As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

-Graduation By: Vitamin C-

I sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Lauren and Kelly, with my final exam reviews plastered in front of my face.

Lauren let out a loud snort of laughter as she flipped her long blonde hair, "Well nice to see you too Rose."

"Ah huh." I muttered distractedly.

"Rose you already got into the program you wanted….you can slow down." Lauren told me.

I shook my head. "If I don't get all O's they could take a way the offer. They are offering it to the valedictorian of our class."

"Kelly don't you think she should take a break?" Lauren asked not even looking at Kelly.

Kelly wasn't much help to Lauren for support as she was currently ignoring her boyfriend as she re-read her astronomy notes. "Nope."

"You two!" Lauren sighed in irritation; "I'm going to go to my dorm where people actually think about things other than studying until their brains rot out!"

"Have fun." I told her as I turned the page of my book.

Someone slipped into the seat next to her and put their books on the table next to mine. I didn't look up. I did when a hand slipped into mine and intertwined their fingers with mine.

"You're aware that not only the whole hall can see you, but that you're spitting in the face of every Slytherin by doing this." I told him without a hint of surprise.

Lately he didn't give a shit who saw us together. I guess now that Quidditch season was officially over he had no reason to hold back. And half the time I wasn't sure if he was doing it for my benefit or his own. One thing for sure was the Slytherin table didn't look too pleased. They looked absolutely revolted that one of the best of them had sunk to being with me. Then again they looked no more pleased than the Gryffindor's who were now forced to endure his inflexible presence.

Scorpius's hard gray eyes gave no sign of comprise. "We're together."

"I know…" I decided to move on and not even bother to fight him. If he wanted to bring on the wrath of his whole house that was his decision. "What are you working on?"

"Potions."

"Well can you please pass the pancakes?"

He did and he also handed me the plate of maple syrup.

"Now how did you know I wanted maple syrup?"

Scorpius gave me a dirty look. "Are you kidding? You lather your food in it. I'm surprised you aren't 3,000 pounds."

"Well my thighs have been feeling thick since last game." I told him teasingly. "I don't get much exercise you know."

"Any help I can provide, you know I'm all for you health." He whispered subtly, his tone entirely inappropriate for the lunch table.

I elbowed him under the table and I heard the students around us grow quiet to hear our conversation.

Once breakfast was over, we separated. He left for the library while I went with Lauren to my common room. For all her talk about relaxing, she really got down to it when she needed to. I guess her mother's last threatening Owl did the trick to get her into gear. We poured over transfiguration for hours before we stopped for dinner. My eyes started doing this weird thing were they would be so unfocused and then all of a sudden they would snap back to attention. That was the point where I decided to break for the night with studying. At dinner Kelly was still cramming for her exam even though it was a week away. I didn't even bother to try to tell her to take a break. Kelly was the sweetest person, until it came to academics. Something about the pressures of school made her snap into this bitchy little girl who would slit your throat if you so much as touched her lucky quill.

Scorpius sat over at the Slytherin table, so I spent most of dinner talking to Lily. It was a nice conversation. Then again we never really had to try to find things to talk about. Lily always seemed to know the most lavish gossip. I don't know where she gets half of her information, but I do know that she's the type to check her sources before she spreads the news. When she was in the middle of telling me about this Ravenclaw fifth year we both stopped talking. Why? Because Albus walked into the Great Hall and instead of going straight to the Gryffindor table like he should have, he lingered in the middle.

Lily furrowed her eyebrows. "What is he doing now?...You know I feel like he's on drugs or something."

"Lily!" I snapped disapprovingly. "That's your brother!"

"When is the last time he even remotely cared about anyone else?" She shook her freshly curled ginger hair, "The minute I see him go back to the way he was I will start treating him like my brother."

Lauren let out a low whistle from across the table. "Well Lily you might get your chance, because he's heading towards the Slytherin table…"

I stood up, and so did a handful of other people. No one wanted to miss this.

Albus tapped Scorpius on the shoulder. Scorpius, who was a moment earlier sipping his water and making flashcards for charms, glanced up angry at the interruption. When he saw who it was the anger grew and Lily grabbed my arm to stop me from going over there.

"Let it play out." She told me.

And I did

Albus cleared his throat furiously. "I apologize, for what I did to you."

"What?"

Even from a hundred feet away, I could see Albus gritting his teeth. "I apologize."

