A/N: Last stretch, guys. Thank you to each and every one of you that are still reading after all these years.

Seventh Year, Part III

Scorpius almost changes his mind.

It's not that he doesn't like Molly. If anything, Molly is actually kind of a great girl. Of course, she's the total opposite of all the girls Scorpius has dated in the past, but maybe that's a good thing. She's funny, she's attractive, they get along with each other just fine.

But when he's standing in the Front Hall waiting for Molly so that they can go to Hogsmeade together, all he feels is guilt.

(Which is totally fucking stupid, he knows.)

He's not doing anything wrong. Not at all. He's allowed to go out with whomever he bloody wants, for Merlin's sake, even if that girl is Rose's cousin. Although Rose and Scorpius never actually dated, so it's not like he's breaking any rules here.

(Right?)

Yet, every time he sees a red head amongst the sea of students excitedly filing out of the huge double doors of the hall, his heart skips a beat and he feels like he's just been caught with his hands down a proverbial cookie jar.

"Scor!" a female voice says from behind him.

Scorpius just about has a heart attack. He jumps and hits his head on a dangling lamp.

"Why so jumpy?" Molly starts to hoot with laughter. Her hair is up in a ponytail and she's all bundled up in her coat and a Ravenclaw scarf as protection against the cold January air.

"You terrified me," is all Scorpius manages to say, as his heart gradually returns to a normal pace. "Fucking hell."

"I didn't realize you got scared so easily," Molly rolls her eyes. "Sorry, how are you the stud of Hogwarts again?"

Scorpius rolls his eyes too, but he's smiling. "What a way to start this off," he puts his arm around her and they both start walking towards Filch, who's going through every student's bag with a meticulous zeal that's almost worrying. "Let's just get this bloody date over with, right?"

Molly punches his shoulder. "Oy! Like I held you at wandpoint?"

"You may as well have," he puts on a high-pitched, girlish voice. "Oh, Scor, so when are you going to ask me out, hmmm?" Molly squawks indignantly at the horrendous impression. "I was basically cornered, you brazen minx."

"Oh please, you would've asked me out sooner or later, anyway," she says, looking up at him with a bold, almost saucy grin.

(Would he have? He has no idea.)

"Don't flatter yourself, Mol," Scorpius gently flicks her ponytail. "I have standards, you know."

-.-.-

They continue joke-bickering with each other all the way to Hogsmeade. Scorpius notices that a lot of the other students are shooting them curious looks, coupled with some furious whispering and pointing. When you're in a school with barely a thousand students, gossip is bound to spread quickly. Which meant that soon enough most people—maybe Rose—would hear that Scorpius and Molly were now an item.

(Which isn't true. It's just a date. And really, why should he care if Rose finds out? They're barely even friends anymore.)

The ground is still blanketed with snow so both Scorpius and Molly take turns using Incendio to melt a pathway in front of them, competing to see who could dissolve the longest distance of snow with a single jet of the spell. Scorpius is in the lead when they finally slip into Three Broomsticks, shaking the snow off their heads.

It's absolutely packed with people trying to escape the bitter winter air, so they pick a tiny table cramped into the corner of the pub, right by a frosty window.

"M'lady," Scorpius gallantly pulls out a chair for Molly. She flutters her eyelashes mockingly and makes herself comfortable. "So, what do you want to drink?"

"Just get me a steaming hot mug of something," Molly removes her gloves and uses the flame of a fat burning candle to warm them up. "I'm absolutely freezing."

Scorpius jostles his way to the bar and gets them both some hot mulled mead—but not before a little harmless flirting with Madam Rosmerta.

(What? The woman's pushing forty but she's still ridiculously attractive.)

"Perfect," Molly exclaims when he sets the two glasses down. She takes a long sip and smacks her lips afterwards. "So. Why'd you say yes?"

"To what?" Scorpius drinks a mouthful of his own glass. It warms him up so quickly he's convinced the mead has to be charmed somehow.

"The date. Why'd you agree?"

"I was feeling pretty charitable so I thought I'd do you a favour—ow!" Molly punches him in the arm again. "Well, I mean, I just kind of thought why not, you know? Haven't been out with a girl for a while."

Molly looks visibly surprised. "Really? You, of all people?"

Scorpius grimaces a little at her reaction. "Yeah, um, I know. About my reputation. I used to be a huge arsehole—"

"Used to?"

"Oh, shut up. Used to be a huge arsehole, but now I'm getting a little embarrassed about that, to be honest."

Molly mulls this over. "Come to think of it, I haven't heard much about you and your girl-of-the-week in a while. What happened?"

Scorpius shrugs and looks outside the window. "I guess I just kind of grew up—" he trails off when he spots—really, who else could it be?—Rose Weasley trudging by alone in the snow with a stack of books clutched to her chest. She doesn't spot him, and soon enough she's out of view.

"What? Scor? What're you looking at?" Molly peers outside too, confused.

Scorpius shakes his head a little and turns away from the window. "Nobody," he says firmly, although the urge to go outside and talk to her is a little overwhelming. "Absolutely nobody."

-.-.-

The rest of the date is kind of picture perfect.

After they spend almost two hours in Three Broomsticks talking, Molly brings him to Dogweed and Deathcap, a shop that sells a vast array of exotic plants and flowers. She informs him that Herbology is her favourite subject, and they spend ages browsing through Screaming Shrivelfigs and Fire-Breathing Flitterlooms. Then, Scorpius drags her to Zonko's, where they have fun attempting to assassinate each other with various tester joke products. Scorpius emerges with a purple face, and Molly ends up with fourteen fingers on one hand. When the sun begins to set, they head back to Hogwarts.

