DISCLAIMER: I don't own Scorpius, Rose or Christmas. I do however, own Amy. : )

Christmas versus Rose.

Blurb …

In which Scorpius finds himself at a muggle pub on Christmas Eve, hating everything from the cheesy carols, to his now ex-girlfriend. :Oneshot Scorpius/Rose Xmas special 2011:

There was nothing in the world that Scorpius Malfoy hated more than Christmas.

He couldn't stand old fat blokes dressing up in red suits and growing a beard just to please their grandchildren. Every time he heard a Christmas carol, he wanted to stab his ears and he hated the colours red and green. The muggle pub he was currently in had strung up irritating flashing lights that left spots in his eyes and the bartenders certainly looked like they agreed with him, since they were wearing tinsel halos with surly expressions.

However today, saying there was nothing he hated more than Christmas was a complete and utter lie.

He hated her. Her, with her stupid arguments and always having to be right. He hated how she thought she was the bloody Queen and that anything important to him simply must come second (even though, as he'd pointed out, she was the only thing important to him, but she didn't seem to care at that point). Rose bloody Weasley, who yeah, might be smart, but the world didn't bloody evolve around her!

For Merlin's sake, it was Christmas Eve, he'd been thrown out of his own flat and now he was drinking in a pub! He didn't think life could get any more pathetic.

He'd chosen a muggle pub since he hadn't wanted to face his mates, should they track him down in the Leaky Cauldron. So now he was sat at the bar with a drink he didn't know the name of, his face smashed on the counter, thinking that if he had to listen to All I Want for Christmas Is You one more time, he was going to flip.

"You want another?"

Scorpius glanced up blearily and noticed with slight surprise that his drink was gone – he didn't even remember drinking it. One look at the grumpy bartender was enough to tell him that the girl wasn't at all impressed about having to work on Christmas Eve, much less being forced to wear a Father Christmas hat with a tinsel belt.

"Nah," Scorpius said, shrugging. "… so when do you get off work?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Midnight," she said. "Don't know why they bothered, eh – Christmas Eve, this place is bloody dead. We're only open cause it's a Saturday." And she took his empty glass before stomping off back down the bar.

Scorpius sighed and slumped back down onto the bar top. He was still tossing up between his hatred for Christmas and Rose Weasley. Both had their good sides, he supposed. But then, both had their bitchy, I'm going to start crying and turn red sides as well.

"Oi, mate," Scorpius said, turning to the first person he saw, which happened to be a girl in a red party dress and a Father Christmas hat, two stools away from him. "If you had to choose what you hate more, Christmas, or your ex-girlfriend who dumped you for her job, which would it be?"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I take it it's been a bad day for you?" she asked.

"Oh good god, how did you guess?" He really needed to work on his sarcasm. The only reason he did it so often was because he'd met Rose Weasley.

The girl gave a mock thoughtful face, scratching at her short, blond hair under her hat. "Hmm, let me see. You're sitting alone in a pub, drinking your weight in alcohol on Christmas Eve."

"What, you got 'I've had a bad day' from that?"

"And you're saying you haven't?" the girl asked, eyes twinkling.

"Oh yeah, all right," Scorpius muttered, slumping on his folded arms again. "You could say I've had better days."

The girl gave what he supposed was a sympathetic look. He didn't really care at this point. "Look mate, I know it might seem like the end of the world, but it's Christmas," She gestured all around her, at the decorations that adorned the pub. "You can't be alone on Christmas."

Scorpius suppressed the urge to roll his eyes – another unfortunate habit he'd picked up from Rose. He really wasn't in the mood for this. Rose had always pointed out that Scorpius was 'bloody gorgeous' and yeah, he admitted that he was a bit of a prick back at Hogwarts, so from time to time he had flirted with other girls before. However, he'd only ever done it to get a rise out of Rose (and Merlin had it), so he turned to the girl with an exasperated expression.

"Look, I'm flattered and all," he said and the girl raised her eyebrows. "But my girlfriend just dumped me and threw me out of our flat on Christmas Eve. I am not in the mood to be hit on right now."

The girl snorted. "You think I'm hitting on you? Trust me mate, you're not my type," she said. With a grin at his dumb-founded face – he'd never received that response before – she stuck out his hand to shake. "My name is Amy. And I just don't think anyone should be alone at Christmas."

