Title: Trial Periods

Parings: Scorpius/Rose, Hugo/OC, Albus/OC

Rating: M for language, eventual smut, and adult themes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters other than the ones I've created myself.

"Separated?"

Rose rolled the delicate word carefully over her tongue as if repeating it aloud would somehow conjure up an ulterior meaning. There simply had to be one. She shifted her weight uncomfortably atop the sofa cushions, briefly glancing over a Hugo who sat beside her wearing an equal expression of discomfort.

Hugo, on the other hand, was silent; blue eyes completely fixated atop their plush living room carpet, as if he were trying to discern some cryptic message from their white wool fibers. He didn't react through any type angered scowl or staggered facial expression, remaining placid as could be given the less than pleasant circumstances.

Rose's reaction, in contract, was the polar opposite. Fiery and heated; mirroring their temperaments with perfect reflection.

The brood had already been at it for a solid five minutes, their conversation circling back around once more through futile banter. Rose began yet again, justifying her harsh question as purely for clarification purposes despite its saucy tone.

"So you're getting a divorce?"

"No!"

Their parents both answered back in perfect unison, looking at each other briefly as if trying to discern silently which one of them should speak next. Rose beat them to it - taking it upon herself to fill the awkward silence with speech, as was typically the case throughout any sort of family event. Even one as horrendously disagreeable as this.

"What do you mean 'no'? Why would you need a 'trial separation' then? If you're not obviously planning on getting divorced eventually," Rose's tone was persistent, narrowing her eyeballs at both parents. "What even is that? Like a break? Like the ones bloody fourth years go on when they're just too chicken to fully break up with eachothe-"

"Will you just shut up already?" The fifteen-year-old's voice was brash and finally vocalized, aimed towards his sister without even so much as a solitary glance upward. "Maybe let them talk for a solid sixty seconds, and you'll actually find out! What a crazy concept."

Rose's jaw snapped shut, shooting Hugo an angered scowl. The hell did he even know?

"Hugo, don't tell your sister to shut up." Hermione's voice was soft but stern, arms crossed over her chest as she stood relatively adjacent with her husband, the pair a maintaining solid two arms-length apart in distance.

For good reason, apparently.

Hugo muttered back insincerely, "Sorry."

Rose was still manic; needing no less than one hundred different questions answered at the exact same time. She had seen her parents only a couple months' prior, during Easter holiday for an entire week, and they had seemed fine. Perhaps not wondrously splendid, but fine enough. Certainly not on the road to ending a bloody marriage or splitting up the entire family.

"So where are we gonna live then?" Rose's impatience won, yet again. "Are we moving? Did you sell the house already? I'm still so confused…We just got home yesterday, and you're going to drop this bloody atomic bomb on us, NOW? Have you even TRIED marriage counseling? I heard it's quite successful if both parties are willing to wor- "

"Bloody fucking hell Rose," Hugo spat under his breath, ignoring the violent glare shot by his mother over the blatant use of profanity. "It's like you physically cannot shut up, isn't it?"

She was furious over the accusation; Hugo's explicit lack of urgency over the news they'd just received making matters far worse than necessary. They were supposed to be a united force on this matter, he was supposed to be taking her side. Not the other way around. Gritting her teeth, she felt her fists clench into balls of anger before replying back defensively, "And it's like you don't even care at all-"

"Nobody said anything about selling the house," Ron finally interrupted, looking down into his daughters searching expression. "You'll both still be living here with your mum during the summer holiday, and for any other school-year breaks, if it comes down to that. I've already found a flat which I'm going to be renting out, temporarily…In Diagon Alley, right across from the joke shop. We'll see each other every day if you want to, Rosie. Don't worry…things are going to work out, I swear."

His own flat? Don't worry. DON'T WORRY?!

His own flat - without his best friend of thirty-three years (wife for over twenty) and their two teenaged children by his side. Like some bloody nineteen-year-old bachelor, living off frozen pizza dinners and sleeping on a twin sized mattress with no sheets. Rose could only imagine that would eventually become the case.

Could he even function without a woman's guidance around? Was there another woman around? When would they really even see each other, in all actuality, though? Every other weekend…evenings-only during strained and uncomfortable visitation dinners?

Her thoughts raced mercilessly.

"We wanted to give you both some time to settle in last night before announcing it," Hermione avidly piped up. "We've been talking about this happening for a while now."

A while now?

How long exactly - weeks, months, years? Their entire marriage was ripping apart from the seams, and they both seemed so incredibly calm over such a drastic matter. Perhaps they were just expertly good at pretending? All the evidence pointed towards yes.

Her expression went blank for a moment. Rose wasn't stupid, she knew there were problems; for as long as she could remember, they had bickered back and forth like an old married couple. Which, of course…they were! The squabbling seemed second natured at that point. So why then, all of a sudden, had their marriage become such an easily dissolvable union? As if nothing could be done in lieu of reconciliation other than living completely separate lives.

Till death do us part. More like till we get bored and life gets hard. Rose figured that's what most marriage vows typically meant, anyway.

