Hermione Granger couldn't stop a rather elated smile from spreading across her face.

"Well it took you long enough," she jokingly reprimanded her daughter and future son-in-law.

"We've barely been dating for four years," Rose protested.

"That's more than enough time," her mother said firmly. "I'm all for putting careers before marriage but it's nice to think that I won't be ancient before I have grandchildren."

"Mu-um," Rose complained.

"I'm allowed to be silly once in a while," her mother said, wrapping her in a hug. "And since Hugo shows no signs of settling down…"

"Who'd've thought it," Rose marveled. "I'd be the good child."

"Always had faith in you Rosie," her father said, seeming a little less pleased than her mother. "Wasn't thrilled about this but I suppose it's all worked out."

"Ronald," Hermione chided. "We were always rooting for you two."

Her father grumbled a little under his breath but Rose knew he was just doing it for show.

"Well we're happy anyway," Rose said, gripping Scorpius' hand tight. "We thought we'd wait till after the election. Give us something to look forward to if everything went bad."

"That's optimistic," her father grunted.

"Well we try," Scorpius said dryly. He was rather surprised when Rose's father shot a rather grudging smile at him.

"Just my luck," he said ruefully. "After all those years my daughter's going to be a Malfoy."

"Actually I thought I'd follow Mum's footsteps," Rose said, a twinkle in her eye. "And Rose Malfoy just sounds odd."

Her father began to laugh. "What I'd give to see old Lucius Malfoy's face right now," he said, chortling. "Now that I think about it-"

"Dad," Rose said sternly. "Not the time."

"It's exactly the time," her father said cheerily. "Well I'd better send a mass owl out. Don't want the family getting to know through a press release."

"Actually we thought we'd keep it within the family," Rose said carefully. "No press release."

"Don't be ridiculous," her mother said firmly. "We're going to make sure this engagement is on the front page of every newspaper."

"We don't want people to think this is a publicity stunt," Scorpius explained. "And we don't really want to exploit out personal lives."

"Exploit away," Hermione said, waving her hands dismissively. "And after that farce at the fundraiser I'd say it was better the media discuss a possible stunt engagement instead of discussing the private lives of your cousins."

"Not a chance," Scorpius said adamantly. "It's none of their business who I'm marrying. We're not even telling Scamander."

"Now do you want to be smart or be sentimental," Hermione said, clearly indicating what she thought he should be. "Honour's all well and good Scorpius, but every once in a while it's okay to fight a little dirty."

"She might be right you know," Rose said, her brow furrowed. "I mean it isn't a sham engagement, we might as well just tell everyone."

"I have a better idea," Hermione said meditatively. "But we'll talk about it later. With Lorcan. Devise the best strategy."

Scorpius groaned. "This is going to turn into a media circus," he complained.

"Our lives are already a media circus," Hermione said. "A little bit extra coverage can't hurt a ministerial candidate."

"Dad," Rose said to her father, who was hovering around a little uncomfortably. "Send the owl but don't tell Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. I think it'll be better if we tell them."

"Will do darling," her father said and exited with a sigh of relief.

"And I'm going to call Mum," Hermione said. "She'll be thrilled. And keep one of these Fridays open. I know your Gran will want to throw you an engagement party."

With that the newly engaged couple were summarily dismissed.

"You know I love your mother," Scorpius said. "But she is terrifying sometimes."

"I think Mum might've made a decent Slytherin actually," Rose said thoughtfully. "She always did have a bit of a ruthless streak. I finally got that journalist-in-a-jar story out of Aunt Ginny."

"What happened?" Scorpius asked, amused.

"Well it's fairly self-explanatory," Rose said. "Mum put a journalist in a jar."

"There is nothing self-explanatory about that," Scorpius said.

"Well apparently this journalist Rita Skeeter was harassing Mum and Uncle Harry and she kept getting information she had no way of actually knowing. So Mum figured that she was an illegal animagus and she caught her and kept her in a jar for a year."

"A year?" Scorpius asked incredulously. "Isn't that a bit harsh."

"Well just remember that the next time you think about crossing Mum," Rose said.

"Merlin," Scorpius said, a little dumbfounded. "That's pretty terrifying."