"For what?" Scorpius asked, turning to face him, with a malicious look on his face.

"What I did to you." Albus repeated vaguely.

Scorpius inclined his head. "Yes, you said that. What part?"

"The part…" Albus paused as he seemed to be trying to control his temper. "Where I erased your memory and helped Rachel. I apologize."

Scorpius gave him one last look and then looked across the room at me. I could tell he wanted to tell him to shove it up his ass. But instead he scowled and replied, "Fine."

You know when they say it's so quiet you can hear a pin drop? It was literally that quiet. Everyone watched and listened as Albus walked away from Scorpius, shot me a significant look and left the hall entirely. The noise rushed back into the place I let out a sigh of relief.

"I sooo thought they were going to fight." I breathed to Lily.

She smiled, this small secretive smile that I didn't trust for a minute.

I lowered into my seat and gave her suspicious look. "What?"

"I don't see it."

"See what?"

"What it is that apparently make men go crazy." Lily informed me, "You seem normal, but you have this power."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "I guess."

"No I'm serious. That situation wouldn't have happened at all if it weren't for you. A year ago Albus would have punched Scorpius. Scorpius, and his band of Slytherin's would have turned around and beat the crap out of him."

I frowned. She was right.

"But, you mean so much to both of them that they both, put that entirely aside for you." Lily gave me a look.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying maybe you should forgive Albus for what he's done and really be appreciative of Scorpius…It took a lot of balls to walk over there. And it took even more for Scorpius not to seize the opportunity to squash him."

Everyone rose, as dinner was over, but I lingered for a bit. Lily's words stayed with me longer than they should have. I rose from my seat and walked over to Scorpius. But I was surprised to see not only he didn't wait for me, but the minute he did see me he sped up so I couldn't catch up with him. What was with him?

He wasn't in the common room or his room, so I thought I should look for him. I looked in the kitchens in the library before I finally checked the Astronomy tower. He looked absolutely murderous when he saw me. I was shocked, what the hell had I done?

"What?"

"What was that?" He spat pointing down the stairs. "Was that some sort of test to make sure I was in line?"

I was completely clueless as to what I was talking about. "Scorpius, what are you talking about?"

"THAT DISPLAY IN THE GREAT HALL!" He roared enraged.

"…I didn't tell him to do that!"

He shot me a nasty look of disbelief. "Sure you didn't."

"I told him that if he ever wanted a chance for us to be friends again he had to own up and apologize to you." I said defensively, "I never told him to strut up to you in the Great hall and do that."

"Well you as good as did." He scoffed angrily; he took a step down so he was mere inches from my face. "Did you even think of the consequences that would have? The Slytherin house already loathes me. Do you have any idea what this is doing to my reputation?"

That did it. I tried to stay level headed. I tried to not fly off the handle and get upset, but at the mention of his precious reputation. "I never told you to come out about us. I never told you to sit with me at lunch or to hold my hand in between classes. I never told you to be nice to Albus, and you certainly didn't have to say anything to him when he came over to you. I did however tell him to apologize. He didn't have to take it, and he didn't have to do it the way he did it. The exact same way you didn't have to respond or take his forgiveness at all. All I wanted was for him to own up to it. You deserved an apology whether you wanted to hear it or not." I gritted my teeth as I glared at him. "Now I personally apologize if that was offensive to you. I will work on being damaging to your reputation." My voice grew more hateful with each and every word. "As for the opinion of the Slytherin house. I think you already shot that horse in the face. So if you want to fix the opinions of three hundred people in the three weeks you have left of school, be, my, guest."

He grabbed my arm as I moved to leave.

"What?" I snapped, tears sprouting up in my eyes. "Have anything else you'd like to share? Or do you not want me to leave upset because it might ruin you're reputation?"

Scorpius visibly was shaken by my words. I could see the tears whiling up in his own eyes as his jaw grew tight with regret. "I didn't mean…I'm sorry…I shouldn't have…"

"No, you shouldn't have and I'm really sick of this. Either you don't care what they think or you do." I told him, bluntly crying. "I get shit from my house too, but have you ever heard me say a word about it? No, because I love you and I don't care about anything else."

"I'm sorry."

My lip started trembling, "Do you want to know why I came after you in first place?"

"Why?"

"Lily said I should appreciate you more because you put everything aside for me." I starred up at him from my facefull of tears. "So I came… to thank you."

