Without a Doubt

(A/N: So there really is no excuse. I just hope some of y'all are still out there for this story.)

Harry felt his heart clinch as Teddy's smiling face faded from view. He had always felt a deep kindred connection with his godson. They had both lost their parents as infants to the struggle against Voldermort, and they were the only two progeny of the Marauders. Teddy was like an odd blend of son, friend and brother to him, but no matter how he was labeled they were always family. Having grown up with the Dursleys as his only blood relatives, linage and DNA were hardly the most defining attributes in what made up Harry's concept of family. Growing up Teddy had grandparents who loved him and a slew of adopted uncles, aunts and cousins who adored the little shifter. Not once did it ever enter Harry's mind that Teddy had other family out there who wanted him. Andromeda had made it clear that she had severed all ties with her Black past, and to him that was the end of it.

But it wasn't the end of it, not for Teddy anyway. It had taken Harry really diving into Teddy's mind to even connect that Scorpius and Teddy were distant cousins. The kind of cousins that were some number removed to where it hardly seemed like it counted. And yet how many nights had he dreamed as a child that some distant relative would come to his cupboard and whisk him away? How often had he hoped that he was connected out there to someone who wanted him? What would he have given to have someone who shared a part of his past he knew nothing about?

Harry again felt a slight wash of guilt for his prejudice against the boy. Not only had his children felt the need to hide their relationship with Malfoy, but Teddy, a grown man, did as well.

His stomach began to twitter with anxiety and self-doubt. He knew he shouldn't feel this way but he couldn't help it. Sometimes he just felt so vulnerable and he was terrified that someone, anyone would find out and hurt him that he hid that part deep inside of him. There was just too much pressure to be perfect all the time, he couldn't just cry or be over emotional. It was better to mask those feelings with intelligence and anger. It was safer, though marginally less attractive. But why should he care so much about his looks? That was really just the media trying to sell self-esteem in its fancy cosmetics bottles and diet potions. Harry didn't need a boyfriend to complete him, he was happy with the way he was, honestly. But still he just felt so anxious that Scorpius wasn't there like he ALWAYS was. Had he done something wrong? Was Scorpius mad at him? And what the hell gave him the right to treat Harry this way? After all he had done for him? Why would he do this to him, dammit!

Wait….huh?

"Merlin, what the hell?" Ron demanded, holding tightly to his stomach. "Are you understanding all of this?"

"No…" Harry moaned. "I just feel achy and confused, sad yet really annoyed and I really, really want some chocolate."

"Welcome," Hermione laughed along with Ginny, "to the tortured world of being a fourteen year old girl."

"Are you sure he doesn't have Qudditch practice?" Rose asked her cousin anxiously, running her fingers through her feathered quill.

"Nah, its Thursday night. Ravenclaws have the pitch," Albus replied, looking at his Potion's book as though he were preparing for a fight. Rose frowned and checked her watch again. It was only a minute after she had last checked it. Just like it had been only two minutes after she had checked it the time before that. Her feet tapped sporadically against the floor for a few moments, until she reminded herself she was in the library and must keep quiet.

"What about detention?" she suggested desperately.

"Well I for one think it is an archaic and unrealistic form of punishment," Albus retorted as he lazily skimmed through the pages.

"No, I mean Scorpius," she said in exasperation. "Did he get caught doing…I don't know, whatever it is you two do?"

"Rose, it's three weeks into our Fourth year, and we already have a mountain of homework for our O.W.L.s. We haven't had time to get caught doing anything," Albus sighed sadly.

"Well that's just it then!" Rose exclaimed. "We have our first round of exams coming up! He should be here with us studying!"

"Merlin knows the library is my first choice to spend my evenings," Albus yawned. Rose shot her cousin a dirty look but continued to teeter on the edge of her seat. She tried focusing on her Herbology text but she just couldn't concentrate. She and Scorpius had studied every Thursday night for the last year and a half. He had proof-read every essay she had turned in since then. They traded notes on everything. It was almost like she had forgotten how to study without him.

