.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.

.*.

Happily Ever After

Rose was both saddened and infuriated by Albus. Was he seriously so opposed to seeing Scorpius and her together that he couldn't even stay in the same room with them? She was tired—so tired—of playing this game with him. As much as Albus tried to convince her that dating Scorpius was the end of the world, she didn't believe it any more. And unless what Caitlyn had been telling her were lies, Albus was starting to doubt it himself. Rose was determined to make him admit that he had been wrong.

The giggles and whispers had not yet died down from Scorpius and Rose's kiss when she stood up abruptly and began heading towards the portrait hole.

"Rose," Scorpius warned, jumping up after her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find him," she said calmly, turning to face the man she loved. Looking over his shoulder, she noticed that nearly everyone in the room was watching them but she no longer cared. She had gotten used to being the object of gossip since Christmas. Although it wasn't something she took pride in, she had become desensitized to it over the past few weeks.

"Why?" Scorpius asked desperately, keeping his voice low. "I'm sick of this. I'm sick of not being able to be with you and I'm sick of listening to Albus. Me and you have got to stop catering to his every need. I want you to be my girlfriend, Rose Weasley, and I don't give a damn what Albus has to say about it!"

Rose sighed impatiently and threw a quick glance at the portrait hole before turning back to Scorpius. "I choose you, Scorpius," she said. "In my heart, I chose you weeks ago. I love you and Albus is just going to have to deal with that. But right now, I need to find him." She turned around and tried to leave once more.

Scorpius was smirking as he grabbed her wrist and turned her back to him. "So you'll be my girlfriend?" he clarified. "For real this time?"

"I wasn't aware the last time was fake," she smirked. "But yes, I will. Now, can I please go find my cousin?"

Scorpius's face fell. "He's going to be mad. Why don't we both just give him some space?"

"Because I can't give Albus space," Rose explained firmly. "I'll go mad." She turned one more towards the portrait hole and this time Scorpius wasn't dumb enough to stop her.

As soon as the portrait hole shut behind her, a welcome silence invited her out into the corridor. She half wanted to just collapse right there and forget about everything that was going on, but she knew that she couldn't. She had to find Albus.

The door was open to an empty classroom a few feet away and Rose peeked her head in. Albus was sitting on the Professor's desk, staring at the ceiling.

"I guess you're not hiding from me, then," she said, leaning against the door frame.

"What?" he asked curiously. He didn't seem angry, for which Rose was grateful.

"If you were avoiding me, you would have picked a better hiding spot," she pointed out.

"I wasn't hiding from you," he smiled slightly. "I was waiting for you."

She grinned and walked over to her cousin, taking a seat next to him on the desk. "I love Scorpius," she said simply. "And he loves me."

"I know," Albus sighed.

"He makes me happy, Al. Happier than I've ever been. And he treats me good. I know he's made mistakes, but so have I. So have you and Caitlyn! Everyone makes mistakes."

"I know," he repeated.

"And I'm not asking your permission this time. Scorpius is my boyfriend. And if you could just accept that—Albus, that's all I want. Because I can't live without you in my life but right now, I don't think I can live without Scorpius either. And I know that if I made you choose between me and Caitlyn, you wouldn't be able to do it either."

"You're right about that," he smiled. "But the difference is that if you told me to stop seeing Caitlyn, I wouldn't listen to your shit." Rose glanced over at him in surprise. "I'm an ass, Rose," he smiled. "And I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" she asked in disbelief.

"You're so naïve sometimes, do you know that? Do you how long it took for me to realize that Scorpius loved you? The moment I figured out that what was going on in Caitlyn's bedroom wasn't a one-night stand, I knew. You'd have to be blind to not see how much Scorpius has changed over the past few months. Hell, I even made jokes with him about who the girl was that was making him behave."

"Then why did you—"

"Why did I turn into an ass? Because I was hurt, Rose. Hurt and jealous. You and Scorpius lied to me. My two best friends were keeping the fact that they were dating a secret because they thought that I wouldn't like it. How the hell could you even assume that I wouldn't want you to be happy? Yeah, I might have been a little wary at first but I'm not your keeper, Rose. You're not stupid and you're not the kind of girl who would fall for Scorpius just because he's good-looking. And I know Scorpius well enough to know that he wouldn't put up with you unless he was really in love."

Rose hit him playfully on the shoulder and he smiled. "I was jealous that you two were sharing something that I couldn't be a part of and I felt like I was losing both of my best friends at the same time so I overreacted. I overreacted bad. And I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," a voice said from the door and Rose and Albus both looked up to find Scorpius entering the room.

"How long have you been there?" Albus asked after several seconds.

"A while," Scorpius shrugged. "I thought you might attack Rose if she came after you so I followed her. I guess I was wrong."

Rose rolled her eyes, but Albus grinned mysteriously. "Apology accepted. But I'm still mad at you, you know."

