She could write up her life thus-far and it'd be perfect movie material. Or she could turn her life into a TV show and make millions. And that was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

Maybe she should do it.

Rose hadn't even mentioned Hugo on Monday night. She hadn't been able to look her parents in the eye, either. She'd gone right up to her room, shut the door, stuck her earbuds in and lost herself in writing.

Tuesday now, and she knew it had to be done. She and her parents had just finished up a big film, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were both at home when Rose walked in.

Rose marched straight into the living room, where her parents were watching TV and drinking coffee. She snatched the remote from the couch next to her dad and flipped off the show, and the screen went black.

"Rose?" Her father said quizzically.

Rose bit her lip until it bled. How to play this out? Where to begin? And then an irrational anger flared up in her stomach. "You didn't tell me," she said flatly, her voice shaking a little. "You didn't fucking tell me."

Her mother sucked in a sharp breath. "What — "

"You didn't fucking tell me about Hugo."

All the colour seemed to have fled their faces. They looked at each other, and then back at her, and then back at each other. Rose crossed her arms and glared and bit her lip because she would not cry.

Mrs. Weasley's voice was very careful when she finally spoke. "We didn't feel it was an appropriate time — "

"It's never an appropriate time!" Rose interrupted, her voice rising in volume. "This isn't an appropriate situation, damn it! What makes it okay to talk about is that we went through it together! But if you want hide things from me now, after all that, well shit, I guess I'll just go have a breakdown because I didn't find out at an appropriate time, huh?"

"Rose," her mother said imploringly. "Let's just be reasonable about this for a minute, okay?"

"There's nothing reasonable about this." Rose was shaking like a leaf and her mouth was full of blood. "There isn't any fucking reasoning in any of this, Mum."

And then she started crying, because she couldn't help it, just as she couldn't help the stream of words that churned out of her endlessly when she was writing.

"Oh, honey." Her mother stood and wrapped her arms around Rose's shoulders, guiding her back to the couch and sitting her down between them. Rose didn't resist. It wasn't worth it. This wasn't worth it.

"We're sorry, Rose," her father said in a tired voice. "We didn't want to spoil your first week. We were planning to tell you after the party."

"Dad, really?" Rose hiccuped, half-laughing. "I have unlimited access to the Internet around the clock."

"We're sorry." Her mother was crying, too. Her mother cried entirely too much.

"No, I'm sorry I freaked out," Rose said miserably. The anger was gone as quick as it had come. "I just — it's just — I don't know. I don't know."

Mr. Weasley squeezed her shoulders in response, and Rose couldn't stop crying.

"I miss him."

"We all do."

*'*'*

"Rose, guess what," Lily hissed, catching up with her in the crowd of students coming in from recess, and taking her elbow.

It was a rainy spring day, the kind where it rains on and off all afternoon, and the sun can't decide if it wants to be seen or not. The kind that swarms everyone with mosquitoes whenever there's a break in the rain. The school grounds were extremely muddy, and someone had caught a frog, which was really something — frogs never showed up in the yard.

"What?" Rose struggled with her rain boots; sixth grade hadn't stopped her from making good use of the mud. "What happened?"

"Well," Lily said slowly, excitement written all over her freckled face. "Jessica says that Scorpius... has a crush..."

Rose froze, heart rate picking up dramatically like an impromptu rain shower, and turned slowly to face her cousin. Her muddy boots dangled limply in her hands, forgotten. "On...?" She breathed.

"You!" Lily squealed, and attacked her with a hug.

Wait, what?

Rose's boots clumped out of her hands and onto the floor. It took a moment for the information to process, and when it did, it was simply too ridiculously good to be true. "What the heck? He does not," Rose protested. "Jessica's always making things up."

"Scorpius told Finnick, who told Amy, who told Jessica, who told me. I asked Amy and she said that it's true," Lily countered, smiling all over. "And then I asked Finnick and he also said that it's true."

Rose considered that for a moment. Still, her brain couldn't let her believe it. "He was probably making it up. He probably found out that I like him and said that to tease me. He's such a bully, anyway."

"I doubt it," Lily said seriously. "How could he have possibly found out? No one knows that! Well, except me. But you know I'd never tell a soul, Rose."

