Disclaimer: Nope I don't own Harry Potter. Which is a shame, because it'd have gone Harmony if I did…
A/N: An idea I had just after reading DH to make right things after the crapilogue. Hope you'll like the story, and please if you read, review, thanks.
After The Night, Sun Shines
Chapter Fourteen: Tension
After receiving Rose's reply, Scorpius Malfoy was crushed. He barely left his room the few days before going back to school.
He couldn't believe she would so easily let go of their friendship. Probably she never really felt him as a friend, or something more like he did for her.
"No, this can't be" he reasoned, closing his trunk just before leaving. "I know what we shared, and I know for sure she at least felt friendship for me. She's just willing to let it go because she thinks I wouldn't be happy without my family" he told himself.
Yes, she was the kind of girl to be so thoughtful of others to put their well-being before her own. He had learned that.
As he went to platform 9 ¾ with his parents, he smiled sadly. If only she knew how happier he would be with her…
Once there, he never even searched for her. There would be time to talk, and clear things. Doing that in front of his parents would lead to no good.
Draco was proud of his son for not searching that Weasley girl. Maybe he had got through him, for once. At least, he hoped. He knew Scorpius wouldn't think twice about acting on his menace of leaving the family, if he decided so.
Sighing, the blonde man went back to Malfoy Manor.
As for Rose, she wasn't better than Scorpius. Hermione was worried about her, she didn't want to tell her mother what was troubling her. No one had been able to bring it out of her, she only reassured the two adults that it wasn't because of the two of them being together now, it was the thing that made her happy instead, or so she said.
Not even Kate, on the train, could get her to talk about it, and James was worried for his cousin. He had the feeling Scorpius Malfoy was behind it, and he would confront the boy once at the castle. If he had hurt her, he better be prepared for retaliation. He wasn't the grandson of James Potter, nor he was the nephew of George Weasley, for nothing.
After the feast, Scorpius found himself pinned to the wall by someone. Turning, he saw no one else than an enraged James Potter glaring at him.
"What did you do to her, Malfoy?"
"To who?" the blonde spat back.
"To Rose, who else! She's not herself anymore lately, she's always sad and won't tell anyone of us what's the problem. But I just know it's been you who made her this way"
Scorpius felt tears pricking at his eyes. He hadn't meant to make her sad or hurt her, he just thought wise to let her know what his father thought of the two of them being friends.
James was shocked to see the boy's reaction at his explanation.
"It's my fault" the Slytherin muttered. "I wrote her my father doesn't like us being friends, I wrote her I was ready to escape to not lose her friendship but she wrote me back it was better to call it off, because I wouldn't be happy if I left my family. If I knew she would hurt so much I wouldn't have said a thing to her and kept going on like everything was fine!"
James was taken aback. Yes, this was something Rose would do. When the Slytherin showed him the letter, he had to believe it for sure.
Scratching his neck, he made his apologies to the other boy.
"It's nothing. I would have reacted the same way" Scorpius shrugged. "Just, can you talk about me with her? Tell her I miss her company and would like for us to still be friends?"
"I don't know, Scorpius" James said, surprising them both. It was the first time he called him by his first name. "She storms away as soon as someone brings up your name these days. But I'll try"
The two smiled at each other, and shook their hands.
As the younger boy headed to his common room, James stood there, wondering how could he help those two find each other again. He wasn't a genius when it came to relationships but he was certain they fancied each other, and it wasn't right to have them kept apart for a stupid reason like that.
"I guess I'll have to ask Kate for help here" he said walking up the stairs of Gryffindor Tower, passing an hand through his hair.
Once Rose had gone to bed, he reunited Rob, Albus and Kate and explained them the situation. Then he asked them for suggestions on how to help them.
"There's little we can do" Kate reasoned. "Rose is a smart girl and will know if we try to manipulate her into talking to him, and that might endanger our own relationships with her, which is what we definitely need to avoid because she needs us all more than ever now"
James was frustrated. As usual she had been right but this left them with the problem. "So we do nothing?" he growled in annoyance.
"I fear it's the only right thing to do" she apologetically said. She knew how protective of his little cousin he was and that he wanted nothing more than to help her now.
"We can just hope Scorpius finds a way to talk to her on his own" Rob concluded. Everyone nodded, albeit James was far from happy with the result of their "meeting".
Days passed and Rose, smart as she was, managed to avoid Scorpius perfectly. That frustrated him to no end, and made him much more easy target for his fellow Slytherins' mean remarks, which more than once almost drove him to do something he would regret, like attacking them.
He felt powerless seeing the girl he fancied, and maybe more, grow more and more distant from him.
The boy had tried every approach he could think of, but she was always one step ahead. At breakfast she always sat facing the Slytherin table so she could see if he moved toward her and leave before he managed to reach her. In the library she always put herself in tables where she could see who was coming, so that she could hide if he was nearby, and in class she always sat on the other side of the room.
Albus tried leaving her alone in the corridors at times but she would not have it, and the only time he managed, Scorpius was too late and she started chatting with that Hufflepuff that had invited her to the Ball, Stephan Hoggler.
He barely had the time to hear her agreeing to go with him to the next Hogsmeade weekend before she entered the classroom.