That broke him, he put his hands on my shoulders, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry. I should've…I won't do it again…I'm sorry."

Then I broke down. I couldn't even turn away from him. I was so stressed out from everything that's been going on that this was just the last straw. His arms circled around me and we both gradually moved to the floor. He cradled me into his lap as I cried hard into his shoulder. I could feel he was crying too and we began to hold each other tighter and tighter until it was like we became one big crying mess. Finally after however long we both calmed down. It was weird I never expected to see him cry, but I guess we were both at that point where if we were just pushed a little bit farther we would lose it.

As we wiped our faces I clung onto him and he clung onto me. We were so tired, that we both fell asleep right there. When we woke a few hours later we were both sore from the uncomfortable positions.

"Hey," I frowned softly swiping his hair off his face.

"Hi," He whispered back with a small smile.

I let out a sigh. "What time is it?"

"Midnight…and we were supposed to rounds three hours ago…" He groaned.

"Well nothing we can do about that now. I doubt they'd even care. No one will be out right now. Everyone's too busy cramming for finals."

He pushed himself up to his feet and pulled me up alongside him. His cloudy eyes flashed with regret as he saw my puffy cheeks. "I really am sorry for yesterday."

"Yeah me too." I sighed, not having the energy to say anything further.

Scorpius wrapped his arm around my shoulder lightly kissed my forehead before we started walking back to our dorm. Wordlessly he followed me back to my room and waited for me to change and brush my teeth before crawling into bed with me. As I laid on his chest I felt a jagged scar perk up just below the left side of his rib cage. Curiously, I sat up and starred at it.

"Where'd you get that?"

His face grew dark and I watched as he fought with himself. Before he finally gave in and said. "When I was younger I got into a fight with my father."

"For what it's worth…He seems proud of you." I told him quietly. "Maybe not of your choice of girlfriend. But he seemed really proud of how you've done career wise."

"Yeah, well either way I don't give much stock to what my father thinks."

I frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"You don't speak to your father."

I shrugged, "That's different."

"Why?" He questioned me softly.

"Because my dad would rather hold onto his pride than his daughter." I looked into his eyes sadly. "Whereas your dad…despite however he raised you or what he's done seems to sincerely regret what he's done."

Scorpius carefully brushed my hair out of my face. "What makes you think that?"

"When he was shoving your position in my face…there was hint of pride mixed in there that I recognized. He loves you. He just has no idea what to do about it."

He smirked and he quoted, "You have a heart you just have no idea how to use it."

I smiled; he was quoting me to me. "Well you had to get something else from your father besides your good looks." I told him honestly.

"My what?"

I shook my head. "I'm honestly not even in the mood for that."

"Okay okay." He raised his hands defensively.

"I'm just saying. He may never win a father of the year award, but if he tries maybe you should give it a minute before you shut him down."

He eyed me. "What if he tells me to dump you?"

"Well first of all, I'm sure he's done that a million times already. And secondly, he's your father. No matter what he's important to you, and this point he's more important than me." I cupped his face. "Promise me you'll think about it."

His hand held mine passing warmth from the tips of his fingers to mine. "Why is it so important to you?"

"Because I don't want you to be married with kids in twenty years and be mad at yourself for not even opening yourself up to the possibility."

"You really do care don't you?"

I nodded, "Of course I do. No matter what happens. I will always care about you."

"Promise?" He stuck out his thumb knowingly.

I laughed and linked my thumb with his. "Always."

Then I proceeded to fall back on my pillow and encased me in his arms. I fell into a deep sleep. Scorpius woke me in the morning by nuzzling my neck.

"Come on." He whispered.

I groaned and climbed under my pillow exhaustedly. "What?"

"We have class and you have to turn in your end of the year project." He reminded me.

I squinted up at him with a yawn. "How do you know that?"

"I've seen your planner." He told me dryly as got up off the bed and reached for his shirt. I stopped him sleepily.

"Can't you just go to class like that?"

Scorpius's eyebrows rose with a worn smile. "Just in my boxers?"

"Mhmm…" I muttered rolling over and pulling him into my arms. I put my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. "Let's not go."

"As much as I would love to stay here," He started his voice laced with amusement. "We have to get up."

I groaned and put my whole body on top of his with my eyes still closed. "How about now?"

