Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Harry Potter franchise other than some totally awesome merchandise.

A/N: Three updates in five days. I'M ON A ROLL. XD

This is in celebration of my Mandy (LoveInAComa here on FF) because it's her birthdayyy and I love her a lot and she loves Rose/Scorpius so THIS IS MY GIFT TO HER.

I LOVE YOU, MY MANDY! :D

Oh, and the rest of the readers… Enjoy as well :)

"Just tell him, Rosie." Lily whispered so not to alert any of the other Potters or Weasleys about the redhead's problem. The compartment of the Hogwarts Express was chock-full and even louder than usual, with a good amount of its population riding in it for the last time ever.

Rose was one of those people. Except, she wasn't being loud with the rest of her cousins that were all piled up half on top of each other in the small (but still magically enlarged—apparently when Teddy Lupin enlarged it, the mischief maker never thought that one day the compartment would be holding somewhere around fifteen teenagers at once) space. She was being rather quiet, her mood somber for the occasion. Only Lily was acknowledging her problems in the back corner of the cushioned bench, which she was fine with. She didn't want to bring anyone else down because of her problems with Malfoy.

Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy.

The boy who'd haunted her ever since First Year with taunts about her curly red hair and her freckles and her awkwardly lanky stature that took her at least six of the seven years to actually grow into. The boy who practically defined the law of picking on someone when you had a crush on them.

She wasn't even being conceited in saying that she knew Scorpius liked her. She was an intellectual; she wasn't exactly the most popular with the male population, but she wasn't blind. It wasn't even a question anymore. Everyone knew.

But he still hadn't told her.

And it was kind of killing her.

Rose would have loved to be able to tell him that yes, she felt the exact same way, and yes, it was true when Al told him in Fourth Year that she liked him, despite the fact that she'd vehemently denied it at the time, and no, it hadn't faded away yet. Things like the little scar she got on her shin from the first broomstick lesson faded away. Her unappealingly frizzy hair faded away (thankfully into a curly, manageable style). Her long, too-skinny limbs faded away into more proportionate ones (though she was still somewhat tall for her age). Her feelings for Scorpius never faded. They never would. She knew they wouldn't.

Scorpius was just being too stupid and too stubborn (like usual, her mind remarked and she refrained from huffing) to do anything about it.

Rose exhaled sharply, wondering for the billionth time since her Third Year why she even bothered with him. He was annoying and selfish and stubborn and irritatingly dense. At any given time, he would be sneering out a new teasing remark about her looks or her overdeveloped intelligence (or, to quote him properly, "nerdiness") or her lack of hand-eye-coordination with anything other than a quill or a wand. She got sick of him so easily that it shouldn't have even been a question that she would like him.

But, for whatever unexplainable reason, she did. And, for whatever unexplainable reason, she loved everything about Scorpius Malfoy. His aggravating personality and his quick wit and his stupid pointy face. The way he wore his uniform in no way the Head Boy should, with his button unbuttoned too far down and his necktie never knotted correctly. The way he smiled at her from across the Potions classroom or the Great Hall and made her stomach do somersaults. The way every insult he made had a compliment to balance it out. The way every girl in school had had a crush on him at some point in time, but he never dated any of them. His good looks (incredible looks… to put it lightly, the boy was gorgeous) and his impeccable charm that swapped out with his mischievous side flawlessly.

The way he looked at her like she was the only person in the world… like she was a gem in the middle of a pile of rocks. Like her shockingly red hair and freckly face and tall stature didn't even matter, because she was still the prettiest girl he'd ever seen in his life (He'd told her so once. She didn't breathe for a good ten minutes afterward.).

The redhead sighed again and pressed her forehead against her cousin's bony shoulder.

Lily smiled lightly and patted her back reassuringly.

"Why is he so…" Rose trailed off, mind not even capable of summing up the boy in one word.

"Because he's Malfoy." Lily shrugged, making Rose's head bob. "And because he's actually kind of shy, and he thinks that he needs to give a dramatic love confession from a mountaintop instead of just telling you. Or at least that's what Al said Malfoy told him."

Her head lifted, scanning the compartment for the familiar head of messy black hair. Of course, the one time she needed him, he was off with his other friends. Rose sometimes loved that he was in Slytherin with Scorpius, and sometimes hated it more than anything, because it meant that he got the inside stories of everything but was bound by some Man-Code not to share any of the secrets.

Rose grimaced.

Lily poked her cheek, blue eyes shining. "So, I think you have to tell him."

The Weasley narrowed her own hazel eyes. "I think…" She tried to think of any excuse in the world why she shouldn't, but came up with a blank. The older redhead sighed in defeat. "You're right."

"Of course I am,"

Rose rolled her eyes affectionately and stood.

"Good luck!" Lily called after her.

