When she heard soft footfalls rustle among the grass of the Quidditch Pitch, Rose thought that Albus had come to find her. It wasn’t a surprising notion - her parents had made the official announcement in the Burrow yesterday, so Uncle Harry must have written a letter or something. And Hugo skipping breakfast and all his classes that day might have tipped Lily off.
Rose had done nothing overly dramatic. She was a smart girl, a mature adult - eighteen years and four months old - the top of her class and Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain. She was brilliant and level-headed and logical, and she had seen this coming for a long time now, so there was no point in crying, no matter how her eyes burned or her stomach clenched.
The dark blanket of night gave her free reign over her facial expressions. Albus would not be able to see her tight jaw or the way her eyebrow twitched. He knew the ticks in her face like the lines on his palm.
The cold grass crunched under rubber soles. She felt the warmth of a person next to her, sitting cross-legged on the ground a hair’s breadth away.
It was not Albus.
“It’s after curfew,” she said flatly.
“I know,” said Scorpius, and fell silent.
Becoming friends with him again had been so easy, Rose realized. They had not spoken from the end of sixth year, all the way to the December of the seventh, because of something as silly as a failed relationship. It had taken one honest conversation during the Christmas party (and a sharp berating from Professor McGonagall, her godmother) to realize that friendship, and the happiness of her cousin, was more important than holding a grudge. So now, when Scorpius didn’t speak, the quiet was finally a comfortable one.
“I knew it was going to happen,” she said at last, knowing that he would listen. “I mean, they were always going to couple’s counselling - not continuously, but when the fighting got too much and Mum saw that Hugo was starting to notice, she and Dad would disappear for ‘date night’, which I figured was to see the therapist. There were those times when it was better, and I thought things could be...normal, y’know? Like once, last year, we went to Budapest for two weeks -”
“I remember the photos,” Scorpius said, and she smiled.
“Yeah, and it was just so...happy. They didn’t fight at all. But now...”
“Divorce?”
“Separation,” she said quietly. “Divorce is too permanent for them, I guess. Or they think it’s too permanent for us. Dad’s got an apartment in Diagon Alley.”
“Oh,” he said. A measured pause followed. “Maybe they just need some time alone. Like us.”
“We were nothing like them,” she replied sharply, and immediately regretted her tone. Not that it had been intentional.
“We needed time apart,” he shot back, “and it worked, Rose. Look at us now - we’re friends again, aren’t we?”
“I don’t want them to be just friends,” she mumbled, as she rested her chin on her knees, drawing her legs up to her chest.
“It’s better than them being nothing at all,” he said. Rose knew that his aunt, Daphne Greengrass, had divorced Marcus Flint many years ago, and had full custody of their two daughters. The girls almost permanently stayed in the Malfoy Manor because of Daphne’s hectic job. The woman refused to take any help from her ex-husband or sister.
That was not how Rose wanted her parents to turn out.
“I guess I’ll just have to wait and see,” sighed Rose, her shoulder bumping into Scor’s. For a moment it seemed like the gloom that had been following Hugo all day would finally be passed on to her, when she saw something move in the darkness.
She squinted, and pushed stray fiery strands of of her eyes. “Geez. How long do you think Al’s been standing there.”
“A while,” Scorpius guessed, and rolled his eyes. ”The git. He probably thinks we’re having a moment or somethin’.”
“Git,” she agreed, though unable to help the wide, fond smile that spread across her face. The fact that it was an hour past curfew did not stop her from raising her voice to call out to him. “OI, POTTER! GET YOUR SORRY ARSE OVER HERE!”
When Albus sat down next to her, pretending (unsuccessfully) to have reached there only a minute ago, and no, of course he hadn’t been eavesdropping (this was followed by Scorpius’ snort of derision), she felt the knot in her stomach loosen. It might have been very little, it might have been almost unnoticeable, but for now, it was enough.