Then what was Rose supposed to do? The day passed in a blur of nervous butterflies. What if it really wasn't true? Someone easily could've overheard Rose and Lily. There were all sorts of reasons why Scorpius might just be trying to get on her nerves.

Then again... what if he really did feel that way? What if? What if... ugh, this was too complicated. How was Rose expected to deal with situations like this? She was twelve years old, for God's sakes.

Yet she couldn't get him off her mind. She kept stealing glances at him during class, half-hoping that they'd be reciprocated and terrified that they would be at the same time. There were all these little details about him that she'd never really cared to find in anyone else before... The way his hair was like molten silver when it caught the light at certain angles, the way he held his pencil perfectly like his hand had been made for it. The muscles that shifted down his back when he raised his hand to answer questions — which he was always doing. The well-defined shape of his jaw and the way he kept running his hands through his hair.

Rose wasn't sure if it was normal to feel so strongly about another person.

"Lily," Rose said decidedly as they got on the bus at the end of the day, squinting against the sun's weak reappearance. "We have to figure out whether or not he already knows that I like him."

"On it," Lily promised.

*'*'*

Lily laid out her plan of action at school the following day. "I'll just walk up to him and say, 'Rose really likes you. Did you know that?' And we'll take it from there."

Lily had this weird sort of bonus feature. She could always make everything seem so straight-forward, even when it wasn't. And she had a boundless confidence that Rose was secretly rather jealous of.

"Um..." Rose bit her lip, unsure. "Yeah, I guess that works."

Once again, Rose found it impossible to focus on the lesson. Apprehension thrummed through her and took control of all her senses. There were way too many possible outcomes, way too many worst-case scenarios...

It seemed like years before the bell rang.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Rose fretted, twisting her hands nervously and forgetting to put on her rain coat.

"Of course it is, don't be silly," Lily said dismissively, waving an impatient hand. "Look, there he is. You stay out of sight for now."

Rose trailed discreetly behind Lily as she stalked across the playground over to where Scorpius and his friends stood in a huddle. Slipping unseen behind a cluster of trees just within earshot of the group, Rose watched with a mixture of admiration and jealousy as Lily marched right up to Scorpius and tapped him on the shoulder.

Scorpius turned to face her. "Hi."

"I need to talk to you," Lily announced, with a pointed look at the others. "Alone."

"Sure," Scorpius assented, tilting his head and lifting an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Lead the way."

Rose ducked into a squatting position as Lily and Scorpius migrated right over to her cluster of shrubbery. For a fleeting moment she sort of felt like a ninja. The heavy evergreen branches hung down like a canopy, completely obscuring her.

"So what's going on?" Scorpius shoved his hands into his pockets, the puzzled look never leaving his face. He had the most adorable confused face...

Lily got straight to the point, looking at him squarely. "Rose really likes you. She really, really likes you."

Rose held her breath, heart pounding.

Scorpius' eyes widened, his whole form stiffening, shedding his aloof countenance like a snake sheds its skin. He blinked at Lily, once, twice; opened his mouth as if to say something, and then shut it again.

"So you didn't know?" Lily queried, crossing her arms. Oh my God.

"I had no clue," he confirmed, voice laced with a genuine disbelief. "Are you sure you should be telling me this? I mean, aren't you girls supposed keep each other's secrets?"

Lily let out an indignant huff and rolled her eyes at him. "That doesn't concern you. Anyway, see you later."

Scorpius' expression dropped back into his signature emotionless one, and he turned obediently on his heel and made his way slowly back to his friends, who had watched the entire encounter from afar with suspicious looks. 

Lily slipped behind the trees and Rose shot to her feet and they both slipped quietly out from behind the bushes on the other side, and made their exit unnoticed.

"Oh. My. God," said Lily.

*'*'*'*

A/N: sorry about that unfortunate excuse for a chapter. But I'm proud of this fic so far, okay? I've never written an AU before. I've started ones but left off halfway through the first chapter because I felt so lost and restricted. Idefk. I like the style I'm developing on this one.

Oh yahhhh, da flashback things. Idk. It's a new thing I'm trying out, but impossible tell yet if it's working the way I imagine it. Don't judge me if it fails. This entire fic is like a shot in the dark.

For now at least, you can probably expect frequent updates. The muse is running so strong that I'm neglecting all my other stories. I love anyone who is reading this.

~ The Unicorn Queen!!!!!!!