"Scorpius," he said back. "And like you can talk! I don't see you here with anyone."

Amy laughed again and pointed out the grumpy-looking bartender from before, now serving one of the few people who were actually sad enough to hit the pub on Christmas Eve. When she caught Amy's eye, her face brightened, however.

"My girlfriend had to work tonight," Amy explained, eyes sparkling. "So I'm here to keep her company before she gets off."

"Ah …" Scorpius said, noting the bartender's smile. "Yeah. Definitely not my type."

"So, you going to explain about this ex-girlfriend of yours?" Amy asked, turning back to him. She winced as yet another Christmas carol started up throughout the pub – this time, Snoopy's Christmas.

"Yeah, I'm about to rip my ears off," Scorpius agreed and Amy snorted. "And in answer, no. I don't want to talk about it."

She shrugged. "Ok …" she said indifferently before leaping gracefully off her barstool and starting to walk away.

The words were out of his mouth before he even realised he was talking.

"I hate her!"

"Ah, so you do want to talk about it?" Amy said, turning back around.

Scorpius ignored the jibe. "She's always working, right?" he suddenly found himself saying as Amy joined him again at the bar. "And fair enough, she's a trainee Heal-um … doctor …" he hastily added, suddenly remembering that this was a muggle girl he was talking to. Doctor's we're the muggle equivalent of Healers, right? "So she works like, 12 hours a day. So of course we got into a huge fight over the fact that she has to work Christmas Day. Eventually she just dumps me and in front of our best friends too!"

"That sucks." Amy agreed, leaning against the bar. Her girlfriend, the bartender came over and soon they had two drinks on the house. He was starting to like the fact that he was sad enough to come to a pub on Christmas Eve.

"It was completely unjustified!" Scorpius burst out, taking a long drink from what was apparently a beer or something, though it tasted disgusting, nothing at all like a good Firewhisky. "I mean for gods sake, I know we fight all the time, but it's never enough to break up over! She's such a bitch sometimes, I actually hate her."

Amy just shot him a look from over her glass. "And yet, you look like you're about to strangle whoever the hell it was who suggested that these god-awful Christmas carols get played."

Scorpius gave a dramatic sigh. "Oh fine then, so I'm still in love with her! Is that such a crime?" he practically yelled over the carols. "Nine years we've been together! And she goes and throws that away over a bloody row on Christmas Eve!"

"Nine years?" Amy said, looking impressed. "God, that's ages!"

"Yeah," Scorpius grumbled. "We were fifteen when we got together. Still at Hog – er, school," he added, remembering again that this was a muggle. He didn't want to traumatise her. "Hated her guts when I first met her and it's basically been the same ever since."

Amy grinned, straightening her Father Christmas hat. "That's fantastic. You hardily ever hear about couples sticking together after school."

"Yeah well," Scorpius muttered, shrugging. "Couldn't get rid of her. Till now."

Amy frowned at that. "Look, you say you row all the time," she said. "That's probably all this is – another row."

Scorpius was shaking his head before she even finished speaking. "You didn't hear her," he said, darkly. Oh god, that was depressing. He didn't realise what an annoying prick he was being until he heard himself complain like that. "Sorry," he told Amy. "Here I am doing nothing but complaining about Rose and you probably couldn't give a shit."

"Ah Rose," Amy said, rolling her eyes. "So the demon has a name now?"

"I'm serious, I'm sorry–"

"I know you are," Amy cut in with a grin. "And I also know that you want to vent about this. I've still got to wait another two hours, so go ahead! Vent."

Scorpius sighed, staring out over the pub. The decorations were almost making his eyes water. "Y'know, I still can't decide what I hate more: Rose, or Christmas."

"You could make a pros and cons list?" Amy suggested.

"You've got to be kidding–"

"First of all," Amy cut over him. "Cons about Christmas!"

Scorpius gave an exasperated groan. However, he decided to humour her, if not for her sake, then just to give him something to do. "I hate red and green," he began. "Tinsel is way too bright and itches. Christmas carols are not music. The idea of children sitting on old blokes' laps is very creepy when you think about it. There're nothing but sales and pushy old ladies in the shops, the employees are over it, every year my parents get me the same thing – a new jumper – and I get dragged along to Rose's family gathering and her family is stark-raving mad, by the way. Its bloody cold, I can never think of good Christmas presents and the ones I do think of, everyone hates but just won't tell me! You know two years ago, I bought Rose these ceramic bookends, cause y'know she likes reading and all that, and last year as her present, she gives them back to me! Says she forgot! I mean, what the hell?"