"Well, it's been a thoroughly unenjoyable day," Scorpius says, standing outside the Ravenclaw common room entrance after he walks her back.

"It's been thoroughly unenjoyable for me too," Molly nods, smiling.

"Good to know the feeling is mutual," he grins. "How are all those extra fingers holding up?"

Molly sighs and holds up her right hand. She wiggles all fourteen fingers woefully. "It's going to take a couple more hours at least until it wears off."

His purple complexion is already fading away. "You never know, those extra fingers might come in handy," he lifts his eyebrows suggestively, and Molly makes a disgusted noise. "Well, I'll see you around, Mol," he bides her goodbye and turns around to leave.

"Wait—"

Before he can respond, Molly tip-toes and quickly pecks him on the check. "Bye," she says shyly.

Scorpius pauses for a moment before speaking. "Bye," he waves, and then disappears down the darkening hallway.

-.-.-

Scorpius turns in early, but finds it almost impossible to fall asleep. He spends a couple of hours staring blankly at his bed's canopy, running through today in his head.

He eventually comes to several conclusions—

One, he likes Molly. He really does. But… he's not sure if he likes her enough.

Two, he might still be in love with Rose Weasley. Really, after years of being in denial about her, he's kind of tired of refusing to admit what he feels.

Three, if he continues seeing Molly, but somehow manages to fuck up along the way by hurting her, Scorpius would never forgive himself.

(Yeah, okay, he cares about Molly. Just a little bit.)

So basically he's totally fucked.

-.-.-

He's still wide awake when he hears the sound of Albus wearily dragging himself to bed in the dark.

"Alright, mate?" Scorpius whispers loudly.

"Yeah. Absolutely knackered. Two foot long essay. Remind me why the fuck I'm taking Arithmancy, again?"

"Because your Aunt Hermione managed to convince your Uncle Harry that it would be useful to you in the future."

"Right," Albus's bedsprings creak noisily as he collapses on his mattress. "Kill me."

Scorpius decides he's going to just come right out and say it. "Al. I went out on a date with Molly today."

The bedsprings creak again. "You what?"

"Molly. I went on a date with her today," he repeats, nervously anticipating Albus's reaction.

Albus pauses for a while. "Scorpius. Maaaate."

"What?"

"What about Rose?"

"What about her?"

"I thought you still liked her?"

"Well," he sighs heavily. "I've got to get over her somehow, right?"

"Who asked who?"

"Molly asked. Hospital Wing. We went to Hogsmeade."

He squawks. "Scor, didn't we just have a conversation about you not telling me things?"

"It just happened today. I didn't tell you, because, well, to be honest I wasn't even sure if I was going to go through with it. But I did, and… it was good. Went to Three Broomsticks and everything."

"Just 'good'?"

"It was great," Scorpius amends. "Really great."

Albus is silent for several seconds. "Good on you, Scor. Really. It's—I—" Albus fumbles on his words. "I'm, you know, happy for you. That you're moving on. And all that."

Scorpius can't help but guffaw. Albus has always been hopeless at expressing his feelings verbally.

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Albus snorts with laughter too. "You know what I mean. I—I hope this works out for you."

"Me too," Scorpius says fervently.

(Albus has no idea just how much he wants this to work out.)

"By the way, I should probably remind you that you've got detention tomorrow with McGonagall. And Toby. In case you forgot."

(Fuck.)

-.-.-

The thought of detention puts him in a monstrously sour mood the next day. It's not that it's detention—Merlin knows he's had his fair share of detentions across the span of nearly seven years—but because Scorpius is going to be forced to be in the same room as Toby. For three hours. For the next two weeks.

(Circe give him the strength to make it through.)

At precisely eight at night, after he gloomily eats his dinner, Scorpius drags his feet to the Potions dungeons. When he arrives, a white haired Argus Filch is already there waiting for him. Toby is still nowhere to be found.

"Malfoy," Filch sneers as a greeting. Scorpius stays silent, glaring back at him. "Haven't seen you around in a while. Headmistress McGonagall told me to hand you these—"

Argus picks up a dented metal bucket from the ground. It's filled with a few cleaning brushes in various states of decay. Most of the bristles are caked with black unidentifiable gunk and the handles are rotting away. Scorpius visibly recoils.

"You'll be cleaning out all the cauldrons in the classroom. By hand," Filch says with a look or pure glee on his withered face.

(Seriously, it's like he gets off of torturing students.)

"Sounds great," Scorpius says dully.

"I'll be confiscating your wand for the time being," Filch holds out his hand. Suddenly, the doors behind him creak open and Toby shuffles in. His puce red face and gritted teeth indicate that he's as happy about this as Scorpius is.

So, three hours in a dark, dingy dungeon scrubbing filthy cauldrons with only Toby for company.

(What a way to start of his week.)

-.-.-

Cleaning the cauldrons by hand is fucking impossible.

Never mind the fact that these cleaning brushes likely hadn't been replaced ever since the Hogwarts founders were alive, most of the remnants of whatever potion had been inside had dried up into rock hard layers of sludge. Scorpius may as well have been using a Pygmy Puff to clean, for all the progress he was making.

Fuck this, he thinks fervently, arms burning. Fuck this fuck this fuck this.

Across the dungeon, he hears the unmistakable clatter of Toby lobbing his rotten brush against the damp stone walls. "Bloody cauldrons!" he yells.

