It All Happened in September – Chapter 3

September 2032: Rose is 25

Rose tried to close her eyes and forget her nervousness, but it was difficult to relax when Dominique Weasley was tugging at her hair, using all sorts of charms to transform her usual waves into more elaborate curls.

"Why d'you have to be so rough, Dom?" Rose asked wearily through half-closed eyes. Without even looking, she knew that her cousin was rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Why? Why? Because your hair is stubborn, woman!" Dominique said shrilly, and tugged at her hair again. "And we don't have much time!"

No, time was a thing they didn't have; Dominique had a point there. They were expected in less than an hour and Rose still wasn't dressed for the occasion. Still, she would feel less stressed about the whole situation if Dominique wasn't oozing panic from every one of her perfect pores.

The door behind them opened quietly and Rose cracked an eye open to see if she could see who was entering using the reflection of the mirror which sat in front of her. The angle wasn't quite right, so all she could see was her robes hanging on the back of the door.

Dominique turned to the door and let out a gasp. "You can't be in here!" She exclaimed in a scandalised tone. "Get out!"

Rose frowned. There was only one person those words could apply to. Her spirits lifted slightly just knowing he was near, even though she knew that there was no way that Dominique was going to allow him any closer.

"Relax, Dom," Scorpius said in the playful, mocking voice that Rose had come to know so well. "What difference does it make?"

"What difference?" Dom squealed, in a way that was rather unbecoming of her. "It's her wedding day!"

Rose noticed the door open wider and she could now see her fiancé's hand propping it open.

"Oh, right…" Scorpius drawled, and Rose could practically hear the smirk. "Well, how about I Obliviate myself after I leave the room, eh?"

And with that, he strode into the room, and taking the hairbrush from Dominique's hand and came to stand behind Rose. "Why don't you go and get yourself ready, Dom?" He asked pleasantly, resting a hand atop Rose's head gently. "I'll look after the bride until you get back." His voice held the quiet authority that Rose had learned to associate with those in the Malfoy family. It wasn't said in a menacing way, but carried a quiet undertone, which made it quite clear that it was an order, not a request.

Dominique glanced briefly at Rose, who had yet to speak. They made eye contact in the mirror, and then Rose slowly closed her eyes in relaxation, which Dom took as a signal of Rose's contentment with the situation. She huffed and flounced out of the room, closing the door with a snap.

There was silence. Rose finally spoke, still with her eyes closed. "She won't be gone long, you know," she said.

Scorpius snorted as he began to gently brush out her long waves. "I know. And she'll probably bring back the entire Weasley army to frog-march me out of here and to the altar."

Rose's lips twitched into a smile. She already felt her nerves slipping away as the sensation of the brush running through her hair smoothly felt like a comforting caress. She exhaled loudly.

"Calm now, love?" Scorpius asked, planting a soft kiss on the crown of her head, and then resting his head upon hers for a short while before returning to the steady brushing.

Rose nodded. "Much better," she agreed. "Dom was just getting me more worked up by the minute. One day she'll realise my hair doesn't curl like she wanted it to. I'm not Mum."

"Thank Merlin for that!" Scorpius said with a grin. He kissed her head again, and this time Rose turned her head to capture his lips.

"I thank Merlin for a lot of things," Rose said, taking his hand and tracing patterns over his fingers. "I thank Merlin that they found a counter-curse for our parents, I thank Merlin that we stopped fighting at school, and I thank Merlin that I agreed to marry a certain Malfoy."

"Wait, you're marrying my father?" Scorpius exclaimed, and Rose swatted him playfully.

"Be serious."

"I always am," he insisted. He sat down on the low dresser in front of Rose's chair and took her hands in his. "Rosie, " he said quietly, "I'm so glad they succeeded in finding the counter curse. I'll forever be grateful for that, because I love my dad. But somehow I feel oddly grateful that they were cursed too, because that's what brought me closer to you, and I couldn't be more grateful for that." He kissed her knuckles and looked up into her eyes, which were glistening with unshed tears.

"Scor…" she said hoarsely. She could never fathom out how this boy – now this man – managed to make her feel emotions like this. She had never been in love with anyone else, but she couldn't imagine feeling this way about anyone else. It was always him.

"Shh, you don't have to say anything," he said. Then he reached into his pocket. "There was something I wanted to give you before we did this," he said, pulling out a slim red envelope and a ruby-coloured velvet box.

"I didn't know we were exchanging presents," Rose said, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"We're not," he replied with a gentle shrug. "But I was looking through some old photograph albums the other week and I found these." Handing her the envelope, he waited for her to open it.

Out slid three photographs; all moving, and all looking rather dated now. Rose looked at the images. In the first one, a blonde haired boy was running around under a tree in a park, giggling wildly. Rose grinned.

"Was that you?"

Scorpius nodded. "I know, I was devastatingly handsome even then," he said with a wink. "Look at the next ones."