She didn't chance glancing back, because she just knew she would end up tripping over Fred or Louis or one of the other reckless boys who sat in the middle of the floor, obstructing the door and making some Weasley's Wizard Wheezes tricks light up the compartment in fireworks or something like that—it always seemed to happen at the most inappropriate of times… The boys had a constant stock on them at all times.

It was cooler in the corridor, with less body heat, but Rose could feel her cheeks heating with every step she took toward the front of the train. She knew that Scorpius was either in the Prefects and Heads' compartment, or was in one of the others with Al and the rest of their friends. Either way, she would find him soon enough. And it was nerve-wracking to say the very least. She tried her hardest to get rein over the outbreak of Cornish Pixies in her stomach.

Rose was halfway down the hall when she heard the laugh. The laugh she would recognize from miles away.

She stopped dead in her tracks, scorching from her cheeks to her roots and down past the collar of her shirt. She breathed in deeply, evaluating what her plan was in her mind.

Who was she kidding? She had no plan.

Rose stepped forward cautiously, so that she would be visible through the clear glass of the sliding door. She bit her lip and her heart pounded against her ribs and really, it couldn't be very healthy for her pulse to be that high.

Her feet moved her forward again, just a bit, so that she was directly in front of the compartment.

She saw Scorpius look up and flash a smile that was just cheating, because she was supposed to talk to him and he was taking her option of speech completely away.

I can't do this.

Rose's head snapped forward and she continued down the hallway at a quick pace.

Thankfully, no one was in the Prefects' compartment once she got there, so the girl was able to curl up in the corner and curse her very existence in peace. She vowed not to ever walk back down the hallway so that the Malfoy would never get a chance to look at her again, and yes, she knew she was being immature and irrational, but it was Scorpius Malfoy. She thought she was completely justified in being immature and irrational.

The blood beneath her skin boiled, and it didn't stop bubbling for as long as her mind was reeling. She silently berated herself, knowing that after an entire year in the position of Head Girl and seeing the boy's face several times a day every day, she should get used to the feeling of mercilessly enthusiastic, amped-up butterflies and heat creeping up through her very fingertips. But… she just… didn't.

She sighed once again and accepted that the Malfoy would probably always have that effect on her.

Not that she would see him much after that year, of course. Once Hogwarts was done, they really didn't have a reason to see each other. They became friends through class, through Al, through being Prefects and Heads together. Outside of that, they talked, sure, and, well yeah, they clearly liked each other, but what with Rose's shyness and Scorpius's inability to see what was right in front of his face, there was nothing about their relationship that said, "HEY! Let's get together every weekend for coffee and talk about our lives!"

Her fingers combed through her fiery hair in an attempt to calm herself down. Rose knew that every stroke only made the strands separate and frizz a little more, but she simply couldn't stop herself. It was her comfort.

After all, she'd just embarrassed herself (granted, not nearly as badly as she could have, but still) in front of her first love, and it was quite possibly the last time they would ever see each other.

She was entitled to comfort.

The girl groaned, drawing her knees closer to her body. Why did he have to be so dense? He was top of their class in grades! Why was he so blind to the fact that the feelings between them were mutual?

Her embarrassment blended into angst until it mixed in with the oxygen and she was breathing it in. Rose felt like crying, but also felt like finding Malfoy and yelling at him. It didn't make much sense to her why she had the urge to kiss him instead.

Rose swore she actually tasted some of her heart on her tongue as Scorpius's figure came into her view through the door.

He gave her a shy smile that was so different from the ones he usually showed other people and Rose almost smiled back until she remembered that she was still mad at him for making her upset when she should be celebrating her graduation.

"Can I come in?" He asked, voice muffled by the glass barrier.

"What's the password?" She grumbled, mostly just to bother him.

"Since when are there passwords on the compartment doors?" Scorpius asked with a good-natured tone.

"Since I made one up. And if you don't get it right, then you can't come in." She said with finality.

He looked contemplative. "Sugar Quills," He offered, knowing that it was her favorite candy.

Rose made a show of rolling her eyes.

"Erm… Gryffindor?"

Her House? Really? A smile cracked across Rose's pink lips as she shook her head.

"Paris, France,"

Her heart gave a small jolt. He really remembered her talking about Paris? She was sure she'd mentioned she wanted to visit there maybe once in the seven years they knew each other.

"Still not it?" His gray eyes were adorably sad, plush pink lips in the slightest of pouts.

She shook her head again.

"Is it something I would know?"

Rose nodded, deciding then on the definite password. Some bit of her uncle George's scheming side awakened in her, and she knew that this was how she was finally going to get it out of him. Her heart began to ache again with the want for him to say it and mean it.

"But I know so much about you…" He acted like it was a great burden on him, running a hand dramatically through his chin-length platinum hair.

"You know it, I promise."

"Give me a hint,"

"It applies to both of us." She said cryptically.

Long fingers touched a sharp chin in thought, his eyes never leaving hers, making her feel antsy.

"Green," He tried after a long moment.