Scorpius peers out from behind. Toby appears to have given up altogether. He sits down behind the teacher's desk instead with his arms crossed. He studiously tries not to look at Scorpius.

Well, if he's not doing any work, there's no way Scorpius is going to keep at it.

The next hour or so passes by in complete and utter silence.

(Thank Merlin. If Toby had tried to open his gob, the urge to sock him one in the face would've been far too tempting.)

When they hear Filch hobbling back noisily—it's always easy to hear him, Filch has this rather strange habit of talking to an imaginary cat named Mrs. Norris—both of them spring back to their cauldrons and put up a convincing show of scrubbing. Scorpius even throws in a few brow wipes and some heavy breathing. Filch unwillingly relinquishes their wands.

"Barely made a dent!" Filch mutters under his breath, examining the pewter insides of Scorpius's cauldron. "You'll be back again tomorrow night, eh?"

"Unfortunately," he answers, shrugging on his robes. He turns around to see that Toby is already gone.

-.-.-

The hallways of Hogwarts are already deserted by the time Scorpius emerges from detention. It's almost midnight, definitely past curfew. He begins his long, arduous trek back to the Slytherin common room, trying not to think about the fact that he has to endure thirteen more days of this. All because of that tosser Toby.

He's in the middle of a very satisfying daydream of him pushing Toby off his broomstick fifty feet up in the air when he turns a corner and sees Rose. She's almost at the other end of the hallway but Scorpius recognizes her immediately.

(It's totally fucking stupid but for a moment his mind deludes him into thinking that she came looking for him.)

(Then, of course, he remembers that she's Head Girl and she's just on patrol duty.)

She hasn't spotted her yet. He's walking behind a column so there's a stripe of shadow concealing him. Rose has her hair pushed up into a messy bun, and the dark circles under her eyes imply she hadn't slept properly in weeks . She's even paler than usual and she's absent-mindedly biting her nails as she ambles along—a nervous tick of hers that Rose has never been able to kick. It almost makes him smile.

He wants to talk to her. He wants to talk to her so much it's almost aches. It's not even because Scorpius is kind of, sort of in love... it's just that Rose used to be one of his closest friends and now the distance between them is so tangible and obvious it hurts.

Maybe it's the soft silence of the night, or the emptiness of the stone hallway, but before he can stop himself, his mouth opens. "Hey, Head Girl."

(He briefly wonders if he'll regret this.)

He's talking softly but his voice carries in echoes. Rose's head jerks his way. She's silent for a while.

"Scorpius?" she returns, equally softly.

(Hearing her say his name does some really strange things to him.)

Hands in his pockets—making carefully sure to look as casual as possible—he starts to walk over. "How's it going?"

Even from far away, he can see Rose start to smile a little. She starts to walk over too. Her shiny Head Girl badge winks at him from a distance. "So… I presume we're talking again?" she asks hesitantly.

"I guess so."

"It's been a while."

"You're telling me."

"About… three months?" Rose hazards a guess.

"Feels like longer," Scorpius says, so quietly he's not even sure that Rose hears.

They meet up in the middle of the hallway. Rose stops about four feet in front of him, as if she didn't dare come any closer. His heart twists inside his chest.

Several long, long seconds pass before Rose opens her mouth. His mind rapidly tries to guess the words that she will say: an apology? A goodbye? Hey, how are you? How's it going?

"You're breaking school rules. You're not supposed to be out after hours," Rose informs him, smiling cautiously.

Scorpius breaks out into an uncontrollable grin because of course.

"I had detention," he rummages in his robes for his detention slip and shows her the "8pm to 11pm in the dungeons" that Filch scratched out. "Joke's on you, Weasley."

(It's weird, talking to Rose after avoiding her for so long, but it kind of feels like Scorpius is falling back into a comfortable old routine.)

Rose laughs softly and makes a show of examining the detention slip. She comes two steps closer—close enough for Scorpius to reach out and touch her wrist. "Hmm. Story checks out," she hands it back, and Scorpius carelessly shoves it back in his pocket. "How was it?"

"Soul destroying."

"What did they make you do?"

"Scrub cauldrons by hand."

Rose's mouth drops open in shock. "That's cruel. Why on earth do you have deten—oh," all of a sudden her face falls.

"What?"

"Was this—is this for—well, you and Toby?" Rose now looks genuinely distressed.

At the mention of Toby's name, Scorpius feels himself clam up automatically. "Yeah. He laid into me pretty good."

"Listen, Scorpius, about that—I—just know that—I didn't know—" she trips over her words, something highly unusual for Rose, who prides herself on being articulate at all times. "I just feel so guilty. It's all my fault, it really is."

To his alarm, Rose starts to get a little teary eyed. So, he kind of forgets that he's supposed to be, you know, avoiding her, and automatically pulls her in for a hug before she can say anything falls silent as her head falls into the hollow of his shoulder.

"Look," he says into her hair, rubbing tiny circles on the small of her back. "It's fine. It is. Toby's a prat. I'll deal with it."

He pulls away. Rose blinks up at him. "I just needed to say I'm sorry. So here it is. I'm so sorry. Truly," she says.

"Like I said, it's fine. It's only two weeks of detention. And I trust it wasn't you that set Toby on me, anyway."

Rose laughs weakly, palming at her eyes.

"Go get some sleep, Weasley," Scorpius gently nudges her towards the staircase for the seventh floor. "You look like you need some."

"Yes. These past few weeks have been rough," Rose shoots him a weak but sincere smile. "It was good to see you again, Scorpius."

"You too, Weasley."

Rose pauses for a moment. Her obligatory reply of my name is Rose hovers in the air.