"Yeah," Ron chimed in quickly. "This has been a long time coming, I'm afraid. And it has absolutely nothing to do with either of you. We just need some space apart, that's all. Some time to figure out what direction we need to be headed in next."

Rose hardly believed that answer.

"Are you seeing other people?"

Hugo groaned with exasperation. Rose swore she could see a vein about to burst from her father's head over the very implication.

"Of course not!" Ron reacted immediately, perhaps a bit too severely.

"Not in the slightest," Hermione agreed, squashing down the ridiculous notion with her easy-going retort. "This isn't because of some blown-up affair, dear. Nothing of the sorts, I promise. And you know, we'll still always be friends with one another. No matter what the outcome happens to be."

Right, of course. How very likely that was.

"First and foremost, we're your parents," The words caused Rose's eyes to roll, Hermione's fluttering claims being what she could only consider forcibly amicable, at best. "We love you, and we're here to discuss anything you'd like to talk about. We want you to feel completely comfortable coming to us whenever needed. Either of us. For anything. We'll always be a family, no matter what…remember that, alright?"

God, the overused clichés were enough to make Rose upchuck her lunch from hours prior. The conversation was utterly vile. Painfully awkward and uncomfortably real. Even she was at a complete loss for words, something quite rare for the redheaded Gryffindor. A silence fell over the sitting room as not a single Granger-Weasley clan member voiced a solitary word.

"Can I be excused now, please?" Rose finally spoke, evading eye contact just as Hugo had done so well previously.

"Yes," Ron nodded his head as a signaled permission for her to leave the room. He seemed well past finished with the conversation at hand, too. Like father like daughter. Avoidance was far easier than beating the issue to death like an already dead horse. "We'll talk about this more at dinner."

"Which I won't be attending," Rose declared heatedly, emotion creeping through without any type of conscious effort. "I'm going over to James'. I'm not staying here right now."

"I've already invited all of them over for dinner later tonight," Hermione supplied quickly. "They'll be here in a couple hours, around sevenish. I wanted to-"

"Oh. Lovely!" Rose exclaimed colorfully before Hermione had a chance to finish her explanation. "Brilliant plan, mother. Just what we need! A family therapy session. Is grandmum coming, too?"

"Rose, I-"

"So they all know; I take it?" Rose's eyes burrowed deep into her mothers. Searching, but also piercing back harshly - in way she hoped sparked displeasure throughout the older witch. The same displeasure she was feeling herself. "You told them already?"

"Harry and Ginny, yes," Ron answered this time. "We're planning on telling the rest of the gang later on tonight-"

"Perfect! Might as we'll invite the editor of the Daily Prophet over herself for tea time and crumpets afterwards, yeah? Announce it to the entire wizarding world while we're at it? I can see the headlines now..."Golden Couple's Foreseeable Split: Minister for Magic Newly Single and Riding Atop Her Broomstick Solo.' Innuendo very much intended."

Childish – she realized how incredibly immature of a reaction it was, but her hands were nearly shaking with frustration. She didn't understand how ridiculously upsetting it was all becoming, the anxious jittering flowing throughout her veins making it near impossible to remain impartial.

"Rose, that's not at all what's going on here!" Hermione snapped sharply, sighing dejectedly before she continued, pressing her palm to her forehead in noticeable exasperation.

Yes. She was feeling that same displeasure Rose already having felt. She smiled ever so slightly, transforming fully into the deranged lunatic which seemingly had developed into somewhat of an alter ego as of late. It satisfied her more than it should have.

"You're throwing a dinner party to announce your divorce," She quipped haughtily, standing up from her seated section of sofa. "That's exactly what's going on here, is it not?"

"We're not getting divorced!" Ron's voice made even Hermione startle, the pair giving each other a quick, unreadable glance.

"It's fine if you are," Rose fought back almost instantly. "Just bloody be honest about, at the very least. Stop tiptoeing around the subject, like your marital status is, 'that-which-must-not-be-mentioned.' The fucking d-word hardly means-"

"LANGUAGE YOUNG LADY!"

It was Ron who loudly scolded her, almost completely uncharacteristic of a man who swears like a drunken sailor most of the time. Rose had a feeling it was actually the other words which sparked the outburst, validation of his crumpling marriage and diminishing life quality being brought further into the light. "It's just for a couple months Rose, blimey – all you can think of is yourself sometimes, you know tha-"

"Stop it! Both of you!"

Hermione hurriedly interrupted before the red hot Weasley-tempers could go and spark flames upon her marvelously well decorated family room. Well, not so much family room any longer. Rose mused silently to herself. Single mother with two children's living quarters felt more like it.

"We just figured it'd be nice to have your cousin's around tonight for a bit," Her voice was back to being smooth and calm, as usual. "We haven't told anyone else other than family, and we'd like to keep it that way. At least for a little while. Understand?"

No.

Rose didn't understand much of anything. Her emotions mirrored nothing even remotely close to understanding or empathy over the situation. The longer she remained surrounded by the tense air inside their sitting room, the more anger she felt build within the pit of her stomach. Confused anger, not easily swallowed down or ignored.

