Author's Notes: Next and final chapter as promised. I've been told it's rather fluffy so beware. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: The Return of French

Six Years Later

Scorpius Malfoy was trilingual. He could speak Spanish and Greek fluently, in addition to English. Not many people knew that about Scorpius Malfoy.

He was very contented in the fact that he knew three languages and did not desire to learn any other language at all.

That was until one fateful snowy day.

It was a wonderful December morning. Nice big grey clouds up in the Great Hall ceiling, white snow all over the outside. It looked like a wonderful winter greeting card.

As his Hogwarts years grew, Scorpius became best friends with Rose Weasley. The development of their friendship was most probably due to the fact that Rose wisely never mentioned the Victoire Disaster again to Scorpius until he was clearly over it. During first year, even though the French lessons where out the window, they still met each other after classes in the library to work on their other subjects. Their second year nothing changed, their third and forth and fifth all the way up to their seventh year.

They became each other's confidant, a personal cheering charm to each other when things weren't particularly going as planned; they both encouraged and helped each other whenever they needed it. In short, they were quite a team.

It was, however, at that fateful December morning (it was a Saturday so Scorpius had looked forward to a day without work) did he get the ingenious idea of having a snowball fight (suggested without magic so as it would be somewhat of a twist).

Rose agreed, to this proposition, with pleasure and so it was.

The game was, the first to hit the other with ten would win the game. Both Scorpius and Rose were already at nine snowballs each when it happened. Snow.

Both Scorpius and Rose held their current snowballs at looked up at the bright white sky. It was quite a site, to see the gentle snow falling from the sky. Scorpius smiled and returned his attention back to his snowball fighting opponent.

His opponent, however, was still looking upwards at the snow falling from the sky.

The winds started to change. Scorpius stopped the hand that was about to throw the snowball. In fact, Scorpius stopped moving altogether.

He ceased to notice the cold, he ceased to notice the snow, he ceased to notice anything at all. All he saw was her - her in her snow sprinkled cap, closed eyes and relaxed gentle smile.

Then he felt a feeling, a feeling that he hadn't felt since six years ago when he was eleven at the train station. But it wasn't that feeling, not quite; he was feeling something stronger, warmer, better.

Despite the fact that it was cold and snowing he felt warm all over. He felt like he had never been fully alive until that very moment.

She was… gorgeous. Scorpius wasn't even aware that it was Rose Weasley he was looking at. It was Rose Weasley but, not the one the he would do transfiguration with at the library or the one who was his personal confidant, this Rose Weasley was different. Sure, Scorpius always thought Rose pretty but there was something different now, like he had been seeing her through a tinted glass window and now that window has just been opened.

By this time Rose had stopped looking up and was about to throw a snowball at Scorpius but instead of the action-ready Scorpius she expected, she saw a defenceless distracted Scorpius.

She was confused at the fact and let it show. "Scorpius? Are you all right?"

Scorpius didn't hear it. Well, didn't hear all of it. All he heard was his name being said by the most beautiful snow angel who had ever existed.

When Rose didn't get a reply, she brushed off her concern and with a grin, threw a snowball straight at Scorpius at full speed which hit him straight at the face.

This enabled Rose to win this snowball fighting game and brought Scorpius back in to reality. "I win," Rose said merrily.

Rose's mirth was like a symphony to Scorpius' newly opened ears. If Scorpius were to take from experience, he would know that he should vacate the vicinity immediately before he said something stupid and should instead find a quiet commode where he could organize his thoughts.

This was exactly what Scorpius did. He congratulated Rose on her win (much to her confusion) and excused himself briefly muttering that he forgot to do something. He called out that he would just meet her at the first floor landing where they would meet to go to Hogsmeade. Scorpius raced through the halls and hastily entered his own room (such that he was Head Boy he had his own room). He collapsed on the ready made bed (thanks to the house-elves) and got to thinking.

It wasn't the most horrible thing ever to happen. People fell in love with their best friends quite often, right? Scorpius couldn't understand why he was feeling this way about Rose now. Now! After six years of knowing her, how could he feel this way now? Scorpius repeatedly asked himself that question. The hours past and before he knew it, it was time to go.

He didn't know how he could face her with this new found information. Obviously, finding out that you were in love with someone would have some noticeable affect on you. He decided that he would act normally until he could figure out what to do. How could he possibly act normally around her when all he wanted to do was kiss her?

Oh, how he wanted to kiss her! How he wanted to kiss those soft rosy red lips of hers and how he wanted to hold her in his arms in a loving embrace and how he…

He couldn't help but stare at her when he met her later on that day. Of how he was glad, more than glad really, that she had forgot her robes and how he gladly shared his robes with her. Of the way he hugged her tightly when he found her to be shivering. Of how the delicious heat of her breathe felt when she laughed in his neck when he offered to hug her. Of how she smiled at him that day and how he wished it meant something more. Of how he couldn't sleep that night because he was kept awake by thinking of how Rose looked in the snow.

