooling Charm could keep all the laughing and dancing and chattering guests at bay. Hannah was stunning in a simple long sleeve white dress, her hair spilling into magnificent spirals down her back. Neville's dress robes were particularly extravagant; his grandmother had imported them from Italy on account of her connections with the robemaker Lupinacci.

A particularly large cliff just down the way from the marquee overlooked the beautiful waves. Rose sat on the edge of a large rock on top of the cliff, close enough to see the tumbling water below but not close enough to give her mother a heart attack. She swung her legs back and forth, unfortunately her father's height had not passed on to her yet, and her Mary Jane's and frilly socks hovered precariously over the mossy rocks. She picked a candy from her complimentary jar of lemon drops as she looked out into the vast face of the sea. She was so preoccupied, in fact, that she had not heard anyone approaching.

"Mind if I join you? It's getting a bit too loud in there for me."

A combination of wind and the quickness of her turn caused her hair to fly in her face as she turned to see Scorpius Malfoy. "Yes, of course." She patted the spot next to her, and although the rock was a little damp from the mist and Scorpius's robes seemed to be just as expensive—if not more expensive—as Neville's, he hopped up next to her.

"Thanks." He eyed the jar in her hand for a moment. "May I have one? I received a jar of Pepper Imps and frankly I'm not as big as a fan of those as my mother is."

She nodded and offered him the candy. "I suppose you're saving those for her otherwise I'd take them off your hands. You haven't got a sweet tooth, then?"

"I kind of do," he said, chewing a lemon drop. "I mostly like savory stuff though. I could eat at the Great Feast forever."

Rose shook her head. "I reckon I've got a bigger sweet tooth than anyone I've met. When I was six I ate up all the cake for Uncle Harry's birthday before he even got to have any!"

"Liar," he said.

"I don't lie! Especially not about chocolate," she said matter-of-factly.

"I don't see why you would need to." Scorpius leaned to look out at the view; the tips of his shoes were nearly touching the ground. "Do you like the beach?"

"I can't say I don't." She set aside the now-empty jar. "Whenever we go to visit Victoire, Dominique, and Louis we'd play together on the beach since they live near one."

Scorpius seemed to be in thought, then: "Who's Louis?"

"My cousin."

"Is he at Hogwarts? I can't remember ever hearing of a Louis Weasley."

"He's not. He's a Squib."

The only sounds were of the water lapping against the rocks. There was nothing to be ashamed of, ever since the Second Wizarding War, Squibs had been integrated into wizarding society and given better career opportunities and laws enacted to protect from discrimination. But Rose wasn't embarrassed that her cousin was a Squib, she was concerned with how Scorpius would react. She was not sure what to make of him quite yet.

"How old is he?" he asked.

Rose played with the lace at the bottom of her dress. "He turned fourteen in May."

"Is it hard for him, you know—" He paused, trying to think of a way to rephrase it, but she stopped him.

"I know what you're trying to say," she said, raising her eyes to the skyline. "I have no doubt he feels left out sometimes, especially when we talk about Hogwarts so much. But we do our best to include him, he plays Quidditch and chess and Gobstones and he even sometimes makes jokes about not being able to do magic. We don't really bring it up but we don't ignore it either."

"I reckon with your family it's very hard to feel unwelcome anyway." He smiled at her. "Your cousin Albus's family has been very kind to me. They even let me sit with them today."

"Your parents didn't want to come?" Rose asked.

His pale face reddened. "They were busy."

She studied him closely, his words did not seem to ring true and he relented under her gaze. "Some people aren't as welcoming as your family. And..." He pulled at his collar as if it were growing tighter around his throat. "I don't think they thought it to be very appropriate if they were to come with me. But since my friends would be here, they didn't want to stop me from coming."

Rose thought about everything she had heard about the Malfoy family. She had only seen his parents at the train station, everything else was in pictures. The hundreds of magazines and newspapers and books talked about the infamous, wealthy family and their legacy intertwined with the dark arts. Although they had certainly reformed over the years, they were not vocal about their stance on the current issues plaguing the Wizarding World and preferred to keep behind the curtains at Malfoy Manor. Their silence gave voice to everyone else, who based their opinions on their past history.

"They can't keep hiding from everyone."

"They're not hiding!" he said quickly, then in a much quieter voice, "They weren't too close to Professor Longbottom or Mrs. Abbott at Hogwarts so they didn't think they'd say it was much of a loss if they couldn't make it." Despite his honesty, he was obviously uncomfortable talking about his family and Rose did not want to push him any further, though she had many burning questions.