"We still have to go." He laughed, causing his body shake underneath mine.

"No…Let's stay." I bent down and began to kiss him, after a few minutes of this he was entirely convinced.

Raw passion began to drive him and I remembered what he had said earlier about my pajama's being flimsy. His hands roamed over my body possessively as nothing drove us but adrenaline and pure lust. We wouldn't have stopped, but right before we were fully naked I heard a voice downstairs shout up. I was beyond livid. Why Kelly? Why couldn't you have just gone to class?

Pulling myself off of Scorpius I whipped on my shirt and some shorts and rushed to the door to head Kelly off. "Yes?" I asked shutting the door behind me.

"You weren't at breakfast." She replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well…come on. We're going to be late."

I wanted to yell and scream, but cute little Kelly had no clue. She didn't see the messy hair, inside out shorts and loose shirt and think anything of it. But I wasn't going to leave Scorpius half naked in my bed.

"I'll meet you there."

"I can wait." She told me cheerfully.

I shook my head. "I'll meet you there."

"No, really it's no problem."

I let out a sigh. She really wasn't going to let this go. Kelly was going to make me say it. Oh god…why? I laughed under my breath as I felt so incredibly uncomfortable. How did this become my life? I couldn't exactly lie to her and every attempt to just avoid her was just being shot down. So what did she really leave me with? The truth.

So I bluntly said to her, "Kelly would you mind meeting me there? I would love to go with you, but Scorpius is half naked in my bed and I'd like to spend sometime with him before class."

Her brown eyes became as wide as saucers. "Oh…Oh… I'm so sorry. I didn't realize when you were….I'm gonna just go. I'll see you…later." She then practically ran down the rest of the steps and out of my common room.

As I walked back into my room, I broke into hysterical laughter. Scorpius didn't seem as amused. He was zipping on his pants when I reached him. "I love that you find this funny…"

"What do you want me to do?" I asked him still laughing lightly. "I tried to get her to leave nicely and she wouldn't get it. I'm not happy, but I'm not mad either. She didn't mean anything by it."

He sighed, but didn't say anything as he grabbed his shirt.

"Come on don't be mad."

"Well, now I'm going to be late to class. Which was fine when I thought I would get something out of it. But now…" He shook his head and kissed my forehead. "I'll see you later."

I groaned and moved to stop him, "Scorp-"

But he moved out of my reach and went to his room. After letting out an irritated sigh I fell back on my bed in agony. After a few minutes I got dressed, grabbed a granola bar and ran to class. I was fifteen minutes late, but my teacher didn't say anything. It was then that I realized Kelly must have told her I would be late. If that was or wasn't true though I would never know because Kelly wouldn't look at me. I don't think she was mad I think she was just severally embarrassed. Which would definitely fade in time.

Until then I focused on my schoolwork. I turned in all of my work, finished the last of the prefect rounds schedule and even started writing my graduation speech. After all that was finished I wandered outside. I had an hour until dinner and I felt the need to get out and relax. It was weird how genially nice it was outside. The air smelled so strongly of spring that I couldn't help, but walk around on the grounds. Several other people had the same idea. Some were playing sports, some were studying, and some were just sleeping. Scorpius was sitting by the tree by the lake. His pant legs were rolled up and his feet were floating ever so slightly in the water.

I came up to him and sat down next to him. "Well hello."

"Hi," He narrowed his eyes at me half-heartedly.

"What are you doing?"

"I was relaxing."

I frowned at him playfully. "You still mad?"

"Nope, I just learned that you are a tease."

I let out a short laugh at that. "Oh, I am?"

"Yep." He smirked, unable to hold it back any longer.

"Well..." I leaned forward so he could see down my shirt while cupped handful of water with my other hand. "I'm sorry you think that."

Unashamedly, his eyes lingered, but before I could throw the water at me he caught my arm with a knowing expression. "You don't think I know what you're up to?"

"Ugghhh." I laughed guiltily.

Then without another word he threw my bag behind the tree and tossed me in the lake. I was drenched, and I was wearing white.

"SCORPIUS MALFOY!" I shouted furiously.

He bent over he was laughing so hard. "Nice polka dot bra."