"Excuse me?" Scorpius asked, taken aback.

"Albus!" Rose hissed.

"Caitlyn was going to have sex with me that night at Owen's party. Unsurprisingly, she has been 'not-in-the-mood' ever since. That's your fault. So the way I see it, you are forever in my debt."

Rose shook her head in disbelief but her reaction was ignored by the boys, who were both laughing.

"I really am sorry," Scorpius said after their laughter subsided. "I did things out of order and it's my fault."

"I'm sorry too," Albus said. As the boys embraced, Rose couldn't help but feel that her life was about to get much easier. She had her cousin and her boyfriend back and she couldn't think of anything else that she could possibly want in that moment.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

After a whole year of preparing, the day of the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw game dawned. Caitlyn, as expected, was so nervous that she couldn't even talk. Rose walked down to breakfast with her, but Caitlyn couldn't stay seated for longer than two minutes at a time. Once her two minutes were up, she would either begin pacing the Great Hall or run out of it all together to go check her playbook or the weather conditions.

"She's going to kill us all if we don't win this game," Parker muttered as he shoveled porridge into his mouth. Dylan nodded his agreement but his mouth was too full to respond. They obviously weren't nervous enough not to eat.

"If you think she's going to kill you," Albus groaned. "What about me? I think I'm going to be single if I don't catch that damn snitch."

"That is a dilemma," Dylan said after he swallowed his food. "But think about all of the sex you're going to be having if we do win the game."

Albus smirked shyly. "That I might be able to live with."

"Gross," Rose muttered and then turned back to her toast which she had barely taken a bite of. The three boys laughed at her disgust. She looked up as they were trying to regain their composure and saw that Owen was making his way towards her. She rolled her eyes in his direction, but he didn't slow down and didn't hesitate to take a seat across from her even though they were about to play each other for the Quidditch Cup.

"You're awfully brave coming over here," she noted, trying to ignore the fact that their last encounter hadn't ended on the best of terms.

"As much as I would love to sit here flirting with you," he said, "I actually came to wish Caitlyn good luck. Where is she?"

"No telling," Albus interrupted. "She keeps walking out."

"I guess I'll just have to wait then," he muttered. "So, Rosie, still single?"

"Not exactly," she replied.

"You're nothing if not persistent, mate," Albus chuckled.

"How about we make a bet?" he asked, never taking his eyes off of Rose. She pointedly refused to meet his gaze. "If Ravenclaw wins, you agree to go on a date with me."

"How about not," a voice said from behind Rose. She turned to find Scorpius standing above her. Without waiting for permission, he took a seat.

"Sorry, mate," Owen said, a sly smile appearing on his face. Rose immediately began worrying about what exactly that smile meant. He wouldn't dare mention the kiss to Scorpius, would he? Rose tossed him one pleading look, but he returned it with that same sly smile.

"Jealous much?" Albus asked Scorpius with a smirk.

Scorpius smiled. "Me and Owen don't exactly get along," he shrugged. "It probably has something to do with the fact that he's in love with my girlfriend."

"Of course it would have nothing to do with the fact that you slept with mine," Owen countered and Rose closed her eyes in frustration. This wasn't going to end well.

Scorpius was growing red with anger, but he managed to keep his mouth. "Let's just drop this," he muttered.

"Well your instincts don't completely suck," Owen smiled sardonically.

"Look," Scorpius said firmly. Everyone surrounding the pair had stopped chewing in order to listen to the boys' arguement. "You need to leave Rose alone. She's obviously not into you."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Owen said, leaning back comfortably and smiling at Rose.

Scorpius looked briefly at his girlfriend before turning back to Owen. "What's that supposed to mean?" he hissed.

Owen's eyes met Rose's once more before he responded and in that instant she knew that he was about to ruin everything. And he didn't even care that he was about to hurt her. "Nothing much," he shrugged. "Just that there was quite a large span of time when you and Rose were technically not together. As in technically she could have been seeing other people."

"She wasn't," Scorpius answered much too quickly for anyone to believe that he had no doubts about what he was saying. He didn't even look down at Rose for conformation, but all along the table she could feel people's eyes on her and for the first time in weeks it made her uncomfortable. This was different than when people were staring at her for dating Scorpius. She was ashamed to be the center of these stares.

"You sure about that?" Owen asked, standing up from his seat as if nothing had gone amiss. "Good luck today, Rose," he grinned and then he was gone.

Rose's heart was hammering out of her chest as Scorpius finally looked down at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She knew that she had to tell Scorpius the truth, but she couldn't remember how to speak.

"We should probably head down to the pitch," Albus interrupted. Dylan and Parker readily agreed and began heading towards the doors. "Coming, Rose?"

Scorpius, seeming to sense her discomfort, sighed deeply. "It's okay," he said. "We'll talk about this later."