(Is she going to say it?)

But then she gives him a sad little wave and disappears up the stairs.

-.-.-

It should come as no surprise that later that night he spends hours tossing and turning before he falls asleep.

(Really, he should be better than this by now.)

-.-.-

In between staggering amounts of post-Christmas NEWTs homework and his detention, he doesn't see Molly at all for the next couple of days.

It's not that he doesn't want to, it's just that he literally can't find the time. His day basically consists of staggering from one class to the other, hastily eating dinner, then (pretending) to scrub cauldrons at night. By the time he gets back to his bed, he's exhausted. Scorpius is actually kind of grateful that his status as Seeker for Slytherin is temporarily suspended—if he had to go for Quidditch practice as well he's fairly certain he would've fallen asleep mid-flight.

It makes him feel a little guilty that he isn't seeking her out. Knowing girls, she's probably waiting for him to ask her out again. Although, Scorpius is still frustratingly unsure about what he should do next. The old him would've gone with the logic of well-she's-an-attractive-girl-that-likes-you-so-just-shag-her-and-be-done-with-it, but, you know… it's Molly. Scorpius may be a tosspot at times but Molly doesn't deserve that.

(Plus, a certain meeting with a certain redhead a few nights ago has kind of been occupying his mind lately.)

The next time he sees her, he's buried face-first in a dusty Astronomy textbook in the library, trying to map out Jupiter's moons. It's a Sunday night and he's hastily trying to finish up his homework before Madam Pince shoos him out to close up the library.

"You can't draw for shit," her voice says over his shoulder, and Scorpius jumps so hard he knocks over his inkwell. The loud clattering noise causes a fifth-year student to look up and tut reproachfully.

"Fuck! Stop doing that!" Scorpius quickly saves his map as the black pool of ink spreads.

Molly tries to giggle as quietly as possible, which meant she wasn't very quiet at all. "I'll take care of that. Scourgify!"

His table becomes spotless again. She takes a seat beside him. "So, I haven't seen you around in a while."

Scorpius runs his fingers through his hair and rubs his eyes. "Sorry about that. Just been caught up with work."

"Don't worry about it," Molly waves his apology away. "I can't even imagine the amount of stuff you have to do for NEWTs. Although, I can tell you that you won't be impressing Professor Sinistra with that pathetic doodle."

Scorpius scowls. "What are you talking about? This is my best work yet! I spent ages and ages on it."

Molly shrugs, grinning. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Scor, but moons are supposed to be spherical," she points to a moon that is, admittedly, slightly wobbly.

"Shut the fuck up," he swats at Molly with his parchment. "I've had class the whole day, I just got back from detention, and I haven't eaten dinner. My shit drawing skills are justified."

"You haven't eaten dinner?" she repeats. "Poor boy. Hmm. Well, library closes at ten, right? I have an idea. Have you ever snuck into the kitchens before?"

His interest is immediately piqued. "I see what you're getting at. I used to but I haven't done it in ages."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Scorpius is already gathering up his things. "Let's do this."

-.-.-

"Do you want to do the honours?" Scorpius whispers as they crouch in the shadows of a staircase by a massive painting of fruit.

"Don't mind if I do," Molly tiptoes out and tickles the green pear. It squirms, lets out a shrill laugh, and abruptly turns into a green door handle. Scorpius opens the door as lightly as he can but it still creaks.

"After you," Scorpius gestures towards the entrance. Him and Molly barely make it two steps inside when they're immediately accosted by house elves.

"Master Malfoy! Mistress Weasley!" hundreds of squeaky voices chime in unison.

(It kind of creeps Scorpius out how they know every student's name. Seriously, do they spy on them, or something?)

All of them start to swarm over to greet them. Some even start clambering over others in an attempt to get closer. Scorpius has heard all about S.P.E.W. from Rose—apparently her mum is a big advocate for house elf rights— but he still finds house elves a little unsettling. Molly starts laughing at their enthusiasm. "A very lovely evening to all of you," she dips into a curtsey. Scorpius follows suit by going into a sweeping bow.

"So lovely of you to visit us, Mistress Weasley!" a particularly knobbly house-elf bounds up to her.

"Hoppy!" Molly leans down to give her a tight hug.

"What can we do for you?" Hoppy looks like so thrilled, Scorpius is afraid she might spontaneously combust.

"Well, I didn't have any dinner earlier so I'm a little hungry," he admits apologetically. "Would you happen to have any leftovers lying around? I'm not too fussed."

"Master Malfoy is hungry!" the house elf repeats. Another house elf also reiterates the phrase, like it's some kind of weird mantra. "Master Malfoy is hungry!"

Scorpius raises his eyebrows and shoots Molly a look. She bites her lip to suppress a laugh as the house elves grab on to the both of them and lead them to a small table smack bang in the middle of the kitchens. It's a massive stone room with, like, twenty different stoves in every corner. A worryingly tall stack of dirty plates sit in the biggest sink Scorpius has ever seen, and a fire is roaring in the hearth.

"Seriously, I don't need a full meal, just give me some leftover pie, or something—"

"Nonsense!" Hoppy pulls out a chair for Scorpius, and another elf rushes Molly over to a seat. "Hoppy is a good elf, Hoppy will make sure Master Malfoy and Mistress Weasley are well-fed!"

Literally five minutes later, the house elves have laid out a mammoth feast in front of them. Glistening turkey legs, creamy mashed potatoes, and perfect Eton Messes are just some of the things on the menu. There's also a bowl of buttered peas, flaky fish pie, and enormous charcoal-blistered sausages. Just looking at the food is making Scorpius feel like weeping from happiness.