That did it. I bolted over to him and managed to wrestle him into the water. It was quite a fight as he was almost twice as strong as me, but I managed to use all of my body weight to lobby his in. As we thrashed around in the water we couldn't help laughing hysterically at each other and we made the most ridiculous faces as we tried to one up each other in the water. Somehow, he managed to lift me, but it was weird because one of my legs was on his shoulder while the other was on his hip.

His face was dripping as he grinned at me, "You gonna stop?"

I shook my head with a grin of my own. "Never!"

Then he threw me around until it grew dark and we both were tired. And then instead of going straight to dinner we laid together on the tree by the lake to dry off. As I shivered he pulled me closer and pressed his lips to my forehead as he held me securely in his arms.

Later on in the week we were fitted for our graduation robes, it felt too soon. Kelly started crying when she saw me in mine, which almost made me cry. Lauren, being the tough bird she was told us to get it together we weren't to the end yet.

The next week it got even worse. I spent every possible minute with Lauren, Kelly and Scorpius. Although, we all were cramming for our exams I made sure to make time for each one of them. Once exams were over though it was a free for all. We had a week until graduation and we used every single second we could.

Scorpius took my hand in his as we did rounds for the last time. "So."

"So." I repeated back at him.

"We should probably talk."

My intestines tightened at the seriousness of his tone. "Yeah…"

I knew eventually we would have to have this talk. The all or nothing talk and I guess it was wise to do it before graduation. We probably should end the school year the way we are going to spend the summer, but I really didn't want him to be sensible. It wasn't smart for us to stay together if he was going to America in the fall, but I didn't want to give up hope. That little seven year old in me, that fairytale loving girl, had come back sometime during the process of this relationship and I didn't want to beat down her so easily.

"I think we should try it." He declared finally. "I know it won't be easy…but I think we'll regret it more if we don't at least try it."

My face broke into a huge smile, then I impulsively pinned him to the nearest wall and kissed him, hard. When I pulled away I was still beaming. "That was exactly the right answer."

"I have to say," He admitted sheepishly as rested his hands on my shoulders. "I thought you were going to fight me."

My eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why?"

"You're so practical." He shrugged.

I cupped his face. "I told you no matter what, I'm here. It will take more than this to break us up."

"Promise?" He mocked getting out his thumb.

I waved it away forced him to look at me, my face entirely serious. "I mean it. I love you and I'm going to do everything I can to keep this going."

"I will too," His voice grew intensely resolute. Then, his hands held mine as I continued to cup his face. "I love you."

"I love you too."

The day of my graduation had come so quickly that I was unnerved to find it was already here.

On my desk, all my acceptance letters sat, neatly folded together. I was accepted into 10 of the 11 programs I applied for. But I still had no idea what field I wanted to go into. That could wait till the summer. I just had to decide before August. For now I had to think about my graduation speech. I finished most of it, but I still needed a closing statement. Something that would get to my graduating class and encourage them for the future. Unfortunately, sweepingly uplifting statements didn't just come to me. Scorpius had finished his last night and I was fairly sure it was only a paragraph long. But then again that fit him, short, to the point. Mine was just destined to be long winded.

Finally after hours of staring at a blank piece of parchment I finally finished it. I placed it on top of all of my acceptance letters and finished packing. It only took a matter of minutes, but once I was finished I found myself crying. I was going to miss this room. I'd only spent a year in it, but it had been kind to me. It had taken me in, comforted me in my moments of weakness, and supported me through everything. And now I would leave and probably never see it again. I hugged my bed and pocketed my wand. House elves were going to come get my luggage, so I left it all the beginning of the door and I stuck all of the letters in my purse. Starring at my clean and empty room, I frowned.

"Bye room." I whispered before walking down the stairs.

I then spent the rest of the morning walking around the castle by myself saying goodbye to all of my favorite places. I even made sure to say goodbye to the kitchen house elves that I had spent so many nights baking with. They all hugged me and it almost made me cry, but I held on. It was going to be a long day if I started crying now.

What people don't get is that even if you return to a place it doesn't mean the same as when you were there originally. Everything doesn't feel the same, and it's not just that the place has changed over time it's also that you as a person have changed as well. And as I told Tinky not to cry, I knew I didn't want to change.

"You okay?" Scorpius asked as we walked up to the Astronomy tower for the last time.

"Yeah," I smiled exhaustedly, "It's just…I know I'm going to cry, and I'm trying to avoid it as hard as I can."

His eyebrows furrowed, he didn't get it. "You'll still see everyone after Hogwarts."