"Scorpius, it's not—"

"It's fine," he interrupted abruptly, startling Rose. Upon seeing her recoil, he groaned and leaned in to kiss her gently on the lips. "Just beat his sorry ass, okay? I'm not going to be able to stand it if he wins this match."

Rose nodded distractedly, wondering how she was ever going to be able to concentrate on the game when she was worried about whether Scorpius was going to break up with her or not. That may have even been Owen's plan…

Once Scorpius was no longer standing in front of her, she had no choice but to head down to the Quidditch pitch.

Caitlyn was already stressing in the locker room when Rose arrived. They dressed quickly and sat down so that she could spend some of their time going over plays that she felt they needed refreshing on. Rose wasn't paying much attention and soon enough, it was time to play Quidditch.

As Rose flew into the air, her head was full. Even though she was worrying about the game and whether Scorpius was mad, she was also aggravated beyond belief at Owen. Owen and she had always had an unspoken understanding that what happened between them would stay between them. He had ruined that. It was the first time Rose had ever seen him be truly vindictive and his wrath had been directed at her. Thank God she could use this game to vent her anger! Her thoughts about Scorpius would just have to wait.

Rose, Parker, and Hugo were flying together more perfectly than they had all year—much better than the Ravenclaw Chasers who had been on the same team for years. Even though Rose had only been playing for Gryffindor for a year, the three of them were a solid unit.

As the three of them neared the goal, Rose was holding the Quaffle and she was ready to face Owen. Using her anger to propel her, she launched the ball at the right hoop.

And Owen blocked it. He smirked at her as he threw the ball back into play and it took Rose a second too long to get back in the game. Owen was playing to win, just like Rose was. And even though she hadn't thought it was possible, his anger for her might be even stronger than her anger for him. He had more to lose in this match than she did.

From there, the game progressed dismally. Even though the Gryffindor Chasers ran Caitlyn's plays flawlessly, none of them could get the Quaffle through Owen's hoops. He really was just that good. Although Caitlyn tried to match his talent on her side of the pitch, it just didn't stack up. And once she let one goal in and become discouraged, more and more followed it until the score was up 150-0, Ravenclaw in the lead.

Rose was fuming as the whistle sounded for a time out. She landed on the pitch flanked by Hugo and Parker.

"He's too good," Parker said immediately. "Cate, he's been holding out on us. He's better than we thought."

"I've never seen him play like this," she agreed sadly. She didn't have the energy to be mad, but Rose could tell that she was upset. This was her last chance to get the Quidditch Cup and she was getting beat not only by the Ravenclaw team, but by her own brother.

"It's my fault," Rose sighed. "He's mad at me."

"He doesn't have superpowers!" Hugo insisted. "One of use should be able to get the quaffle past him! Then if Albus catches the snitch, we still win."

The team exchanged wary glances. "I can catch the snitch," Albus sighed. "But I don't think it's going to do us much good to wait until we score because that might not happen. I'm going to catch it the first time it flies onto the field because if I don't, we could be losing by a lot less than ten points. Ten points down and we still come in second for the Cup."

Although Caitlyn didn't seem happy with this assessment, she nodded. "Ok. Rose, Hugo, and Parker, we just need one goal. One. Dylan and Bree, if that quaffle gets near Owen's hoop, knock him out. It's legal. And Albus, just catch that damn snitch and end this!"

It wasn't much of a pep talk but it gave Rose something to think about. She had to score one goal. Just one. She just had to score one goal off of Owen Wood. She had done it before. She could do it again.

They had only been back on the pitch for a minute when the Seekers started moving. Albus had spotted the snitch. Rose was in possession of the quaffle and she knew that if she didn't score now, they would lose. As soon as she was in range of the goals, she let the quaffle fly.

As the quaffle was in the air, she locked eyes with Owen and in that instant she knew that he wasn't going to stop it. Not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to. And sure enough, the quaffle soared right through his outstretched arms and into the hoop seconds before Albus caught the snitch.

Hugo and Parker immediately engulfed her in a hug but as Rose descended to the ground she didn't feel much like she had won. If anyone had won that game, it had been Owen.

As the crowd rushed onto the field, Rose pushed away from her teammates until she spotted Owen landing on the other side of the pitch. She rushed over so that she could get to him before his teammates.

"Why did you let me score?" she yelled, knowing that no one would be able to hear her over the roar of the crowd anyway. "Why did you let us win?"

"I didn't do it for you," he said, glancing over to where his sister was being lifted into the shoulders of the Gryffindor team. "I did it for her."

Whatever anger Rose felt drifted away. "You're a good brother."

"Yeah, but I'm a crappy friend," he sighed. "I'm sorry for what I did this morning, Rose. I know I shouldn't have but Scorpius makes me crazy. Every girl I've wanted this year, he's gotten. I just wanted him to know that I got you. Just that once."