"Best. Idea. Ever," he says, and promptly tears into his steak.

"Stick with me, kid, and you'll be fine," Molly winks as she cuts herself a slice of some quiche.

"And a few finishing touches!" Hoppy skips over with a fat red candle and a jar of flowers. She sets the jar down and lights up the candle with a snap of her bony fingers. "Hoppy will let you have your privacy, Master and Mistress."

Before Scorpius can say anything, Hoppy shoos all the rest of the house elves out through another doorway, presumably to where they all slept. Soon, it's only Scorpius, Molly, and… a romantic candlelit dinner.

"Well," he says, putting down his bite of steak. "This is uncomfortable."

Molly collapses with laughter. "Merlin! I think they all assumed we were on a date."

"What is it with you and forcing me to go out on dates with you?" he rolls his eyes dramatically. "I get the hint—you want to shag me."

Molly tosses a couple of peas at him. "I'm not that desperate! But, since we're here and we have all this free food… might as well make it a date," she looks across the table at him, suddenly cautious. "Sorry, am I crossing the line? I don't want to make things awkward."

(For a moment, Scorpius is unsure if he would've asked Molly out on a second date. But then he thinks, yeah, why wouldn't he? Hogsmeade was brilliant. No reason not to.)

"It's a date," he agrees, and Molly smiles widely.

-.-.-

Detention starts to follow a predictable pattern – Scorpius and Toby show up, not speaking to each other. Scorpius and Toby pretend to scrub the cauldrons until Filch leaves, not speaking to each other. Scorpius and Toby throw aside their brushes, not speaking to each other. Then, Scorpius and Toby sit around the dungeon for two hours—yes, you've guessed it—not speaking to each other. It's the most mind-numbingly boring three hours of his life, but he'd sooner take that over possible interaction with Toby.

So, you can imagine Scorpius's surprise when Toby finally opens his mouth after ten straight nights of utter silence. It makes him jump at first, the sound of Toby's voice in the echoey caverns of the dungeon.

"It's all your fault."

Now that he wasn't expecting.

"Sorry?" he says politely, turning around to look at him. Scorpius is sitting in the front of the classroom with his legs kicked up on a desk, and Toby is a few rows behind him.

Toby looks as though he's having some deep internal struggle. It's as though he's having some inner debate with himself. Finally, he explodes.

"I said, it's all your bloody fault," Toby hisses. His voice reverberates off the walls.

Scorpius sighs exaggeratedly. "Oh, Toby. Are we really doing this again?"

(The truth? He'd been expecting something like this to happen.)

Toby slams his fists down on his desk and stands up so quickly his chair keels over. Toby is typically a rather non-violent person—well, before he smashed Scorpius's face in at the Quidditch pitch, anyway—so seeing him so worked up was absolutely hilarious. Scorpius starts grinning from ear to ear. Finally, something to liven things up.

"None of this would've happened if it weren't for you," Toby takes several long strides over to stand in front of Scorpius, seething.

(He's guessing Toby doesn't really appreciate him grinning. Shame, really, he has an admittedly rather lovely smile.)

"I didn't tell you to beat me up, now did I?" Scorpius asks sardonically. "Pain isn't really my thing."

"That's not what I'm talking about! You know what I'm talking about!" Toby raises his voice. His fists are clenched at his side.

Scorpius raises a blond eyebrow because, well, he honestly has no idea what Toby is banging on about.

(And also because he's been told raising his eyebrow makes him look like an insolent tosser.)

Apparently the eyebrow raise is the last straw for Toby, because the next thing he knows, he grabs him by the collar and lifts him a few inches off the ground before he can react.

"Get the fuck off me!" Scorpius twists in his grip and shoves Toby away. He stumbles backwards into a dirty cauldron. "Seriously, what the fuck is your problem?"

"You are!" he yells shrilly. His brown hair is all messed up and red splotches start to appear all over his face.

Scorpius is genuinely baffled. "But I haven't done shit!"

For a moment it seems like Toby is about to do something drastic. Scorpius is ready to fend off any possible physical attacks, but then Toby suddenly grits his teeth and walks away to his own corner of the dungeon. "You know what? You're not worth it," he says, sitting back down at the teacher's desk. His chest is still heaving with fury.

(Okay, what just happened?)

-.-.-

"I'm telling you, mate, Toby's a total nutter," Scorpius concludes his story.

Albus and Caitlyn both sit there with their jaws dropping. "I don't believe you," Albus says. All three of them are at the Slytherin table during breakfast the next day.

He sighs and throws his hands up in the air. "Why would I make this up?"

Albus start spluttering. "Because! That's—that's so unlike Toby. I mean, I literally just saw him in the common room. He said hi to me and everything. Seemed perfectly friendly. It's like—it's like saying Professor McGonagall hit on you, or something."

Scorpius grabs a piece of toast and slathers some butter on. "You're forgetting one key difference between you and me – you and Toby are still friends. Toby just hates my guts. Don't get me wrong—" he takes a generous bite and continues, "—the feeling is mutual, but at least I don't go around assaulting people."

"You said it was unprovoked, right?" Caitlyn pours some Tarantula Treaties into a bowl. A few of the mini chocolate spiders start scuttling out of the bowl, trying to escape. She nonchalantly grabs a pitcher of milk and drowns them into submission.

Scorpius pulls a face. "I've never understood how people can eat those. And yes, it was unprovoked."

"You didn't say anything beforehand?" she presses.