Rose resisted the urge to slap her head into her palm in disappointment. "No, it's not green. Why would you say green?"

"Because you said it applies to both of us!" His brow furrowed.

"What does green have to do with me?"

"Your eyes are kind of green sometimes." His words ran together.

She laughed. "So why would I choose it as a password?"

"I don't know! Give me a better hint!"

Rose considered what to tell him. It was difficult, trying to think of something that wouldn't give it completely away, but would still steer him in the right direction. "It's not a single word. It's a phrase. A common phrase. You've said it before, not to me personally, but you've said it."

His gray eyes narrowed, still boring straight into hers. "I'm sorry?" He tried.

The girl did her best to hide her dissatisfaction through her laugh. "For what?"

"I don't know. I dropped a bottle of ink on your strawberry Sugar Quills once. But I bought you a box of every flavor afterwards… You tend to stay bitter about things, though." He scratched the back of his head.

"You're so stupid." She wore a genuine smile, her heart warming as she was reminded then of why she loved him. It was the pointless little things he said like that that made her stomach turn over.

"Something that applies to both of us…" He trailed off, voice low and hard to hear through the glass.

Rose looked at him hopefully. "It's easy, and you know it. It's something you want to say but are too stupid to know how, because you think you need to make some huge production out of it, when really, just saying it would be enough."

His perfectly straight teeth sunk into his full lower lip for a second before he looked back up at her. "I'll miss you."

Her heart jumped and her face burned scarlet. She fought a lovesick grin off her face. She shook her head, fingers coming up to play with her strands of hair. "You're getting closer, though."

Scorpius's lips turned up softly at the corners and Rose almost gave in right there and opened the door so she could kiss the beautifully smiling lips.

"I like you."

Her eyes closed and she let the words sink in. She bit her lower lip and still shook her head. "Almost there," She whispered, afraid to open her eyes.

The sound of her heartbeat drowned out anything else, so she jumped about a mile in the air (and mentally criticized herself for it, because that wasn't a very cute thing to do) when something warm came in contact with her cheek.

Her eyes snapped open, and she saw his face closer than she'd ever seen it. The warmth on her cheek was from his hand lightly lying there, moving at a snail's pace and lighting a fire beneath her skin all the way to her jaw and chin, where he gently tilted her face up to meet his.

Rose then realized from his somewhat pointed look that she was still biting her lip, and that could complicate the next step of the process considerably, so she freed her lip from its toothy confines and looked nervously into his burning gray eyes.

He tilted his head so their noses wouldn't bump and her heart sprang to her dry throat and there was no possible way she could possibly will away the blush that was now reaching around to the middle of her forehead.

But then, as his lips touched hers for the first time, none of that mattered.

Because it was wonderful.

Amazing.

The most perfect moment she'd ever experienced in her entire life.

And even when he pulled away from the chaste kiss, her heart didn't stop fluttering and her cheeks sure didn't bother trying to turn back to their natural color, and his smile almost brought tears to her already-smitten eyes.

"I love you," He whispered, lips barely moving.

Rose had to replay it in her mind at least seven times until it finally clicked in her mind. Her smile was completely uncontrollable now, spreading from one crimson ear to the other.

"I—I love you too," Once again, she loathed her bashful nature.

His responding grin was pretty much brighter than the sun itself. Rose was so, so far gone at that point… on Cloud 9 with no plans to come back down.

"But, you cheated. You weren't supposed to come in until you actually got the password." Rose realized what he'd done and just had to protest.

"Well forgive me, then. I think I got the password in the end, so it doesn't even matter, does it?" He challenged.

Her brows knitted together and she had to use both of her hands to push him away. "Out. You cheated."

His jaw dropped in pure disbelief.

She perfectly affected seriousness, crossing her arms and raising one brow intimidatingly.

He glared at her and had no choice to oblige, remaining just outside the glass door.

"You're so annoying, Rosie." He called.

The redhead grinned, self-satisfied.

"I'm going to miss your weird freckly face."

She rolled her eyes. He was so (adorably) immature sometimes. "I'm going to miss your weird pointy face."

"I love you," He said once again, reaching for the handle.

Rose held a hand up. "You can't come in."

"I said the password!" Scorpius looked downright offended.

"I changed it. Just now." Her tone was joking, but he knew to play along.

"You're kidding me." He deadpanned.

"I'm not kidding you. So, figure it out or give up." She said simply.

"No. I changed it too, just now."

"You can't do that!"

"I just did!"

She huffed. "Fine. What's the password?"

"Be my girlfriend."

Their eyes met and their smiles rivaled each other for the brightest the world had ever seen.

Rose scoffed playfully. "That was the right answer anyway."

A/N: My filename for this was "Only for Mandy would I write a het at three in the morning", because it's true. Only for her.

(I'll make a slash convert of you yet. XD)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE :)

As always Please review and favorite if you liked it :D

Till next time,

KitKat Pyrophobia