"Do you think he's in trouble?" Rose asked a few minutes later to an Albus who seemed to think looking at his book upside-down would be beneficial.

"Merlin, I hope so," Albus replied.

"Why would you say that?" she demanded aghast.

"Because then we could leave and go rescue him instead of you looking like you want to chew your fingers off and me pretending like I even have a chance of getting though this paper without you and Scorpius to help me," Albus said.

Rose stared irately at her cousin before swiftly packing up her bag and marching out of the library. Albus followed her, grinning at his early escape and happy to stretch out his legs.

"I just hate to think those bullies have gotten to him again," Rose worried as she recalled Lannister and the Ravenclaws hexing him in the corridor.

"Scorpius is a big boy," Albus placated with a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "He knows how to handle himself."

Rose chewed that over and decided Albus was right. Despite a rocky start Scorpius seemed to handle his precarious social position rather well. In fact between his top marks in school, his daring maneuvers that had secured Slytherin both the Qudditch and House Cup last year, and his noticeable growth spurt over the summer, Scorpius had become quite popular. She really had nothing to worry about with him…at least, she thought to herself, she hoped not.

A round of muffled, high pitched noises stole her from her internal battle. Albus and she both stopped, looking about the abandoned corridor with concern.

"Is that sound…coming from the walls?" Albus inquired, reaching into his pocket to draw out his wand. Rose immediately followed suit, bedtime stories of basilisks and invisible adversaries filling her mind. She kept her hand steady despite her blood pumping with adrenaline, ready to ward off whatever evil was coming.

Suddenly the wall beside them sprung to life as a door appeared where no door had been before to her knowledge on the seventh floor. The muffled sounds grew clearer as the door finished growing, making the indiscernible noises sound like…

"Giggles?" Albus suggested as he lowered his wand.

As if responding to a secret passage word the door quickly opened, revealing the source of the high pitched laughter. Two blondes appeared, one with a white partially unbuttoned-blouse and hiked up skirt, both much too small for her to be modestly covered, and the other was someone who had never in her years of knowing him ever looked so happily disheveled.

Rose felt her weight double in hot anger every second it took for Scorpius to finally pull his lecherous lips away from the Fifth year's neck and look at her.

"Oh," Scorpius finally exclaimed, a hint of surprise invading his usually languid speech.

"Oh?" Rose repeated through clinched teeth, so angry she couldn't form any other word. "Oh. Oh?!"

Scorpius replied with blank silence as though the blood from his usually sharp mind was drained to someplace else.

"Hi, I'm Albus," the Potter grinned, looking back and forth between his seemingly Petrified best friends and the new comer like he was about to burst into laughter.

"Oh, right," Scorpius finally kicked into gear. "These are my friends, Albus Potter and Rose Weasley. And this is…erm…Carrie."

"Perry," she corrected through another one of her obnoxious giggles, pushing him affectionately as though he were joking.

"That's what I said, right?" he played off smoothly, wrapping his snake-like arm around her waist as he looked her up and down again.

"So, how did you two meet?" Albus inquired with a stretched grin. His smile immediately faltered when he felt Rose's intense gaze burned through him.

"Your friend is just sooooooooooooooo sweet!" Carrie/Perry proclaimed, clinging herself on Scorpius like a static sock. "We started talking in the Great Hall and he offered to escort me to the library. Did you know that it was open even when you're not in class?"

"No way!" Albus replied peppily.

"I know, right?" she exclaimed. "Well, come to find out, on the way there he tells me that his favorite animal in the whole world is a Pygmy Puff! And guess what mine happens to be?"

"Hippogriff," Rose stated so bitterly that it sounded like hypocrite.