He glares at them both. "Why immediately assume it had to be me that started it?"

Albus snorts with laughter and holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Sorry, sorry. Just double checking."

Caitlyn has a strangely unreadable expression on her face. "Hmm," is all she says. Without warning, she abandons her Tarantula Treaties and stands up. "Sorry, guys, I think I need to go back to the Gryffindor table for a bit."

She leaves before either one of them can answer. Albus looks absolutely bewildered and he looks at Scorpius questioningly. He shrugs, "Don't ask me."

He finishes off his toast and starts on a croissant. "Only a couple more days of detention left so I won't have to deal with the git anymore."

At that moment, a flurry of owls swoop inside the Great Hall, their hoots breaking through the din of a thousand hungry students trying to gulp down breakfast as quickly as possible before their first lesson. Two owls flutter over with an identical pink letter in their beaks.

"Ooh, mail!" Albus excitedly rips his envelope, completely forgetting about their conversation. Scorpius tears his own open, and pulls out a heavily perfumed card with the words You are invited to celebrate the marriage of Theodore Remus Lupin and Victoire Gabrielle Weasley embossed on it.

"Oh, yeah!" Scorpius says, pleasantly surprised. He opens the card. "I almost forgot they were getting married—"

Two tiny white doves zip out of the card and fly into his face. "Aaaargh!"

Albus sees Scorpius's doves but he's already halfway through opening his own card so another two doves appear and start flapping around his face too. It's chaos for a couple of seconds until four of the doves finally soar away, hooting.

"What the fuck!" Albus yells. Scorpius collapses with laughter because his face? Absolutely hilarious. He sees other members of the Weasley-Potter clan around the Great Hall struggle with the stupid doves too. One of Hugo Weasley's doves got stuck in a jar of peanut butter, Lily Potter is screaming bloody murder and trying to bat them away by pelting them with bananas, and the Scamander twins are (of course) chasing them down, yelling something about Yellow-Bellied Plimpies.

He automatically seeks Rose out from across the room. She's sitting where she always sits, smack bang in the middle of the table. Caitlyn is right beside her, and they're both laughing about some feathers stuck in her red hair.

(He looks away because something in his chest twists whenever he sees Rose smile.)

-.-.-

This is how Scorpius and Molly kiss for the first time—

He takes her to a Quidditch game between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. The Quidditch stands are only half full, because it's nearly February and it's fucking freezing.

They're sitting in a section of relatively empty seats, right behind the Hufflepuff hoops. It starts off as a bet.

"So who do you think is going to win?"

"Ravenclaw, duh," Molly says, like it's a ridiculous question. She's all decked out in Ravenclaw gear—everything from a Ravenclaw flag to Ravenclaw socks.

Scorpius scratches his chin. "I dunno, Hufflepuff have been surprising me this year. I think it's their new captain, Keith what's-his-face."

"As if!" Molly snorts. "Ravenclaw will win, for sure. Hands down. I bet you they'll win."

Half an hour later, the Hufflepuff team is doing victory laps around the pitch, whooping. Molly looks as though somebody just killed her puppy.

"Told you," Scorpius grins. "So what do I win?"

"Nothing! The game was clearly rigged," Molly cries shrilly. "Did you see that Patil girl? That shove was such a foul."

"Suck it up."

"Fine. You win this—" she leans over and kisses him. He stares at her for a couple of seconds after she pulls away.

"That's it?"

Molly hits him, letting out a peal of laughter. "I hate you!"

"Now this would be a prize," Scorpius pulls her back in. They end up snogging on the Quidditch stands for the next thirty minutes, long after the pitch has cleared out.

(Yeah, he knows, he knows. But Scorpius is tired of feeling miserable all the time. Kissing Molly helps with that.)

(Also, well, she's pretty good at it.)

-.-.-

After that, Scorpius and Molly kind of start going out.

The words "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" haven't been used by either one of them yet, but they start seeing each other pretty often—after class, during lunch, in between lessons. It's not like they're, you know, holding hands in the corridors, sending love letters to each other, or any of that disgusting shit. Yet, it's probably the most serious Scorpius has ever been with a girl since, like, fifth year. Sure, he's had his fair share of flings—or more accurately, shag buddies—but this is sort of different.

(Plus, being around Molly takes his mind off Rose a little.)

Of course, the first person he tells is Albus. They're both in Transfiguration and Albus is in the middle of trying to figure out how to turn a teapot into a turtle when Scorpius just blurts out: "I'm kind of seeing Molly."

Albus looks up from his textbook, his wand tucked behind his ear. He seems shocked. "Wow. So… you really like her?"

(Now that's a pretty loaded question.)

"I think so."

"You think so?" Albus repeats.

"It's a bit too early to tell, to be honest. But she's pretty awesome."

Albus seems to decide that this is enough. "Merlin, you and little Molly. Who would've thought?"

"Well, little Molly's not so little anymore, if you know what I—ouch! Okay, fuck, I'm sorry!"

-.-.-

Scorpius practically skips to his last day of detention. His two weeks of detention are almost up and he couldn't be happier. He's finally found a solution for cleaning the cauldrons—both him and Toby have secretly wised up and brought another wand in with them. Scorpius usually just takes Albus's. So, when Filch confiscates a wand at the beginning of detention, Scorpius simply hands Albus's over, keeps his own up his robe sleeve, and Scourgifies all of the cauldrons in five seconds.

(He's a little bit of a genius.)

By the time Filch comes in to reluctantly return their wands, Scorpius wants to shout with joy. But before he can sprint out of the room, Toby shoves past and grunts, "I'll never forgive you."