This was a big problem. No, a person forgetting his project on the day it's due is a big problem, being stuck outside when it is about to rain without a wand or an umbrella is a big problem, being stuck in a room with a Blast-End Shrewt was a big problem, hell, Voldemort coming back was a big problem. This – what ever it was – was a disaster. How? How did his happen to him? As Scorpius contemplated the fact he realized he was always in love with her, in fact he couldn't think of a time when he wasn't in love with her, but he just never really identified it as love.

He was in love with his best friend. Best friend, there laid the problem. How could she ever think of him as anything more? Maybe at one point she did, but now? When he clearly established his relationship with her as strictly platonic?

Maybe when he confessed to her that he was in loved with Ms. Perks of the Ravenclaw house, or of Ms. Bell of Gryffindor, she was in love with him then. But how could she possibly still be when he was such a pratt?

What an idiot he was, what an idiot!

He needed to get slapped. He needed to go out and scream his head right off.

What he needed was to get some information. He knew just where (or who really) to go to.

He sought her out the next day. She was the person to go to when one needed information, the kind of information that he needed; gossip. He spotted her, near the Great Hall, Lily "Potter."

"Yeah?"

"Could I have a word?" Scorpius said implying he wanted to go somewhere quiet. Lily agreed and they went into an empty classroom. Upon entering, Lily crossed her arms and looked at him questioningly.

"I was wondering," Scorpius started. "If Rose had any…"

"Any what?" Lily snapped when he trailed off.

"Does anyone like Rose?" Scorpius asked, trying a different approach.

"Yeah, quite a few people do, actually, last time I heard." Lily said thoughtfully.

"Of course," he said. Naturally, she was gorgeous, he thought. Of course someone would have noticed that. Only he was the fool not to notice until now. "Of course, but has anyone asked her out?"

"Yeah, a few have but she's turned all of them down," she said matter of fact.

What? He didn't know what. Wait a minute. "Why?"

"I don't know." Lily shrugged. Then she looked at him straight in the eye. "I suspect she fancies someone else."

Rose fancies someone? This was bigger news to him. This was not good. "Who?" Scorpius demanded.

"I can't say," she shook her head. "She's never confided it to me, but I suspect as much."

"Rose would tell me," Scorpius said with valour.

"Wait!" Lily said suddenly reproachful, "Don't do or say anything! I only suspect it! I could be wrong!"

"Yes, but if you are right," he said stubbornly. "I am her best friend. She would tell me."

Lily shrugged and looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. Then she smiled a mysterious smile and muttered something about Quidditch practice and walked away.

If Rose liked someone else he could respect that, he was after all her best friend. It was his turn to be the one who she confided in. His turn to be the one who would help her to her happiness as she did to him in more than one occasion. But oh! How it pained him so. It was his fault. If he just saw her then as he saw her now he wouldn't be half as miserable. He wouldn't be miserable at all since he would be with her.

Scorpius suddenly remembered an incident a few years ago. James Potter had been teasing her about him, Scorpius, as they were spending an awful amount of time together (they were good friends it was only natural). It came to the point where she ended up screaming at him, James, saying that, "I don't like him that way" and how he, Scorpius, now wished she had said that she did like him in that way.

This was horrible. He couldn't imagine Rose with anyone else. It was such a horrible thing.

The following fortnight, Scorpius observed Rose more than ever before. It wasn't just because he enjoyed it (for he did indeed found pleasure in watching her) but he was on a mission to find some clue whatsoever that would indicate that Rose did indeed fancy someone.

What Scorpius found out did dismay him. Rose did in fact fancy someone. How did Scorpius know? It was quite hard to spot. To anyone who would see her, they would notice nothing. She hid it so well. It was so subtle. But with Scorpius' whole attention directly on her, he caught it right on.

It was when she would be quiet and thoughtful one moment, when they were reading or studying, the looks that she had at those times were far away and rather serene. Then, when she realized that she was being observed, blushed furiously and resumed to be her normal happy self. This just proved it.

Oh how miserable he was!

But he didn't show it to her. No, he regarded their friendship with care now more than ever, it was all he had left.

Soon it was Christmas time and as it was tradition; people were allowed to go home to their families.

It was at this very day did Lily Potter approach him.

"Well?" She said tersely.

"Well what?" Scorpius said slightly annoyed. "You were the one who wanted to talk."

"Rose!" Lily said exasperatedly.

"What about her?" He asked confused.

"What do you mean 'what about her'?" She said rather crossly. "You know what I mean!"

"No. I don't." Then Scorpius figured what she was talking about. "If you are referring to our conversation before, you were right, she does like someone." He said with so much woe in his voice that Lily picked up on it.

Lily stared at him, frozen with (for some apparent reason) shock, for what seemed to be about one whole minute before she blinked again.

She rolled her eyes to the extent that they seemed to reach the sky and slapped him on the arm… hard.

He heard an annoyed mumble of "Blind stupid git." Before she screeched out, "You are the one she likes, you idiot!"

And with that walked abruptly away.

At that bit of information Scorpius felt like he was soaring.

Rose likes him, him! Scorpius Malfoy! Scorpius loved the world.