The boy slumped his shoulders in defeat. She was truly doing her best to move on, and maybe he should too.
James kept encouraging him, though, and Scorpius decided he was right. He couldn't simply give up. A Malfoy never gave up so easily.
As for Rose, she was trying to get Scorpius out of her head. Really, she was trying. But he was still there. Every time she saw him her heart skipped a beat and she had to fight the urge to go and hug him and never let go. But she was doing it for his sake, after all.
She repeated that to herself like a mantra, and even if she was tearing her own heart apart she felt she was doing the right thing. She could go on, she could move on, but she could not tear a family apart to follow her heart's desire.
She would not be the cause of Scorpius being deprived of the love of his parents, not at such a young age.
So, she changed herself for bed, took her book and started reading, before stopping to look at the spot on her bedside where the picture of the two of them had been. She had left it at home before coming back to not be tempted to put it back in its place.
As she did, the emptiness for having lost her only true friend, and maybe more, filled her again, and she let the tears flow, sobbing quietly into her pillow, and crying herself to sleep, the book forgotten on the floor where it had fallen when she had hastily turned to muffle her sobs with the pillow.
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The school year was nearing its end and Rose was still avoiding Scorpius. They were now just two weeks before the fifth years would take their OWLs, and James was torn between studying with his girlfriend, having quality time with that same brunette, which he enjoyed much more than the studying, and which she always promised him as a reward after his efforts, and wanting to help Scorpius and Rose.
"I think I should just give up" the blonde said. "She's clearly not going to talk to me again"
"Don't. I have an idea, and if I can get my hands on a certain object, I'm sure this time you won't fail" James said, smugly.
"What are you talking about?" Scorpius asked, bewildered.
"That is for me to know and for you to find out. Meet me in the Room of Requirements, on the seventh floor, in four days time, after dinner" the Gryffindor fifth year replied, then walked away.
He hoped his father would borrow him what he had asked.
Four days later, Scorpius entered a room on the seventh floor he had never noticed being there. Shrugging he pushed the door open and inside he found James with a silvery thing in his lap, grinning at him.
"Scorpius, you're going to talk with Rose soon" he announced.
"What's that?" the blonde asked.
"This is my Dad's Invisibility Cloak" James explained, showing how it worked to the other boy.
"So you suggest I sneak on her?" the Slytherin answered, not convinced. She would surely hate him even more for that.
"It's the only way. She won't expect you to, and you'll be able to talk to Rose and convince her to talk to you again. Or at least, you'll be able to try" James said, giving the other boy one of his grins.
"Oh, well, it can't be worse than how it is now, so…" Scorpius said, taking the cloak.
"Perfect. I'll now give Albus a new sweet from my uncle George's shop and instruct him to eat it tomorrow morning at breakfast. He'll have to go to the Hospital Wing, and I'll casually be there to accompany him, leaving Rose alone in the corridors. That will be your cue. You'll need to be under the cloak all the time so she can't spot you from a distance, and possibly be ahead of her, too. It will make it easier"
Scorpius nodded at the instructions, they went over them a couple more times then they left, every one his own way.
"Hey, Potter" Scorpius suddenly called.
"What's up, Malfoy?"
"Thanks" he sincerely said. James nodded with a grin and vanished on the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.
The next morning, everything went as planned.
Albus got sick after eating that sweet, James was there to accompany him to be checked by Pomfrey, and he sternly opposed to Rose coming too. She was puzzled, but went to her first lesson, Transfiguration, alone.
Scorpius was already at the end of the stairs, and when she passed by him, he grabbed her wrist, pulling the cloak off of him. Her first instinct was to hex whoever had grabbed her, and so she did.
"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, and the jet of light barely missed Scorpius who had had the reflexes to move his head.
"Whoa, Weasley!" he cried, surprised. He and James hadn't expected that.
She realized who had grabbed her and what he had in his hand, and narrowed her eyes at him, getting angry at her cousins too. She would recognize her uncle's Invisibility Cloak everywhere.
"Get your hands off of me, Malfoy," she snarled, "if you don't want to be truly hexed this time"
"Rose, just let me talk" he pleaded, not releasing her wrist. She could see in his grey eyes he was miserable, and her heart broke at that.
But she couldn't let her weakness lead him to sorrow for leaving his family. She knew the Malfoys well enough to know it would be hell for him if he stayed there being her friend, and knew him well enough to know he wouldn't hesitate to leave.
"I warned you" she angrily spat. "Petrificus…" but she never finished spelling the charm.
She found herself pinned to the wall, Scorpius kissing her, finally releasing her wrist. She could have pushed him away if she wanted, but her arms laced around his neck, returning his kiss.
It grew deeper when he ran his tongue on her lips, and she let him in, meeting his tongue with her own, and moaning softly.
As they broke apart, she had a dazed look in her eyes, and he did too. He softly rested his forehead on hers.
"I think I love you, Rose Weasley, and I can't go on without you" he said. "Please, don't push me away"
"What about your family?" she whispered, searching his eyes for her answer.
"I don't care" he said. "They will be my family forever but if they can't accept my choices then we are better on separate ways" he added then, and she could see he meant every word he said.
"You're a great wizard, Scorpius Malfoy" she said before kissing him again.
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