She wanted out.

Out of the uncomfortably tense living room. Out of her impeccably decorated and well maintained, two-story, Victorian-era childhood home. Out of Muggle London, and back at Hogwarts for her upcoming seventh year...At least in school she was always prepared for what came next. Well, typically. Though even that had become questionable as of late.

She practically wanted out of her entire bloody family - beautifully immaculate on the outside, but in reality, so incredibly broken once you get close enough to see the cracks.

Why hadn't she been born a Potter? James, Lil, and Albus never had to go through such bollocks. Their family truly WAS perfect; their parents still loved each other. Their lives weren't going to become a complete shit-show, uprooted through what could only be classified as the worst summer break Rose was ever going to live through.

"I'll be upstairs in my room."

With that announcement being made, the young witch spun on her heels without so much as a second's hesitation, barreling towards the staircase leading upwards before either parent was able to speak a word of objection. Though, they both seemed to know better than to demand any sort of return from her.

"And she's the older one?" Hugo's sarcastic voice could be heard all the way from the top perch of staircase, causing Rose to scowl with annoyance.

"She just needs time. That's all."

Her mother's words were hopeful, but the feeling which pounded though Rose's chest was not. She slammed her bedroom door violently upon entrance, casting a locking charm without even needing to speak the incantation aloud.

God bless finally being seventeen; it felt brilliant to use magic without needing the confines of school grounds surrounding her. Freeing. She was getting quite good at nonverbal spells, especially that one in particular. Merlin knows, it surely was cast enough.

Rose swallowed roughly, feeling warm tears beginning to well behind her hazel eyes as she collapsed atop the unmade mattress. She cried, mainly for her parents and their dissolving life together, but also knowing the pitiful blubbering went far beyond just that.

Fuck. It had been six months already! Six months and it still hurt. It still bloody hurt like the events had only just happened yesterday. She had been doing so well, so incredibly good at capsizing the invasive thoughts.

Rose reminded herself yet again – this was exactly why relationships were a worthless waste of time. Even more validation added to the confirmation bank. Nearly all of them ended eventually; most of them miserable until the day that ending finally came. Fighting, fucking, and figuring out why you ever got into such a terrible agreement with another human being in the first place...

Gods, Lily was right. She was cynical. Jaded beyond repair.

And she needed out; she needed freedom from her suffocating home like a caged convict from Azkaban needed sunlight. A distraction. She wanted her distraction.

Knowing she would probably come to regret the hasty decision made through emotional mayhem, and at the hands of loneliness, she contemplated briefly her actions before making them. Was it seriously worth the risk? The risk of discovery and potential complications.

Yes, yes it was.

Rose's verdict was impulsive, the Gryffindor grabbing a piece of blank parchment and a quill from her untouched school bag, before plopping down at her desk to hunch over and write the dimly thought-out letter. Dipping her feather in the black inkwell, she scribbled hastily, tears starting to freely slide down her freckled cheeks and blurring together the messy words.

Hey,

Are you busy tonight?

My parents just told Hugo and I they're getting a divorce…Fully expecting for us to hold hands around the dinner table tonight, and sing Kumbaya with the Potters over this lovely revelation.

I'd rather get kicked in the shins, to be honest. I need out of this hell house. Literally anywhere else would be preferable at this point. I'm desperate.

If you're busy though, it's fine. I'll see you sometime soon.

-R

So much for only telling family.

There was a tapping noise at her closed bedroom window. Rose glanced up.

Merlin, the reply was speedier than she had anticipated for. The book held within her grasp was immediately set down – having not even gotten through a full chapter since her brown spotted owl was originally sent out for the impromptu departure, the time still not yet past six o'clock.

She stroked the owl's neck feathers distractedly, causing her bird to coo affectionately as she untied the small roll of parchment attached to its thin leg. She pulled the twine away with ease. "Good girl," Rose smiled at the small creature, returning to her bed to unroll the letter and read over its beautifully scrolled content. Simple and straightforward it was.

Hello,

No, I'm not busy. And I'm sorry to hear that. You can tell me about it tonight, if you want.

Where did you want to meet?

-S

Fuck.

Rose cured under her breath, almost half wishing he had rejected the dubious invitation without further explanation. Knowing in actuality, if he had, she would've been even more disappointed than originally before. No, not disappointed. It's fairly impossible to be disappointed by something (someone) which meant so very little towards your present life. No, not disappointed – displeased.

She wasted not a moment in replying.

Meet across from the Leaky Cauldron at 7pm.

See you soon.

A/N: Hello everyone! Just a fun (and future smutty so be forewarned) ScorRose story I've been working on. I'm fairly sure this concept has been done approximately seven hundred different times throughout next-gen fanfiction, but I wanted to put my own spin to it. There will definitely be some twists and turns, I can promise you that.

Oh, and please forgive any proof-reading errors which may be present. The area is not my strongest, though I do try my best.

Thank you for reading, and please let me know any thoughts, questions, concerns, etc. I'd love to hear them.

~Bekah