"Eww! Those nasty pony things? No, a Pygmy Puff!" she exclaimed. "And I had just read my horoscope in an old copy of Witch Weekly that I would meet someone special who loved the same animal as me. I mean, it was like destiny or something that I'd meet Scorpy!"

Albus coughed away his snigger while Scorpius' face paled more than usual.

"Well, I'd hate to interfere and make you late with destiny," Rose spat as she walked away. "That would be exceedingly rude of me."

"I'm going to kill that little bugger!" Ron exclaimed as the smoke cleared and they found themselves, surprise surprise, back in the library. "How dare he-,"

"Don't even start, Won-Won," Hermione interjected sharply. Ron turned to his wife as though she had slapped him.

"Why would you even bring that up now?" he demanded.

Harry shook his head as he focused on his niece returning a stack full of books to a shelf, one of which read "The Supreme Twenty-Eight: Ancestry of the Noble Pure-Bloods of England."

"More like "Incestry"," Rose mumbled as she turned from the shelf. She cleared her mind, no longer wanting to focus on what she had already known to be true. If it hadn't been for her hard-wired need for facts and follow through she wouldn't have bothered her research in the first place. It had been a waste of time, just like everything about him.

She sighed and made her way back to her table. Her Charms Exam was tomorrow and she needed to spend her time focusing on her Summoning.

"Accio," she repeated under her breath with closed eyes. "Accio."

She opened her eyes in just enough time to see a large book fly straight towards her face. Rose didn't even have time to wince before she felt the solid cover brush against her nose. She gasped and jumped backwards, but somehow the book had been suspended in mid-air. To her upmost displeasure she saw Scorpius standing behind her with his wand out.

"Depulso," she spat at him, making a mental note to learn the rest of the theory behind the Banishment Charm as she snatched her textbook out of the air.

"Come on, I don't get anything for that?" Scorpius demanded as she stormed past him.

"Frankly I would have preferred the concussion," she stated without looking at him.

"Rose, I said I was sorry," Scorpius reminded as he followed her. "I told you I just lost track of time."

"It's not a problem," she said stiffly. "Why learn theoretical Herbology with me when you've found someone willing to study practical Anatomy with you?"

"Rosie, it's not like that…"

"I hear it's a fascinating subject," Rose continued as she packed up her table. "Let me know when you learn how to pull your own head out of your arse."

A moment of silence spread between them which only caused Rose to stew harder.

"Okay, I know you're really angry at me, but can we just take a second to celebrate how brilliant that insult was?" Scorpius inquired with a grin. It took everything Rose had not to smile when she turned around to see his beaming face.

"Scorpius…"

"High-five me," he demanded, raising his hand so earnestly she couldn't help but laugh. She bit her lip as she thought about how much she had missed him. They had hardly seen each other outside of class since they had returned to school, and despite her anger at him she really didn't want to keep pushing him away. Apparently the thought made her smile, an infection Scorpius willingly caught. She was just about to curse his charming eyes that smiled along with his mouth when they were suddenly covered by a pair of slender hands with sparkling red nail polish.

"Guess who?" a light voice with a hint of an Italian accent inquired.

"The ghost of extremely bad timing," Scorpius moaned as another adorned hand slid across his stomach.

"It's Isabella!" the recently arrived, extremely attractive exchange student proclaimed, stepping in between he and Rose. "You had promised me a sugar-free gelato after we discovered we both abstained from artificial sweeteners. I thought we could spend the time figuring out what else we have in common. And maybe later what we have that is, how you say, different."

Rose turned on her heel and stormed off, Summoning her bag from the table and praying it had hit them both as it sped successfully into her arms.

Rose walked briskly passed the Library, unwilling to spare it a glance as though facing it would lure her in. For once in her school career she wanted nothing to do with the place. She had received top marks on all her exams and that was with the majority of her studying done in the busy Common Room. It might have been crowded and prone to the occasional explosion of a Wheeze, but it had the upmost advantage of barring out undesirables.

