Amortentia (a Scorose Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

          Rose had spent the last few months at Hogwarts imagining the moment when someone would find out about her and Scorpius.  She had played out so many scenarios in her head—there had been shouting, screaming, crying, even violence in one particular scenario involving Lily. 

          She couldn't count on one hand how many scripts she had conjured up in her mind—all the things she would say, what she would do.  Rose could have recited with her eyes closed the words she wrote for herself to say. 

          And, yet, in the actual moment, Rose was completely and entirely speechless. 

          Albus stood in front of her, hands clenched at his sides.  Her cousin and best friend looked so angry that Rose could practically feel the heat of his glare on her skin.  "Don't you have anything to say for yourself, Rose?"

          Rose swallowed.  She was so nervous and shaken up that she swore her eyeballs were quaking in their sockets.  "W-what?"

          Albus narrowed his eyes.  His brown hair was an unruly mess on top of his head, windswept by the cold December wind outside.  His eyes were rimmed with angry wrinkles.  He looked frighteningly mad.  Rose's heart was pounding in her ears at the sight. 

          "I saw you with Malfoy," he repeated, more for her sake than anything else. 

          But Rose had heard him loud and clear the first time.  She just hadn't wanted to believe the words that had left his mouth. 

          She shook her head dumbly.  She didn't know what she was doing.  Her mind was hazy.  The only thing she could focus on was Albus' anger.  "I—I wasn't—"

          "You have got to be fucking kidding me!  Merlin's Beard, Rose!" Albus exploded, hands flying to his head.  He gripped his hair in frustration.  "Are you really trying to deny it?  I saw you, Rose!  I saw you with him!"

          Rose's voice was shaking as much as her hands were.  "I don't—I was with Charlie—I—What were you even doing in London?"

          Albus laughed.  The sound cut at Rose's eardrums like a knife.  It wasn't a pleasant noise.  It didn't send a warmth of happiness through her like her cousin's laugh usually did.  "You have some nerve, Rose.  I followed you, okay?  I didn't believe your story about meeting Charlie and a group because Charlie Chester doesn't have any other friends besides you and Malfoy.  So I asked James to apparate me to the museum so I could see for myself.  And I did."

          Albus had followed her to London.  He hadn't believed her this entire time?  How long had he been suspicious of her? 

          But he knows now. 

          It was as though her brain finally started working again.  Everything clicked into place.  Albus saw.  He knew. 

          Albus knew about her and Scorpius. 

          Rose took a frantic step towards her cousin.  "Albus, we're just friends.  Please, there's nothing going on—"

          "Do you really expect me to believe that?" Albus asked.  "You were holding hands... Have you been sneaking around this entire time?"

          She didn't expect him to believe her.  No, not at all.  Why should he?  She had been lying to him—to everyone—for months. 

          Rose's eyes were quickly filling with tears which she was sure didn't sting nearly as much as her betrayal.  "Not the entire time," she whispered, her voice breaking on the last word.  "I promise Albus, I didn't mean for this to happen..."