Amy simply blinked at his tirade. "Ok," she said, eventually. "You hate Christmas. Now the cons for Rose."

"Oh bloody hell, where do I start?" Scorpius said, draining the last of his drink. He was going to have fun with this. "She's full of herself to the point of being selfish, if it came down to her mates or her grades, she'd pick her bloody grades! Work is the only thing that matters to her and granted she's brilliant at it, but honestly there's such thing as balance. She's bossy, has to have her own way all the time and thinks she knows absolutely everything. I mean, she does, but that doesn't mean she has to flaunt it every chance she gets! She does this thing where she'll chew her hair if she's nervous and kicks in her sleep – seriously, some nights I'll wake up with a new bruise! She doesn't have any sort of privacy, just walks in on anything, even if you're on the bloody loo! Probably comes from being a Weasley, but that's just it, she shares everything and expects you to share everything too, but excuse me if there are just some things I want to keep to myself! She absolutely flips if you even so much as breathe on her books and god help you if you put a cup of tea down on the coffee table without a coaster! Her friends are all insane and her family … well, for starters they all hate me and they're just crazy. She's far too competitive and always wins! She–"

"Ok, I get it!" Amy was forced to cut over him, as Scorpius had just taken another huge breath to keep on ranting. "You hate Rose! Bloody hell, I said cons, not a reason to put her at the top of a hit list …"

Scorpius forced himself to breathe deeply. "Yeah," he said, eventually. "Right. What's next?"

Amy snorted. "The pros for Christmas. That's if you can think of any."

Scorpius struggled to think for a few moments. "Erm … well, I suppose I get presents? They're not always what I want, but whoever gives them usually means well, unless it's Rose's cousin James, in which case I throw the present away without opening it–"

"Pros, mate." Amy cut in.

"Ah, right," Scorpius said, getting back on track. "Um, Rose normally makes us hot chocolate in the mornings? I guess it is kind of nice to see someone's face when they open my present, if I know it's a good one. My parents actually let me go to Rose's family? They were never too keen on the Weasley's, so the fact I get to go is a bloody miracle, actually. At work they give out these huge food hampers each shift during the week leading up to Christmas Day and I got one! Er …" His brain couldn't think of anything else. Was that sad? "… that's all I've got."

"Ok," Amy said, nodding. "Last thing on the list: pros about Rose."

"Ah," Scorpius always thought he'd have to think hard to come up with anything good about Rose Weasley, however tonight he found words just pouring out of his mouth. "Well, for starters she loves me. Or, I thought she did up until tonight. She's not afraid to call me out if I'm being a prick, which lets face it, is often. She can make a bloody brilliant lasagne, I'm serious you'll never be able to eat any other once you've tasted hers! She's the perfect height for me, probably thanks to her dad being so tall. Actually, her dad's not too bad, even though he does scare me sometimes. Her smile is amazing. She always leaves a blanket on the sofa so if someone falls asleep, she can easily cover them up. She's always willing to try new things. Her best mate, Al and I actually get along every now and then. She's kind and loving and absolutely flipping gorgeous. She always knows what I need and she showed me the importance of having a close family. She makes me laugh, she uses sarcasm way too much and even though she's rather cynical, she can cheer anyone up. She loves her mates so much and is loyal to all of them. Her hair is the brightest colour of red you can find. She loves her family and always leaves a note on the front door before she leaves for work, normally reminding me to do something but always saying she loves me. She's not exactly perfect," Scorpius added. "But she's mine."

Amy had been simply sitting and taking in all of this as Scorpius tried to catch his breath again. Now, she looked bemused. "So, what have we discovered from this exercise?" she asked.

"Um … I've got a huge gob?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I think it's safe to say that you hate Rose more than you hate Christmas. However I think you also love Rose more than you love Christmas."

"Well, no shit." Scorpius scoffed.

"The question to ask," Amy pressed on. "Now that Christmas is out of the way, is this: do you love Rose more than you hate her?"

He thought. He might hate her guts but when it came down to it, he was a right miserable sod without her in his life. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I do."