Rose just grinned at him. "Ready to make another house call?" she said. "I think it's time to tell Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny the good news."

"And then we go see Scamander?" Scorpius asked.

"And then we go see Scamander," Rose concurred.

"Married?" Ginny asked throwing her arms around her niece. "I can't believe it Rose!"

"I can," Harry said, grinning broadly. "Congratulations."

"Don't become one of those boring married people who stay home all the time and only talk about their kids," her aunt pleaded humourously. "We have enough of them."

"I'll try," Rose said wryly.

"This calls for a celebration," Harry said, clapping Scorpius on the back. "I have Rosemerta's Finest Oak Matured Mead sitting in my cellar just waiting for something like this."

"He's been looking for an excuse to drink that for ages now," his wife whispered conspiratorially when Harry and Scorpius went down to retrieve the alcohol. "Something about having a lot of very nice memories associated with that Mead."

"Please don't get Scorpius too hammered," Rose sighed. "We've just about recovered from last time. Really he's become quite a lightweight."

"Has he now," Ginny said skeptically. "That seems unlikely."

"Alright not a lightweight exactly," Rose amended. "But he's a grouch when he's hungover. And we need to see Lorcan to tell him too."

"I'll make sure they stick to one bottle while you're here," Ginny said. "Can't give you the same assurances for us when you leave though."

"It's been a tough day hasn't it," Rose said sympathetically, secretly glad that for once she wasn't the cause of family drama.

"You could say that," Ginny sighed. "I don't know what to do but drinking always helps."

"That's the last thing we need," Rose joked. "I can see the headlines in the Prophet now. The Chosen One and His Wife Reduced to Alcoholic Shells of Themselves by the Antics of Their Progeny."

"Well no one could blame either of us if we are reduced to alcoholic shells," Ginny said.

"Don't stress to much," Rose advised. "We all have our ups and downs."

"When did you become so wise?" her aunt asked with a half-smile.

"About ten minutes ago," Rose laughed.

"And here's to Rose and Scorpius," her uncle said, brandishing the bottle of mead in front of him, while four glasses, filled to the brim floated behind him.

Rose and Scorpius ended up spending a whole lot more time at Harry and Ginny's than they had intended to. It was almost eight in the evening before they extricated themselves from the increasingly convivial atmosphere of the Potter house.

"They're really letting go aren't they," Scorpius said when they got back home. They couldn't floo directly to Lorcan's from the Potters but Lorcan had set up a direct line from Rose and Scorpius' apartment.

"Give them a break," Rose chided. "Their family's falling apart. They're allowed to get wasted."

"Sure we should send an owl before we just land up?" Scorpius asked. "Scamander can be a little-"

"Oh he'll be thrilled," Rose said cutting him off. "All that publicity."

"Incendio," Scorpius said, relighting the fire. "25, Holly Oak Road."

He landed in Lorcan's house and Rose quickly followed after him.

"Scamander," she called.

There was muffled cursing and a ruffled looking Lorcan stuck his head out from behind his bedroom door.

"Hi guys," he said, trying to sound as smooth as possible.

"Is this a bad time?" Scorpius asked, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.

"Could be better," Lorcan admitted a little sheepishly.

"Why are your wards so strong," someone whispered from behind him, but the smallness of the flat meant sound carried quite well.

"Is that Lily?" Rose asked. looking at Lorcan with a mixture of disbelief and amusement. "Scamander?"

Lorcan just looked at her embarrassedly.

"Oi Lilypad," Rose said. "Come on out."

With that Lily Potter stuck her extremely red face out from behind the door too.

"So is this like a regular thing now?" Rose asked, holding back a giggle.

"No," both of them said with horror.

"Well twice in twenty-four hours," Rose said. "Seems like a regular thing."

"Well it's not," Lily said firmly. "And I'll be leaving now."

"No wait," Rose said. "We have news."

"Is it that you've gotten a stash of time turners and you now can go back in time and make sure this day never happened?" Lorcan asked. "Because that's the only news I'm looking for."

"It's better," Rose said cheerfully. "We're getting married."

a/n: It's been so long and I apologise every time but I'm still totally useless. Anyway I hope you like this chapter. It's probably the fluffiest I've written in a while. Please please tell me what you think!