When he saw Rose that day he couldn't stop staring at her. When they boarded the train to go home for the holidays he couldn't stop staring at her then. He was quite aware of the way he held her tighter when they embraced farewell. Of how he stalled leaving and instead quietly observed her reunited with her family.

Of how she happily greeted them all. And how she winked at him when she saw him spot Victoire. Of how he pretended to blush but in reality the blush came not for Victoire but for her. Of how he stared at her leaving the platform with her family and how she gave him a final farewell wave and said, "See you after the Holidays!" Of how he responded, quite insipidly, 'Same to you' afterwards.

He was aware of how miserable was at Christmas because she wasn't there. Of how he desperately wished she was.

Of the fact that he couldn't think of a way how to get her. Of the fact Lily Potter might be wrong and that she doesn't like him at all and just thinks of him as the "best friend" and nothing more. Of the fact he didn't give a damn about that and that he was willing to sacrifice their friendship if it meant even the tiniest of hopes that he might win her heart.

Of the fact that Christmas break was excruciatingly longer then usual and how unnaturally happy he was that it was finally over and how oddly happy he was that he was back at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters to see her again.

He was waiting there impatiently for her to show up. As he turned around he saw her come through the barrier with her family.

Scorpius vaguely noticed that she asked him how his Christmas was and how he replied rather blandly that it was fine. He motioned for them to go inside the train but she said that she just wanted to say good-bye to everyone and that he should go on without her.

He did, and to his utter delight, he found that the Head's compartment gave him perfect view to her and her family. Her mum and dad where there, and all of her cousins where present, even the ones who had finished school, like Victoire and James. Looking at Victoire again made Scorpius reminisce about his strong young boyish crush on her and how he had attempted to learn French in the hopes of winning her heart.

He could laugh about it now, thinking how his eleven-year-old self, could ever conclude that learning a language would be the road to someone's heart.

It was at that moment that the compartment door opened and Rose Weasley entered. That's when he concocted the best of ideas.

The moment that Scorpius reached the grounds of Hogwarts, he sped off, absentmindedly giving Rose a half-thought up excuse for why he was going. He simply said he had something he had to do.

That something was his plan of action. His plan to get Rose's heart.

A fortnight later, he told her that she was to meet him in the Lake and went instead to the Library. It was in the Library, exactly as he planned, when she found him.

He had armies of books surrounding him when she approached him at their table (the very same table where they first met). He had his whole upper body bend, in an effort to decipher an old mangled text.

He pretended not to notice her approach. He pretended to be intently reading.

But the truth of it was he felt her presence before he saw her, he felt the air around him grow hot, despite the fact that it was January, and felt his pulse quicken. Then he saw her come in out the corner of his eye, he couldn't mistake her lovely form for anyone else.

She came, wearing her olive green hat that he had noticed she particularly favoured, and a red scarf. Seeing her made it harder to breathe. When she saw him, he saw her smile her pretty little smile and speedy approached him.

When she reached the table she hit the desk to get his attention. "Why weren't you at the Lak…?" She started to demand but then faded away.

Now that she was in close proximity to him, she was soon able to read the books that where surrounding him. How to speak le Français and Le Français: For Beginners were some of the titles she glanced but they were all pretty much the same.

He saw her pretty little brow compress in confusion as she saw the books surrounding him. How her rosy lips tightened to a pout, and how she charmingly folded her arms.

Oh how beautiful she looked!

Scorpius closed the book he had with a clear thump.

"Because I was here," Scorpius said gesturing at the books around him. "Trying to learn French."

He was quite aware that, even though he projected a calm and collected disposition, his palms were sweating a little and the temperature in the Library grew increasingly into an alarming amount.

Scorpius saw her mouth, slowly open before she spoke. "Why are you learning French?"

Then she smiled, a beautiful playful smile, and decided to tease, "I distinctly remember a little boy who said he never wanted to learn French ever again."

"He didn't," Scorpius stopped there. Then he locked her gaze, he looked directly at her bright blue eyes before he continued.

"But, I distinctly remember, a little girl," she blushed, a pleasing rosy red, "who once told me, if a boy did something like that for her, she would love him forever."

Scorpius was painfully aware of how still Rose became. Of her beautiful face that first was a deep red, and was slowly turning pale. Of how she didn't seem to be breathing.

"I…" Rose was rendered speechless.

Scorpius stood and closed the gap between himself and her.

"Rose, I have been so blind. All those times when I thought I liked someone… all of them… I was so stupid!"

She was deathly quiet and paler still.

"You are the one who always knew better, you are the one who would help me whenever I needed it; you are the one who without I would cease to exist."

"Rose," he took her hand in his, it was cold. "Je t'aime."

Scorpius memorized that moment forever. Rose stood there, holding his hand quite still, he was still too. But when she laughed delightfully and hugged him tightly, he was the happiest person to have ever existed.

She whispered to him, in the sweetest most wonderful voice, "I guess I'll love you forever then."

Scorpius Malfoy was multilingual. He knew Greek, Spanish, English and now French.

The End

Author's Notes: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.