"Yeah, but it will be different. I don't want it to. I like the way things are now." I told him as we reached the top and sunlight warmly grazed our faces.

"Anyone that's worth being in your life will find a way to be in it." He told me as he wrapped his arm around me.

As I eased into his chest, I hoped he was right. We looked across the grounds that had been our home for seven years. For a few minutes we stood there both of us just going through our memories.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him softly.

"Just…stuff…Do you remember the first time you met me?"

I frowned and shook my head. "No."

"We were on the train." He told me, "You were sitting with either Kelly or Lauren….and I ran into you."

I blinked trying to remember that and then it hit me and I smiled. "I called you a jerk."

"And instead of apologizing I just pushed you."

"And then James and Albus came over and beat you up." I laughed clutching his shoulder.

His eyes sparkled; the light caught his gray eyes making them almost look blue. "That's how I met my friends…they helped clean me up and gave me a seat on the train."

"Really?" I murmured. "I never knew that."

"We better go, we have to change."

I nodded and gave the view one last look before going down the stairs.

Lauren, Kelly and I got ready together in the 7th Gryffindor girls common room. Kelly could barely contain herself and I had a hard time not letting it get to me. But I refused to cry before my speech so I just kept them talking about other things.

"Are you excited for your internship Lauren?" I asked as I finished up my eye make up.

She shrugged as she finished straightening her long blonde hair. "Yeah I guess so…I mean I didn't really want to go into Magical Law Enforcement, but maybe I'll like it or maybe I can transfer to something else when I'm done."

"That's a good way to think about it." I commended her for not using her usual negative perspective. I nudged little Kelly as wiped the smudges of mascara from her cheeks. "What about you?"

She sniffed. "Oh I'm excited to start being a Healer. I can't wait to help people."

Lauren laughed and walked over to Kelly, her flip-flops clicking the whole way. "Oh Kell, please stop crying. It's not like you aren't going to see us again."

"I know…" She half sobbed as we went on either side of her and hugged her. "I just…I hate this. I love you guys."

"Aww honey." I said, "We love you too."

Lauren snorted, "Now, you need to fix your blue robes and get it together or you're going to have to put your make up on all over again."

Kelly nodded obediently and went into the bathroom.

Lauren sat with me on her bed and we both silently started crying. I rested my head on her shoulder, and the ends of our scarlet robes mingled together. I laughed despite myself.

"I thought you said we had to get it together." I said.

Lauren wiped the tears that had leaked out with a grin, "We won't tell her." She promised as we let ourselves cry a little.

"We are officially graduated." I announced a few hours later, as I stood on a podium in front of 200 hundred people with my tassle constantly flicking in front of my face.

"We are officially adults, which means ten, fifteen or twenty years from now we will look back on these years. Whether we laugh, cry or cringe, the days ahead are the ones that count. Who we were will never fade entirely, but who we will become will become more important. So I invite each and every one of you to take a moment. See where you want your future to go, and take it."

Everyone from the crowd started clapping and I moved aside as Scorpius took the podium. He looked positively striking in his green robes. His face was serious, but I couldn't help to stare at the triangle of freckles that lingered only a few inches above his pointed chin. I was so proud of him. I was so proud of all of us.

"Rose is right," He started bravely, "Today we decide. We decide what career we want, where we want to live, who we want to be. And we should take that opportunity to decide for ourselves. We should date the wrong people, we should get lost. We should take chances, and we should never regret doing so, because making mistakes are what make us unique and human and it's also what makes us who we were."

Then he starred out impassively out to his peers and walked off the podium and over to me. As the Headmaster was about to speak, Scorpius, wrapped his arms around me and in front of the entire student body dipped me into a kiss.

I heard a few boo's but overall applause rang out in the crowd cutting the headmaster's speech short.

Once Scorpius released me, I chuckled at him and then ran over to my family. Lily, Roxanne, Victoire, Ted, Hugo, James and even Albus crowded around me in a family huddle. I felt flashes of camera lenses as I had the whole day, but somehow they seemed brighter when I was hugging Hugo and Lily. When we were done I turned and hugged my Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry.

My Uncle ruffled my hair affectionately despite the graduation cap. "Good job kiddo."

"Thanks Uncle Harry."

I then, searched for my parents. My mother was crying into my father's shoulder and he too looked like he'd been shedding some tears.