(He's given up trying to understand the inner workings of Toby's mind.)

-.-.-

This week for Potions, Professor Slughorn announces that they're going to be brewing Amortentia. The whole class gets excited—it's not often Slughorn assigns them some of the more daunting potions, let alone a powerful Love Potion.

Scorpius has always been pretty decent at Potions. By the time he's at the penultimate step, his brew is already taking on Amortentia's distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen. Albus, however, is struggling quite a bit. His cauldron is filled with fiery red sludge.

The rest of the class isn't faring any better—behind him, Fred Weasley's potion seems to have simply vanished into thin air.

"Ah, Miss Weasley, absolutely beautiful colour!" Slughorn parades through the desks, examining cauldrons. "Mr. Dolohov—remember, only five drops of rose oil. Oh, Mr. Malfoy! Excellent job. Time to add your belladonna seeds, and remember students, this is when you'll start to smell the things you find most attractive."

"What do you think yours will smell like?" Albus asks him, huffing and puffing from the effort of dragging his spoon through his cauldron of slop.

"Probably bacon."

Scorpius carefully stirs in some large belladonna seeds and steam begins to rise in lazy, seductive spirals. He leans in, trying to identify some of the smells. "I can smell… something woody. Kind of like a broomstick handle. Yeah, that's it. And, um, pancakes! Fuck, it smells bloody delicious. And—"

He smells something flowery and sweet, a scent he's able to immediately recognize as Rose Weasley's hair.

"—and—and—er, parchment," he lies lamely.

"Parchment?" Albus sniggers. "When did you become such a swot?"

Scorpius quickly ladles out some of the Amortentia to fill up a glass vial and Vanishes the rest.

(Stupid potion. As if he needs reminding.)

-.-.-

He's sitting down in an armchair alone in the Slytherin common room late one night, trying to read Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed for an assignment when Molly Weasley creeps through the entrance, looking extremely pleased with herself.

For a moment Scorpius is happy to see her, then he realizes that Molly isn't even from Slytherin.

"Okay, how the fuck did you get in?"

Molly cackles and bounds over. "I guessed the password."

Scorpius abandons his book and looks at her in astonishment. "How?"

"It was 'pure blood'. You Slytherins are so predictable," she scoffs, sinking down into the armchair beside him. Scorpius is already grinning when he shifts to make some room for her. She drapes her legs over his and lays her head on his shoulder. The crackling hearth allows for some illumination in the dark common room, so Scorpius can see that she's in her pyjamas with no makeup on.

"I guess it's time for somebody to change the password," he sighs.

"Trying to keep me out?" she jabs his shoulder.

"Now, why would I do that?" Scorpius grins and leans down to kiss her. Molly wraps her arms around his neck eagerly and no further words are spoken.

(Somehow the Amortentia incident keeps lurking at the back of his mind. )

-.-.-

Sometimes Scorpius thinks the universe is just trying to fuck with him.

Professor Hagrid is having one of those "inter-house partner for class" weeks, and because Slytherin always has Care of Magical Creatures with Gryffindor, Scorpius is paired up with none other than Rose Weasley.

When her name gets read out after his, it takes a while to register. When it eventually sinks in, he just has to laugh. He spent years being jealous of Rose and Toby being partners in lessons, so he supposes the irony couldn't be more perfect.

Everybody else is already moving across the field to pair up with their partners, so Scorpius unfreezes and gathers up all his things. Albus taps him on the shoulder and mouths "holy shit" as he walks past.

(He should really stop telling Albus everything. Yeah, he's his best mate but he's about as subtle as a flying brick.)

He finds Rose standing near Hagrid's pumpkin patch. She's bundled up in just about everything—scarves, gloves, hat—even though it's almost March and the weather is already starting to mellow out. She's looking around nervously, trying to spot him amongst the shuffling students. When she does, she waves sheepishly. The dark circles and pale complexion he noticed a while back are still there.

"Hello, Scorpius," Rose greets.

(He hates how careful she is around him now, like she doesn't know what to say or how to act.)

"I promise you that I won't fuck our assignment up," he drops his bag down on the ground.

"What?"

"Come now, Weasley. Remember all those times you complained to me every time you had a shit partner in class?"

She laughs loudly. "You still remember?"

"'Course. I remember poor old Hector MacMillan—remember back in third year when you told on him to Professor Longbottom because he was too lazy so he flunked the entire project?"

"In my defence, he literally made me do everything!" Rose says indignantly, crossing her arms. "As long as you pull your weight, you'll be an excellent partner."

"I'm not sure I can live up to your standards, Weasley," Scorpius grins. "I've heard the rumours—you're quite hard to impress."

"Don't believe everything you hear," she's already smiling up at him.

It's definitely not the same as it used to be, him and her. He's not sure if they'll ever be as close anymore. But Scorpius thinks it just might be possible for them to be friends again.

-.-.-

Professor Hagrid assigns them to three weeks of taking care of a Moke, a two-foot long silvery green lizard that could shrink at will. Scorpius and Rose's Moke sat at the bottom of their crate, glaring beadily at them.

"Now," he tells the class gruffly. "These Mokes may look scary, but s'long as yeh follow my instructions, yeh probably not goin' ter be injured too much."

"Probably?" a student at the front repeats shrilly.

Hagrid chuckles. "Like I said, jus' follow my instructions. A Moke's bite can really sting ya."

They spend the rest of the lesson learning how to pick the Moke up, so as not to aggravate it too much. Hagrid passes them all chips of oak bark to feed it.