Besides, it was a Hogsmeade weekend, and she wanted nothing more than to warm up with a Butterbeer, visit her Uncle George at his franchise shop, and stuff her pockets with as much Honeydukes' chocolate as she could carry. She pushed all unpleasant thoughts out of her mind as she walked with Clair and Tim back to the Common Room. Both were anxious to meet up with Albus who had opted to sleep in, and both carried scraps of bacon and toast to feed him. Rose was excited about getting out of the castle as well. Fresh air and distractions would serve her well.

The three friends were about to round the staircase leading to their tower when suddenly it was like all of the light had been sucked out of the world. Rose heard the crowded corridor gasp in surprise, and both of her companions had begun to cast light spells to no avail. Rose too gripped her wand, but didn't bother casting Lumos. She knew enough about Peruvian Instant Darkness powder to know nothing short of extraordinary magic and time could shift through its effects.

Before she could turn to where she remembered Clair being to tell her this a hand clapped over her mouth. She was grabbed by the arm and tugged with gentle force away from where she stood. She sucked in her breath to scream, but as she did she took in the familiar spice of a designer cologne.

A few moments later she was brought to a classroom unaffected by the darkness. She turned to face her hooded captor and immediately punched him in the stomach.

"Oi! Shite, Rose! It's me!" Scorpius moaned, doubling over and dropping his candle holder to the floor.

"I know!" she shouted, stomping on his foot for good measure. "And what the hell is that thing?"

She stepped away in disgust as she looked at the rotten, shriveled limb that Scorpius had dropped on the floor.

"It's my Hand of Glory," Scorpius answered through heavy breath. "My father gave it to me."

"It's disgusting," she scowled, turning away from both it and him.

"Not all of us have a security blanket we can throw over our heads whenever we need to stay hidden," Scorpius spat with wounded pride as he secured his hood.

"What the hell are you doing, Scorpius?" Rose finally demanded.

"I need…" he said hesitantly, as though just remembering the purpose for his dramatics. "I need your help."

"You need my help?" she scoffed. "After you have been a complete an utter arse you kidnap me and ask for my help?"

Scorpius paused before responding.

"Yes…" he replied only slightly sheepishly. Rose stared at him incredulously.

"Why on earth should I help you?"

"Because we're friends, Rose. You're my best friend, actually," he answered, growing a bit pale with the admission.

"No we aren't," she stated. "If we were best friends you wouldn't stand me up constantly for a rotation of girls you don't even seem to care about!"

"Rosie, I tried to apologize…"

"And I don't want to be best friends with a louse who uses his extremely rare and special abilities to trick girls into snogging him!"

Scorpius inhaled sharply, his bright eyes growing wide with shock at her exclamation.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said quietly as he averted his gaze from her.

"You are such a liar!" she shouted. "And I'm sick of it! I'm not one of your stupid scarlet women. I know what you are. I've known for ages."

Scorpius stared at her, his square jaw clenching tensely and his bright eyes shading grey. A brief spasm of alert spilled down Rose's spine and for the first time she understood why so many people were intimidated by the Malfoys. She had never seen him look like this, and she definitely didn't like it.

"What am I, Rose?" he dared darkly.

"A Seer," she replied without hesitation. Scorpius immediately looked away, confirming once and for all that she was right. The moment he tore his eyes away from her he went back to feeling like normal Scorpius. Angry and irate, yet no more a monster.

"You're a Seer. It runs through your mother's side of the family so it's harder to track genetically, but you come from a line of those believed to have the Sight," she reported.

"How do you know?" he asked her sharply, and, a bit painfully.

"You haven't exactly been subtle with it," she spat with folded arms. "Perry and the Puff, Bella and the sugar, Albus and the "Freak Icestorm", me and the…"

"Glumbumbles," he finished, tearing his head away from her.

"Your eyes flashed white," she replied, much more calmly than she felt she had in ages to him. "I had already suspected, but when I saw that and you knew what I wanted to write my paper on…there weren't really too many explanations for that."