"I guess it's better that he found out now rather than later," she shrugged.

"And if he breaks up with you, I'm not going to complain," Owen joked. Rose hit him hard on the shoulder and he just laughed as she walked away to join her team.

.*.:.:.:.:.:.*.

Although Rose tried to excuse herself from the rest of her team in order to go and find Scorpius, Albus refused to let her leave.

"He'll find you when he wants to talk," Albus insisted. "And I really don't think he's mad at you anyway."

Nevertheless, Scorpius wasn't in the Gryffindor Common Room for the after-game party although he had promised to be there. When Rose tried to voice her concerns to Caitlyn, Caitlyn just brushed it off and shoved a firewhiskey in her hand.

"He'll be here eventually," she shrugged. "Relax—have some fun!"

But Rose couldn't have fun. All she could think about was how mad and hurt Scorpius must be. And this time it was her causing the pain, not him. She knew what it felt like to see the person she loved with someone else and if Scorpius was feeling half of what she had felt, he was ready to kill her. Just the fact that he was ignoring her was enough to prove that.

"Hey," a voice suddenly whispered right into Rose's ear, causing her to jump and slosh firewhiskey out of her bottle onto the floor. She turned to find Scorpius standing there smugly, his hands resting casually in his pockets.

"Hey," Rose said, handing her drink to a third year that was wandering past. "Scorpius, listen. I'm so sorry. But this isn't what you think it is. We just kissed. Once. And I only did it because he promised he'd leave me alone if I did. And me and you weren't dating and—" Before she could finish her well-rehearsed speech, Scorpius kissed her firmly on the lips. He pulled away slowly several long seconds later.

"I don't care," he said. "Come with me." He grabbed Rose's hand and they exited the Common Room. As he made his way down the corridors, Rose could sense his excitement.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

"It's a secret," he smiled.

"So the Astronomy Tower then?" she laughed. He refused to answer but sure enough, he took her up to the Astronomy Tower.

"You're incredibly predictable, Scorpius Malfoy," she said as they stepped out into the cool night air.

"Am I really?" he smirked, locking the door behind them. "This way." He let Rose around the outside of the tower until a picnic blanket suddenly came into sight, complete with candles. Rose couldn't help but laugh.

"Well I definitely wasn't expecting that," she smiled.

"Don't give me too much credit," Scorpius said sheepishly as he helped Rose sit down on the blanket. "The house elves did most of it."

"Don't try to downplay this," she smiled. "This is the most romantic thing a guy has ever done for me."

"It looks like I'm learning to be a better boyfriend after all."

"It sure does," Rose smiled and leaned in to kiss him deeply.

"I love you, Rose," he sighed.

"I love you too," she smiled.

"It took us way too long to get here, have you realized that?" he asked as he poured her a drink.

"Yeah, I seem to remember that you had a girlfriend when we first got together."

"Madeline Stewart," he sighed. "Why did I break up with her again?" Rose tried to hit him, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him so that she was leaning against his chest.

"You make me happy," Rose said after a minute of comfortable silence. "I don't know why, but you do."

"And you make me crazy," he laughed. "But I'm happier than I've ever been."

"So, it must get easier from here, right?" Rose asked, leaning back to look at Scorpius. "We're through the hard parts?"

"I have a feeling there are going to be more hard parts. I make mistakes, Rose. You should know that by now."

"Well I'm not perfect either."

Scorpius shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere. Not as long as you'll have me."

"You may want to rethink that," she said a few seconds later as a thought occured to her.

"Why?" Scorpius smirked. Rose turned around in his lap so that they were just a breath away from each other.

"Because now we have to tell my father. And I'm not sure how he's going to feel about me dating a Malfoy."

Scorpius's characteristic smirk arose on his face and Rose found it simply irresistible. As they kissed on the top of the Astronomy Tower with the stars shining all around them, Rose felt like her life was just beginning. It was as if she had never truly lived until this moment and for the first time in her life, Rose wasn't dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. She was living in the present and it was incandescently magical.

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The End

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A/N: I just want to thank all of the readers and reviewers for this story. I really think this has been my best story to date and all of you are to thank for that. I can't promise you that I will write a sequel, but I won't rule it out either.

But in order to truly thank you for all of your support, in your review for this chapter feel free to tell me which scene from this story that you want to read from the POV of another character. Since most of this story is written from Rose's POV there is a lot of background information that never got incorporated in.

It doesn't even have to be a particular scene. For example, I could write about how Caitlyn and Albus fell in love. Or what Scorpius was feeling that night at the concert. The most original, entertaining, or the most popular answers to this prompt will be posted as a poll on my profile in about a week so that you can vote for your favorites and I'll write one or two of those as a oneshot.

Thanks again so much!

And please review :)

Much love,

SarahBeth.