"So, shall I feed it?" Rose opens the bag and plucks one out. It's about an hour into the lesson and the both of them have sort of relaxed around each other now.

"Slowly," Scorpius gently proffers the Moke over to her, taking care not to jostle it too much. Their Moke—whom they had affectionately nicknamed Rob—poked its slithery purple tongue out, looking around nervously with red eyes. Scorpius uses a gloved hand to run a finger down its spine, like Hagrid had told them too. The effect was immediate—Rob slumped over in his palm and turned over on its belly.

"So," Rose begins, as she nudges a piece of oak into Rob's teethed mouth. "I heard—I heard about you and Molly."

Scorpius looks up at her, and she looks back nervously. Suddenly, the casual air of before disappears and is replaced by invisible tension.

(He supposes this would've come up sooner or later.)

"Um. Yeah," is all Scorpius can say.

"Are—erm—are you two dating each other?"

He doesn't know if "dating" is the right word, but he cautiously nods anyway. "Sort of. Only just started, though."

"I see," she looks away and pokes another piece in after Rob guzzled the first. "Is it—are you happy?"

It seems like such an easy question but he has no idea what his answer is. So he goes with the most appropriate answer. "I think so. I mean—yeah. I'm happy. Molly's cool."

(He supposes she only asked him so that she could have some peace of mind. You know, Rose is in a happy relationship, Scorpius is in a happy relationship, now all the fucked-up shit that happened between them can disappear from memory.)

"Right," she moves on to a third chip, studiously not looking at him. He notices she's now biting her lip. "That's… that's excellent. I'm happy for you. I hope you two have a wonderful relationship."

Even though this is probably the most awkward conversation he's ever had, Scorpius still manages to snort at Rose's absurd formality. "Well, I'm not sure we're not going to be as in love with each other as you and Toby are, but we'll try," he says, trying not to sound sarcastic.

"Toby and I?"

Scorpius laughs, making sure he doesn't sound bitter. "Yeah, remember your boyfriend?"

"Oh. Right, well, Toby and I broke up a few months ago, so I don't think you would have any competition," she says, with a poor attempt at humour.

Scorpius feels like all the wind is knocked out of him and for a moment he can't speak. "You broke up," he repeats, mind whirling. He wants to hit himself for being so stupid. Of course they broke up. He hasn't seen them together in the same room for ages, and they're usually joined at the hip. "Why?"

Rose pushes her hair back. "Long story short—I realized that I'd outgrown him. I sort of had this idealized version of him in my head since I was about thirteen, so when we got together I refused to acknowledge all his faults. And believe me, he had a fair few faults. So I… I broke it off."

Took you long enough, Scorpius says silently.

"Also, he made me ruin my relationship with my best friend," Rose finally looks at him with a watery smile. He can see that her hands are shaking slightly. "Scorpius, no amount of apologies can justify what I did. I was so blinded I didn't see how much more important you were to me."

He doesn't know what to say. There's about a thousand different emotions bubbling around inside him right now. Part of him is absolutely ecstatic that Rose—Rose!—is no longer with Toby, but another part of him wants to positively scream because this conversation couldn't have happened at a worst time.

"Does this have anything to do with bloody Toby beating my face in a couple of weeks back?" he finds himself asking.

"Oh, Merlin, I'm so sorry about that," she starts wringing her hands. "I told Toby I was breaking up with him because I didn't like the way he was making me treat you, and I think he interpreted that the completely wrong way. He must've assumed I was—or that I had feelings for you, or that I was somehow cheating on him with you, but believe me, Scorpius, I had no idea he would react that way. Had I known I would've never let him do that to you. It's all my fault, it really is."

Both of them have abandoned the pretence of keeping up wit Rob. In response, Rob proceeds to sit upright in his palm and let out an annoyed screech. Scorpius and Rose ignore him.

"So, I'm happy that you're happy, Scorpius. Truly I am. Especially after how terrible I was to you—"

"Hey, look," Scorpius gently thumbs away a tear that's slowly making its way down her freckled cheek. "Don't apologize anymore. Seriously. I get it. And I'm—I'm not angry at you at all. That's all in the past now—"

"Malfoy! Weasley!" Hagrid booms, and the both of them jerk apart as though electrocuted. "What're yeh doin'?"

Scorpius looks down to see that Rob is craftily creeping its way up his robes. "Sorry, Professor Hagrid."

"Yeh've got ten minutes left, the rest of the class're ahead of yeh."

(They spend the rest of the lesson feeding Rob the rest of the oak chips but Scorpius is so distracted he can't concentrate on anything.)

-.-.-

Scorpius is happy. He really is.

Molly's great. She's basically perfect for him. He can't actually think of a single thing he doesn't like about her.

Yet, when he goes to bed that night, all he can think about is Rose Rose Rose.

(He hates this, hates how all his suppressed feelings have now come reeling back in full force.)

After about three hours of tossing and turning, he finally comes to a conclusion. He's not going to let this change anything. He's in a good place right now, and he's fairly certain getting involved with Rose would just mess everything up even more. It's not like Rose ever had a thing for him, anyway. All they did was snog a couple of times several years ago.

Why would he want to go through all that fucking pain again? It just isn't worth it. Rose being single doesn't make a difference. The most they would ever be is friends.

(So why the fuck can't he just forget about Rose?)

A/N: I am so sorry. I really, really wanted to finish it with this chapter but it turns out I still have way too much left to write. It feels like I've been promising this for years now, but… the end is near. I swear. Like, next chapter near.