She shuffled through to the next photograph and squinted at it. There was a box of sand in the same park, and young Scorpius was in it, accompanied by a small girl. The girl licked her hand and held it out to Scorpius, who backed away in horror.

"Who is that?" Rose asked curiously. Scorpius gestured to her to look at the last photograph. It was a zoomed-in version of the one before; this time, however, the young Scorpius was eating a cherry, watched avidly by the little girl. For a second, the girl seemed to look straight at the camera as if she knew it was there, and Rose gasped. She recognised that face.

"That's … is that me?" she asked in astonishment, glancing up at Scorpius in shock. "What was I doing there?"

Scorpius smiled up at her. "I didn't remember either, to be honest," he admitted. "But I got Mother to tell me the story of the little girl with the cherries, in the sand pit. She says I told her all about the girl with the funny colour hair, who knew about Hogwarts, who said she would be my best friend, and who wouldn't eat cherry stones because –"

"—Mum said a cherry tree would grow in my tummy…" Rose murmured, looking down at the photographs once more. "So…we met for the first time…long before we met for the first time."

"Trust you to make it sound more complicated and poetic than it really is," Scorpius said with an amused shake of his head. "I just think it's strange how we bumped into each other all those years before Hogwarts, and then at school, crossed paths again and again…"

"It was meant to be."

"It was meant to be, love," he agreed. He held out the box to her. "Anyway, Dominique will no doubt be back soon, I've taken up too much of her time as it is, and you need to get a dress on, from what I've heard."

Rose took the box from his hand. It was suspiciously ring-sized. "A ring?" she said curiously, prising the box open.

It was a ring, but it was a beautifully simple and elegant ring. A single silver band, dotted with two rubies and an emerald. The rubies were set into a silver cherry-shaped casing with the emerald making up the stalk.

"Scor…" Rose whispered, looking up at her fiancé with wide eyes. "It's so beautiful."

"Like you," Scorpius said with a wink, and Rose rolled her eyes at the cheesy line. He leant forward and slipped the ring onto her right ring finger. "Gotta leave space for the one you're gonna get in a little while," he said with a grin. Kissing her forehead, he stood up. "Guess I'd better be going."

Rose bowed her head. She missed his close proximity to her already. "Don't forget to Obliviate yourself, love," she murmured.

Scorpius snorted. "As if I'm really going to do that. I want to remember every second of you."

Rose smiled weakly. The nervousness about what they were about to do was rapidly returning.

"I'll see you at the altar soon, love," Scorpius told her, stroking her hair. "This is what we want to do, remember?"

She nodded. "I know. I love you so much."

"And I love you too, Rosie." Bending down to whisper in her ear, he said. "I was made for lovin' you baby, you were made for lovin' me, and I can't get enough of you baby, can you get enough of me?"

Rose crinkled her face into a frown. "What was that?"

Her fiancé leaned back and shrugged nonchalantly. "Looks like my Muggle Studies NEWT paid off…I did a paper on Muggle rock music," he said casually. "1979, American rock band, called Kiss…"

Rose batted his arm playfully. "Show-off," she muttered, and Scorpius chuckled.

"Says the smart one," he retorted.

"Oh, shush."

Scorpius tapped her on the nose and then headed to the door. "Love you, Rosie-Pose!"

"Rosie-Pose?"

"Isn't it customary for married couples to have affectionate nicknames?"

Rose snorted softly. "Not like that."

Scorpius sighed theatrically. "Fi-iine," he said. "I'll be going now, then."

"'Kay," Rose mumbled. "See you soon, Scor,"

"See you in a minute, love!" he strolled out of the room, blowing kisses in an over-dramatic fashion, and Rose couldn't help but smile at her goofy boyfriend. He had mellowed a lot since he'd been the sarcastic, arrogant clone of his father at school, and she loved him for it.

And now she was going to marry him; the only boy she had hated…and the only man she had loved. Things had never felt so right. She thought back over the lyrics that Scorpius had whispered in her ear before leaving.

I was made for lovin' you baby,

You were made for lovin' me,

And I can't get enough of you baby,

Can you get enough of me?

The answer to that question was easy enough, because no, Rose could never get enough of Scorpius. And she was about to go and get married to the man, so she supposed that was just as well.

It began with a cherry, was followed by a curse and ended, quite fittingly, with a kiss. It wasn't an easy relationship, but it was our relationship, and the one piece of advice I always gave to our children was "Don't eat the cherry stones or a tree will grow in your belly."

A/N: So, I finally finished it! It's been a long time, and this is the first piece of fiction that I've written since Christmas, so I think I may have lost my touch a little. I don't think it's my best attempt at a final chapter, but it does include the final two prompts for the challenge. I would appreciate any reviews, don't be afraid to be honest! Thanks for reading this far, and hopefully I'll be back writing properly (and better) again in no time!

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Thanks again! Hugs! x