Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series. All rights belong to J.K. Rowling.

Warnings: This work of fiction contains references to the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of a minor by an adult and spousal violence, in addition to the participation of a minor in an illegal cage fighting ring.

A/N Alternate ending, as promised. This is not a 'full life' conclusion like Part III, but rather more like two related snapshots in time. It commences in the same place as Part III.

These Steel Cables (IV)

"Wait," The voice is reluctant, winsome, perhaps even a little afraid, but she grasps onto it like the lifeline that it is.

Rose turns on her heel, looking back into that hole of a bathroom, her eyes wide, breathless, waiting. The boy straightens to his full height, turning to face her, and Rose feels her rabbit-heart flutter.

His mouth is set in a hard line, his eyes red-rimmed and tired.

"Will you be, you know, alright after all of this? I know that I should just let you walk away and live your life, but I feel that, I don't know -,"

Rose cuts him off. "Like we're connected, somehow? Is that what you feel?"

His head snaps up and she is skewered by his eyes, burning like frigid coals set deeply into the hard planes of his face. She doesn't blink. She's worried that if she closes her eyes for one second, he will be gone, that this sudden, unexpected vulnerability will be replaced by the hard coldness that she has come to expect from this haunting boy who is almost as damaged as she is.

"Yes," he whispers hoarsely.

She feels tears spring to her eyes, but they are different tears than usual, special tears. She loves these tears. She wishes she could cradle them and keep them in a bottle and then cry them again and again, anything to hold on to this feeling that is buoying her up as if some long dead part of her has been freed beyond measure.

His hands twitch, just a little twinge, but what she reads in that simple movement is the most powerful thing she has ever seen. And suddenly, she understands Scorpius Malfoy. She understands that he is sad and afraid and alone, just like she had been when he stepped into her life and became the unwitting hero that she knows she will dream about until she is old and wrinkled. And she understands, in that moment, that he is frozen, locked in a place where he is unlovable and unloved and powerless to escape.

It is without thought, without hesitation, that Rose approaches him, and it is with confidence that she wraps his large body in her arms, trying to fold him into her, to make him feel her warmth and her burning, burning desire to be of him, and to have him be of her.

He is stiff at first, but when he realizes that she isn't going to let go, he lets his shoulders drop, hunching himself into her as best he can. And as he looks at them in the mirror, him leaning down and her reaching up to end up in an embrace that can only be described as revolutionary, Scorpius Malfoy marvels at the small girl whose fragile arms are protecting him from the world.

And for a split second, he sees his mother.

~ () ~

They are lying beside each other, just like every other night since they moved into the manor, and Scorpius can feel the tiny breaths of the woman he knows he would die for puff into the air that he himself breathes and Rose can rest peacefully in the knowledge that she has found a man who will never hurt her.

They have a ritual, around bedtime, and to anybody else it would seem absolutely neurotic. But like a lot of things, to them, it makes sense. They never touch, as they go to sleep. They lie on separate sides of the bed as they drift off, knowing that in the morning they will wake up in each other's arms. It's their own little magic trick, their miracle.

Tonight, Rose decides that in some twisted way, the time for boldness is not completely lost. Reaching over under the thick feather duvet, she finds Scorpius' cold fingers and grasps them tightly in hers.

"Scorp?"

"Yeah," His voice is deep and sleepy, but it still manages to send shivers down her spine.

"You know I love you, right?" she whispers, almost nervously.

She can feel his smile, imagine the look on his face. "Yeah. I know,"

"... I talked to your Mom today,"

It's minute, but she can feel him stiffen. She knows how much he misses his mother, even after all of these years.

"You know, that portrait that your father keeps in the back of the library,"

"Yeah, I know the one," his voice is quiet, brooding, boiling with something neither of them wants to face.

"Anyway, we were talking, and it dawned on me that she was scared for you. She was scared that you were going to end up like… like your father," Rose chokes the words out.

It shocks her to think about, because before she began having these weekly conversations with the late Astoria Malfoy, the thought that Scorpius could be anything like Draco Malfoy had not crossed her mind for even a second. It was sobering, but the thought didn't frighten her. It couldn't, not when she was lying beside a man who was and always would be perfect in his flaws and utterly unchangeable in her eyes.

"And am I? Am I like him?" The sheer amount of pain that Rose can hear in Scorpius' voice astounds her, and she hates herself for bringing it up at all.

"That's just what I wanted to tell you, Scorp. I've noticed that you… that you always seem afraid. You've been afraid since the beginning, and I only just realized recently that maybe it was yourself you were afraid of," The words come out before she can stop herself, and she hates herself for her honesty.

He is too fragile for this. I need to protect him, above all else.

She hears his heavy swallow, and even in the darkness, she can make out his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. Suddenly, she is filled with such tenderness, such pure, unadulterated love that she feels as if she might choke on it.

She rolls towards him, resting her head on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.

"You saved me, Scorp. You saved me from something darker than you could ever even imagine in yourself. You are nothing like your father, Scorpius Malfoy, and don't you forget it," The steel in her voice shines through, and Rose feels her eyes fill with those same tears that she cried all those years ago, standing just on the cusp of something more beautiful than she thought she could ever deserve.

He doesn't say anything, but he doesn't have to. His hand comes up to rest on her cheek, and this action conveys all of his thanks and more. She falls to sleep listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

Scorpius stays awake. He sometimes thinks that his mind is like another world, a place that he can retreat into and become completely preoccupied with. But on this night, all he can see is her.

He remembers what it felt like to hold her and to love her and to save her, and he knows that nothing in this world will ever be so powerful as that. Because when he is with her, he is never just Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. He is a hero, a white knight, a brave-hearted fool who would go to hell and back just to see her smile one last time.

It's on this night, with these effusive, seductive thoughts running through his head, that Scorpius Malfoy realizes, really realizes for the first time, that he is nothing like his father. His father destroyed the only thing that ever really mattered to him, and Scorpius knows that his father lies awake at night wondering where it all went wrong, wishing that he was somehow different, better, new. But in this moment, looking down at the splash of red hair splayed across his chest, he knows that he has the amalgamation of his entire life, what was and is to come, wrapped up in his arms.

He saved her. They both know this, and he takes great pleasure in Rose feeling like she can lean on him, that he can protect her from anything. Lying there, smelling her singular scent and relishing in her soft weight, he ruminates on something that he's quite sure Rose has never realized, something that he knows he will keep in his heart for as long as he lives.

Little did she know, on that last day in that accursed prefect's bathroom, Rose Weasley had definitively separated the man from the monster. She had held onto him with hands of steel, cabling them together until they were no longer two separate entities, but one. On that day, Rose Weasley saved him from himself, and for that, he would be forever in her debt.

FIN

A/N Thank you for your continued support throughout this work. Your input is greatly valued and appreciated.