"Have you told anyone?" he inquired fearfully. Rose was taken aback from his look of intensity. She couldn't believe how quickly he had gone from a fierce monster to wounded animal.

"Of course not."

Scorpius let out a deep sigh of relief as he collapsed into a nearby chair. He stared at his feet for a few moments before finally looking back at her.

"I'm sorry," he expressed genuinely. "I'm sorry for being an inconsiderate arse. I never meant to hurt your feelings or…make you…upset."

Rose perked up in alert at the end of his apology. He had struggled with the word "upset" as if it were a cover up for something else. As if he thought there were some deeper reason why this whole mess had affected her so hard.

"I'm not jealous!" she exclaimed loudly, possibly a bit too loudly. Scorpius sat up straight in his chair as though bit by something extremely awkward.

"I didn't mean to imply that you were," he stated gently. Rose groaned inwardly and took her own seat across the table from him. They sat in a painfully uncomfortable silence, neither of them quite able to look at the other.

"Well, I mean, now that it's out there, I might be a little jealous," she admitted softly.

"You don't say?" Scorpius asked with a cocked eyebrow. Rose allotted a small laugh at his swagger, immediately defusing the harsh tension that had been separating them for weeks.

"Not of the whole snogging you in inappropriate places part," she cleared up quickly. "But, I don't know, things have changed, haven't they? And I'm glad other people like you now, truly, but I just hated feeling like I…and Albus…didn't matter to you anymore. It really, really upset me."

"Rose, you…and Albus…mean everything to me. And I'm sorry if I acted otherwise. I promise I won't let those stupid scarlet women come between us."

Rose rolled her eyes at him using her outdated terminology against her and laughed.

"I do!" he exclaimed happily. "Honestly, they don't mean anything to me."

"Well don't say that!" she expressed quickly.

"Why not?" he asked in defense.

"Because, if you're going to do…what you do…it should only be with one girl who you are in a proper, committed relationship with," she lectured.

"Ah, one of those," he stated with mocking distaste. "I never did fancy myself involved in such a scheme. I am quite busy with school and Quidditch and my demanding, judgmental friends. How would I ever have the time for something like that?"

"Well you can start by telling the truth to girls and not using your power for personal gain," she retorted with crossed arms.

"If only it worked like that," he grinned. "But trust me, it involves a mild amount of effort to get girls to want to be alone with me."

"I can't imagine why," Rose bantered. "Why go with the truth when you can lie about yourself."

"Because I'd be terrified of the girl who wanted to be with the actual me," Scorpius grimaced. "She would be a fierce thing to behold and a rather poor judge of character."

Rose laughed again, tempted to counter his argument, but then thought better of it.

"So what exactly did you black out the main corridor and kidnap me for?" Rose asked with folded arms, eyeing the hood that stuck firmly to his head.

"Oh…erm, well, it turns out that both Isabella and Perry are in one of those proper, committed relationships you mentioned, and their significant others weren't exactly thrilled with me…"

Scorpius dropped his hood with extreme agony. Rose immediately burst into laughter as he revealed his coveted hair had been turned into a squirming mess of green and yellow vines, which now free from their dark cover began to grow.

"Don't laugh at me," he grumbled.

"You look like a chia pet!" she barked, though she did manage to swallow the rest of her jeers.

"I don't know what that is, but I need you to fix it!" he exclaimed.

"Why don't you just go to Madam Pomfrey?" she asked.

"Have you seen her hair? I'll end up looking worse than Albus. Please help me, Rose. You're the only one I trust with this."

Rose was extremely taken aback by such a sentiment. Scorpius was robustly fond of his hair, a vanity that usually annoyed her. Yet she couldn't help but beam and think of how out of everyone in the school, he had come to her for help. She agreed to give it her best shot and gently began to Transfigure the growing mass back into his silky locks.