Amy nodded, then seemed to catch a glance at something behind him. Before he could turn and see himself, she asked him, "And this Rose – you said she's rather tall and has red hair?"

"Yeah …"

"Lots of freckles, likely to be wearing a Father Christmas hat?"

"What …?" he turned and the only thing his mind could come up with was of course.

Standing a few feet away, was Rose. She looked slightly nervous and not at all like she was meant to be a pub. In fact, she was wearing what looked like her pyjama bottoms and an old jumper that was actually his, along with the red hat on her head. Glancing down, he noticed that she held another hat in her hands as she chewed on her hair, nervously.

For some reason, he didn't find it all that annoying now.

"Hmm," Amy muttered as Scorpius and Rose just stared at each other. "I see what you mean. She is flipping gorgeous."

"How the hell did you find me?" he asked.

Rose shrugged. "I followed you as soon as you left," she admitted. "I've kind of been standing outside for ages, trying to get up the nerve to come in here."

He stared at her for another moment. Sometimes, this girl really did throw him. "I take it you're sorry then?" he said.

"More than sorry!" she burst out. "I'm sorry I threw that lamp at you and I can't believe I thought I wanted to break up with you! I'd never do that, especially not at Christmas. You're right, I work far too much and I'm a bitch for screaming at you like that!"

He hopped down off his bar stool, hoping the many drinks he'd had wouldn't mess up his balance. Luckily he found that his mind was surprisingly clear, however Rose took several steps back from him, as if she didn't believe she could stand too close.

There was a little part of him that was still unbelievably angry at her and wanted to make her suffer, however Rose's pro list was still ringing through his head. The next thing he knew, he was saying, "Y'know what? Screw it." before storming forward, grabbing her waist and kissing her hard.

It had only been a few hours, but that was far too long. The rest of the pub was blocked out completely and it was only him and her for miles. Rose kissed him back just as desperately, arms wrapping around his neck in a vice that he wasn't sure she'd ever ease up. God, he'd missed this …

Eventually, Scorpius realised that their embrace was becoming far too inappropriate for a public area, especially with her leg wrapped around him that like, so he reluctantly tore himself away from her. However the first thing she muttered was, "I love you."

"I know."

"Cause I know it doesn't normally seem like it, but–"

"I know." Scorpius grinned at her and she gave the smile he loved so much back.

He managed to prise Rose's arms off from around his neck so he could turn to face Amy, however, he still held her tightly at his side. He wasn't sure what face he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't Amy looking like she was about to burst with happiness.

"You all right?" he asked, snorting.

"You two are amazing!" she burst out and Rose snickered.

"Who's your mate?" she asked.

"Rose, this is Amy," Scorpius said, gesturing to the blond girl and the two shook hands. "She was kind enough to let me ramble about you and if it weren't for her … well, I probably would've told you to piss off just now." he admitted.

"Guess I owe you one, then." Rose said to Amy.

Amy waved a hand. "It was nothing, seriously. Tell you what though," She looked mischievous. "Same time, same place, next year?"

"If we get into another fight, no doubt I'll end up back here," Scorpius laughed. He dug around in his pockets for a moment and eventually came up with some muggle money. He handed the note to Amy and said, "Even so, tell your girlfriend that's a tip from me. I hope you both have a great Christmas."

"Thanks!" Amy said, cheerfully.

"Right," Scorpius looked at Rose next to him. "Let's get the hell out of here before I rip my ears off. These carols are seriously getting to me."

Rose snickered, but she paused in their movements towards the front doors of the pub. Her hands rose in a blur and suddenly, he felt something warm and fuzzy on his head. "You need this, though," she said and he realised it was the extra Father Christmas hat. "It's bloody cold out there!"

He had half a mind to argue, but decided against it. The hat wasn't that bad, after all. Just as he turned back towards the doors, wrapping his arm around Rose's shoulders as she flung hers around his waist, Amy's voice yelled out,

"Merry Christmas, Scorpius and Rose!"

Scorpius grinned. Just as they were walking out of the pub, he decided that perhaps Grandma got run over by a reindeer wasn't exactly the worst thing in the world that he'd heard.

Fin.

A/N: I had this story sitting on my computer for months. However come December, i found myself taking it out, shaking the dust off it and adding a whole lot of Christmas. So here it is. I hope you all like it!

And MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone who celebrates it!

Reviews are always appreciated. Until next time -

- Moon. : D