"Oh ma!" I took her into my arms, "I love you."

"I know…I'm being silly…I'm just so proud of you."

I beamed, "Well thank you."

For a second my father and I eyed each other, before I just threw away all of my previous anger and threw my arms around him.

He was surprised so it took him a minute to react, but eventually his arms came around me.

"I love you daddy."

"I love you too sweetheart."

Then the photo shoot began. I took a picture with my mom, with my dad, with my mom and my dad, with each one of my cousins and with all of them together. When Albus took the picture with me he incased me in a big hug that I didn't expect. When I took the picture with James however he insisted that I jump on his back and pretend to be flying. I don't know why, but I went with it. But my favorite was with Hugo. Before we even took the picture I could see how proud of me he was reflected in his big brown eyes. His arm wrapped around my shoulder, and I rested my head against his shoulder in a picture I knew I'd frame for years to come.

Next came the pictures with all of my friends. I took one with anyone that asked me too, but I took about a thousand with Kelly and Lauren. We did everything from casual, where we would be striking poses and carrying each other, to the single shots of me holding one or both of them with the most natural smile on my face.

I thought I had gotten everyone when I saw someone stand out from the crowd.

I looked at Aidan, and saw everything we had been through. I wanted to apologize for everything, to hug him goodbye and to wish him for the best with everything. But somehow the words died on my lips. Somehow we'd come so far that it didn't seem like those words needed to be spoken anymore Instead I just smiled at him and turned back over to my family. Sometimes it's just best to leave something in the past where they belong.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I was astounded to find the tapper was none other than Draco Malfoy.

"I came to apologize for what I said to you," He told me in a very refined voice, as his extraordinarily beautiful wife held his hand.

I nodded curtly, "I appreciate that."

"It's nice to meet you Rose." Mrs. Malfoy held out her delicate hand and I shook it ecstatically.

"The pleasure is all mine Mrs. Malfoy." I answered politely.

Mrs. Malfoy subtly elbowed her husband and he rolled his eyes and continued. "I also would like to thank you for whatever you said to my son."

"What do you mean?"

"He's been trying to keep in touch more, and he said it had something to do with something you said." Mrs. Malfoy intervened smoothly, her raven hair brushing her face elegantly.

I blushed, "Well I merely suggested he appreciate what he has, if he's done that then I'm glad."

"Dad…Mum?" Scorpius muttered incredulously, his face matching my earlier shock. "What are you-?"

"We're meeting your girlfriend sweetie."

"Ah…Okay." He froze nervously, his face switching from confused to impassive.

My mother stepped forward and took out her camera with a knowing look on her face. "Would you two like a picture together?"

"Yes, thanks mum."

Scorpius put his arm around my shoulder and I snaked my arm around his waist. "So how weird is this?" He muttered under his breath.

"On a scale from 1- not so weird, to 5- incredibly horrifyingly weird?...I'd give it a 4.5."

I felt his hot laughter on my neck as his parent's scooted over. I could see them and my family giving each other looks, but for once neither said anything. "I'd give it a straight up five."

My mother held up the camera, "Okay you two, I'm going to take three. Ready?"

I laughed shortly; my jaw was beginning to get sore from all the smiling. "Yeah mum."

For the first one we smiled and for the second one she got a shot of me holding him in a headlock as he tried to pick me up. In the last one, she took a picture of us beaming as he held me bridal style. Both of our hats had fallen on the ground and my robes were caught on his belt, but it was great.

When he put me down, we disentangled ourselves and I looked at him. Finally he saw me perfectly for what I was, selfish, impatient, distrustful, career oriented and utterly stubborn and set in my ways. And he still loved me. A part of me felt that we needed our hearts to be broken. If we didn't how would we ever truly know how deep our love went? And how would we ever feel so irrevocably human? To lose each other and test each other as we did made us suffer, which made us appreciate each other when we were with each other. If we didn't hurt we wouldn't have appreciated anything and then we might have written our relationship off as a fluke. So in the end I have to thank Albus, Rachel and Aiden for what they did. Although….I will never say that to their faces.

Authors Note:

I love each and every one of you. I hope you enjoyed this, and will be pleased to hear that it will have a sequel. This story is dedicated to everyone who has read this. I hope this gives you guys hope, when your down and you can remember that yes life can suck, but you can turn it around...in a non Barbie movie way lol.