"Scorpius?" Rose asked sometime later after working diligently around his ears. "What did you mean by you saying your Sight didn't work that way? How does it work?"

Scorpius sighed like he really didn't want to talk about it, but obliged her with answers none the less.

"I'm not really sure," he admitted. "I don't really have any control of when it happens or what I See. Most of the time I don't even get visions or learn anything useful."

"What do you mean?" she inquired gently.

"Like…okay, so last year you and I were studying, and all of a sudden I just knew that you're going to lose one of your favorite shoes."

"I'm going to lose my favorite pair of shoes?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Not even the whole pair! Just the left one. That I knew distinctly. But when and how and where or even which pair of shoes I have no idea. I couldn't even tell you if it's a shoe you kicked off your foot as a baby or if it's something you misplace because you're a hundred years old and senile. But I know without a doubt one day you will lose a left shoe," he explained. "It's like…have you ever recalled an extremely obscure fact that you don't even remember learning but somehow without a doubt you know it's true?"

"Yes," Rose replied with a smile.

"Most of the time it's like that," he stated, visibly relieved that she seemed to understand. "Like before I was born I was told all of this asinine trivia and it comes to me randomly. I really don't care that Flitwick tried a new toothpaste this morning and liked it, and it's really a waste of my time to know what Bryony is going to say about her school robes a minute before she says it. Once is more than enough."

"What is it like the other times?" she inquired. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Sometimes I get pictures in my head," he said slowly. "Like with Albus and his Fantasy League. I saw him holding the newspaper with the typo headline and the date on it. Those are usually a little clearer than when I just "know" something."

"And what about with me and the Glumbumbles?" she asked gently. "I've never seen your eyes get like that before."

"That only happens when I actually have a genuine premonition," he explained. "Which is very, very rare."

"You've had a premonition about me?" she asked in shock. "What was it about?"

"Nope, I'm not going to tell you," he stated smugly.

"Why not?" she demanded, poking his head playfully with her wand.

"Because," he laughed. "I want it to come true for you."

Rose withdrew her wand and looked at him intently.

"I don't get stung by Glumbumbles, do I?" she asked seriously. Scorpius shrugged.

"How should I know?" he grinned. Rose smacked him playfully as she finished transforming the last of his hair. She pulled a mirror out of her purse to let him inspect.

"You really are brilliant at what you do, Weasley," he said after letting out a relieved breath. "Perfect, as always."

Rose narrowed her eyes, unsure if he was speaking about her spellwork or his looks, but shook her head either way. As she watched him recheck his reflection at different angles she realized a weight she hadn't even known she had carried had been lifted. She had meant what she said about it deeply upsetting her when she thought he didn't care for her, but she never stopped to analyze just what that meant. She didn't want to lose Scorpius in her life, but more than anyone he was the highest risk for loss. They were in different Houses, typically socialized with different people, and asides from her cousins and Hugo most of her friends didn't understand why she cared for him. It was even somewhat hard to explain to herself. But she knew without a doubt that her life would be lesser without him in it.

She smiled at her own silly form of Sight, and snatched the mirror away from Scorpius to bring herself back in the moment.

"I really do need to start requesting a resume before hooking up with girls, shouldn't I?" he jested as he continued to play with his hair. "We wouldn't want this happening again."

"You could start by learning their name and relationship status before you shove your tongue down their throat," she suggested.

"I'll write that down," he smirked.

"An intelligence test wouldn't hurt either," she continued. "I mean honestly…she read her horoscope in an old copy of Witch Weekly, and believed you when you said a Puff was your favorite animal? Oh! And when did you start to abstain from artificial sweeteners? Because I'm pretty sure you eat crystalized sugar cubes on the regular."

"You know, I did say it took a mild amount of effort," he grumbled, grinning despite of himself as he motioned towards the door.

"Hey, Scorpius," she said suddenly, one more thought popping in her mind. "Can I ask you one last question?"