"That's understandable," she said, laying down on the rock. The rough surface took a bit of shifting to adjust to but she finally rested her head. "Have you been to a wedding before?"

"I went to one a few years back. One of my father's house mates from Hogwarts." Scorpius looked at her curiously before laying down next to her. "What about you?"

"I've been going to them since I was a baby," she said. "The Scamanders, the Thomas-Finnigans, you name it."

"Pretty wicked."

"Yeah." She sighed. "I reckon it'll prepare me for planning the best wedding for myself when I'm older."

Scorpius hummed in agreement. "I'm sure I'll have loads of friends to invite when I'm forty."

"Forty!" Rose nearly sat up, but instead settled on her elbows and looked at him with surprise. "You'll be withering away when you're forty! You can't possibly plan a wedding."

"Oh, come on, Weasley," he said in a serious tone. "Professor Longbottom managed to do it. Besides, any time before that would be much too hectic."

"Hectic?" she cried. "Oh, I'd hate to be the person who's marrying you someday."

"And why is that?" Scorpius asked, amused.

Rose shook her head, as if the answer to his question was the most obvious thing in the world. And it was. "Because I'd be waiting on toes for you to propose to me and it'd never come around."

He laughed. "Well, it's a good thing you're not marrying me, then, isn't it?"

"Very." She lied back down on the rock and let her eyes travel along the purpling sky.

They laid in silence, not letting the full weight of their conversation hit them. Scorpius shuffled next to her and put his hands behind his head, reclining calmly and staring up ahead. "You know, I was joking, right? I wouldn't wait 'til I'm forty."

"I knew that."

He sighed. "Are you– Do you always insist on getting mad at someone who doesn't share your beliefs?" This was a very dangerous thing to say, for Scorpius was usually not this daring and Rose was slowly tipping over to anger.

"Not always," she said curtly.

Now, it was Scorpius's turn to prop himself up on his elbows and look at her. "That's not a very good habit. I only meant it to be a funny conversation about weddings."

"It's not about the weddings."

He looked bewildered. "Then what is it about?"

"I can't believe your parents didn't want to come and always leave you alone like this!"

Scorpius sighed. "Rose, you've got to understand that not everyone has the same type of family you do."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

"I can't expect my family to hang around me all the time."

"My family doesn't 'hang around' me!" Rose cried. "They're there for me when I need them, just like a normal, loving family."

Her anger at his parents seeped into her words and she realized too late the full impact of what she had said. His expression melted into one of sadness and her heart sank as he laid back against the rocks wordlessly. She opened her mouth to apologize but she knew the damage was already done; he had not wanted to talk about his family and she had pushed him into it.

Soft footsteps joined the sound of the crashing waves and giggling followed soon after.

"Rose!"

She hopped off the rock and met Andie and Albus, who carried plates of wedding cake. Andie looked even more vibrant in her flowy, turquoise dress and Albus appeared uncomfortable in the dress robes his father had bought him and his mother had stuffed him into.

Andie held out her plate. "We came to tell you that they served the cake! Do you want some of mine?"

Rose shook her head. "That's all right. I'll get some of my own." She looked back up at the motionless boy laying on top of the big rock. Andie and Albus followed her line of vision, surprised to see that Rose hadn't been alone.

Albus called, "Scorpius, do you want to come eat cake with us?"

Scorpius moved a fraction of an inch, as if he were actually considering getting up and going back to the marquee, but then said, "I don't think I'm feeling quite well, thanks."

Albus handed Andie his plate and moved closer to the rock. "Should I tell my parents? Is it serious? My grandmum might have something for it."

"No!" Scorpius said with more force than necessary. Any mention of family seemed to exhaust him at this point. Rose felt guilt stirring in her stomach but didn't say a word for fear of making the situation worse. He backtracked. "I am fine, I just need a bit of fresh air that's all."

"Do you want company?" Albus asked.

Surprisingly, Scorpius said yes, but in a way that indicated Albus was the only person who was welcome to stay. Andie seemed unfazed by this and returned Albus's plate to him before she led Rose back to the marquee.

"I know you're upset." Albus said quietly. "What happened? Did Rose say something?"

Scorpius swallowed. "She didn't have to. I already knew."


Author's Note: Don't worry the Malfoy parents aren't as bad as they seem. Review please!