He sighed as if questioning the validity of her inquiry, but stopped and waited for her to continue.

"Why do you want to keep your Sight a secret? It's kind of a big deal," Rose exclaimed. Scorpius on the other hand made a face like she had said something truly vulgar.

"Because I don't want to become some kind of Gypsy fortune teller," he scoffed. "I don't want people berating me with questions about their love life or if they're going to be rich and famous. The whole thing is usually just a hassle because I end up either knowing something I wish I hadn't or something I really don't care about."

"But you have a gift," she pressed. "You could use it to help people."

"Why? The Sight never shows anything about me," he told pompously.

"What about with your Qudditch captain and what he did to the first string Seeker?" Rose suggested, trying to stay on target. "That helped you stay on the team."

"It was also a bluff," he replied with a slightly proud smile. "I have no idea what Flint did to Bole."

"You won Albus over by helping him with Qudditch," she refreshed.

"Albus always loved me," he proclaimed.

"We might never have become friends if it wasn't for your premonition," she pointed out.

"True," he relented. "But I'm still not sure that was such a good thing."

"You know I still haven't officially forgiven you," she reminded with crossed arms.

"Ah, yes," he muttered, flashing her a grin as he continued to muse. "I guess I don't really consider it a gift or a power. It's just something that happens to me, and half the time I can't even be sure it's not just something I made up. I can't control it or focus it, and anyhow it's a bit embarrassing."

"How is it embarrassing?" she asked in confusion.

"How is this one last question?" he repeated with snark. Rose simply glared at him until he replied.

"Because it's like you said," he groaned. "It's something from my mother's side that has always been passed down the female line. There's no record of a male descendent with the Sight. My father would go mental."

"First off," Rose began, pausing to smack him in the back of his perfectly preened hair, "don't be such a chauvinistic pig. And secondly, your father doesn't know?"

"No. I think my mum does, but we've never discussed it. You're actually the only one I've ever talked about this with," Scorpius admitted.

Another silence spread between them, but this time it wasn't so awkward. For some reason Rose felt herself begin to blush while Scorpius stared at her profoundly. Her heart beat loudly in her chest and for some extremely odd reason her kneecaps seemed to have disappeared. She had no idea why she suddenly felt this way. Scorpius looked at her all the time. But this…this was different. And as alarming as it was she definitely felt emptier when he finally cleared his throat and looked away.

"We, erm, should probably get going," he suggested, pointing his head towards the door.

"Right," she replied with no real urgency. "Tim and Clair are probably worried sick about me."

They continued to stand rooted in their stance, captured by the lingering power of a significant moment.

"What are you thinking?" Scorpius asked her gently. Rose smiled and flipped her hair behind her shoulder playfully.

"Why don't you tell me?"

Scorpius released his full, genuine smile as he accepted her challenge. Her breath caught in her throat as he grabbed her hands and held them in his own. She watched him close his eyes and take a deep, purposeful inhalation. She couldn't help but study the determined set of his jaw, the smooth curve of his lips, and noticed for the first time just how long his eyelashes were. When he finally opened his bright aqua eyes she couldn't help the squeamish dread that he might actually read her mind.

"You're thinking that you're glad I kidnapped you, and the despite popular opinion you're relieved to know I can actually apologize. And even though you had to drag it out of me you're happy that I confided in you, if for no other reason than so I have one less secret I have to bare alone," he professed slowly.

Rose stared at him, and immediately felt her kneecaps abandon her again. As if knowing she needed the extra support, Scorpius squeezed the hands he continued to hold gently.

"You're absolutely right," she breathed in amazement.

"I am?" he whispered intimately.

"Yeah," she replied, then flashed him her most Malfoy of smirks. "You really can't just turn it on, can you?"

She spun on her heel, blushing but grinning wildly and treasuring the Confunded look on his face as she ran out the door.

She didn't need to be a mind reader to know he'd catch up.