Leave Out All the Rest

Chapter 39: Of All the Things to Love

POV: Rose

The warm, summer breeze graced my skin, causing me to let out a content sigh as I adjusted a quilt Gran and I had knitted many years back over on the plush grass. I looked up at the willowy tree, smiling at the leaves that swayed, allowing shade and sun to rain down on us. It was the perfect spot overlooking the Black Lake, and I dubbed it so as I settled the picnic basket at the center.

"Well, come on," I said to the three girls lingering behind. I patted the quilt. "Sit."

Lily and Nia frowned at me, while Emily looked uneasy, tugging at the sleeve of her sweater. 

They were all here against their will, of course.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said with a laugh, hands on my hips like I'd seen Aunt Ginny do thousands of times before, "I wasn't aware I asked if you'd like to sit. I was under the impression I told you to sit, so sit!"

Emily (bless her, really) was the first to move as I repeated my command. She placed the bottles of pumpkin juice I asked her to get from the kitchens beside my picnic basket before settling. She crossed her legs over each other, placing her hands on her lap.

I smiled gratefully at her before turning back to the other two girls. With Emily no longer in between them, Lily and Nia put more distance between each other. I did not believe in any of that nonsense Trelawney spewed about auras and vibrations, but I swore I could see red sparking over their heads. The color of their shared resentment.  

I was going to have to play dirty, I see. 

I turned back to Emily, my smile growing sad. She blinked at me, realization slowly dawning in her green eyes. She sighed, nodding once.

"Lily, Nia," she murmured, "I'd really like if we could spend the day together. Without any fighting. Please...for me, could you two just join us for this picnic Rose kindly prepared for us?"

Instantly, Lily groaned. She stalked over to the quilt, plopping herself beside Emily. She crossed her arms over her chest, her cheeks almost matching the red of her curled hair. 

One down, I thought as I looked back at Nia. 

This is where it would get difficult, I knew. Lily was more susceptible to being guilt into something than Nia was. While she did love Emily with all of her heart, there was something Nia felt just as equally than that affection. And that was her ire against Lily. 

"Why are we doing this?" she demanded, her own hands on her hips. "And don't give me that stupid answer of oh, it's summer, and the last day of school. Sentimentality does not work on me, Weasley."

I rolled my eyes, opening the lid of the picnic basket. I reached in, pulling out sandwiches the house-elves were nice enough to prepare for me. I allowed her words to settle as I then took out sweets and crisps I'd purchased the last trip Scorpius and I took to Hogsmeade. 

When I thought I gave it enough time, I said, "Because we were almost torn apart." I looked up at her, no sentimentality in my tone or on my face, but rather the same serious expression I use when I present facts when tackling a debacle. "I don't just mean individually, but as a whole. And, lets face it, most of that was because of those of us here."

"Honestly," Nia huffed, pulling her long, blonde hair up into a messy bun at the top of her head. "I have far more important things to do than to sit here and share my feelings—"

"If you leave," I said to my friend, "then you are condemning us to another year of drama. Fifth Year was enough. I don't want to spend my summer treading carefully, nor do I want Sixth Year to be like that either."

Nia narrowed blue eyes at me. "You and I are fine, Rose. Em and I are—"

"Oh, fuck you, Harper," Lily interrupted. "Just say it how it is: you hate me. And that's perfectly fine since I hate you, too."

Nia's fists twitched, but she turned to me. "See? Why change what's already cemented?"

"Because you don't actually hate each other!" I hissed. "You just find it easier to say that you do so you don't have to face your fears."

"I'm not scared of anything!" both Lily and Nia snarled back at me.

Despite herself, Emily chuckled. They turned to her, annoyed. 

I took a deep breath, looking at her, too. "Em," I started, "I owe you an apology.  I know we've talked endlessly about me intercepting you...that night," she cringed, holding her breath, and Lily reached over, squeezing her hand, "but I never asked you to forgive me for being a complete twat. You're one of my best friends, but I was often jealous of what you and Scor had. It wasn't about you, I see that now, but it was my own insecurities that got the best of me. For projecting them onto you, I'm so sorry."

It took a few long seconds for Emily to release the air she was holding captive inside of herself. When she did, she murmured, "I thought my relationship with Scor was obvious from the start, but I realize now that I didn't necessarily show how I saw him or any of you. I...I've been so scared about losing you, that I pulled away, taking three steps back every time you took one forward. I'm sorry for leaving when all I wanted to do was stay."

I reached over, presenting my hand. There was a tearful smile on her face I knew was on mine, too. When our fingers laced, I squeezed. The summer breeze took our regrets away.

"Lily," I found my voice again, seeing the fleeting smile on my cousin's lips when she hugged Emily, "don't you think you and Nia should be honest with each other, too?"

Her smile was gone. She scoffed at me.

"I'm not doing this, Rose," Nia repeated through gritted teeth. "I have to pack. Enjoy your sandwiches—"

"You're scared Lily is going to take Liam away from you," I said just as she turned on her heels. She stopped, her shoulders tensing beneath her Holyhead Harpies jersey.  "But that's never going to happen because he loves you. You're his best friend."

Lily let out an outraged laugh. "Seriously, Harper? That's your issue?"

"What the hell is yours?" Nia spun around, her blue eyes almost navy from her anger. "You wanted him to choose—"

"Because I thought you were in love with him!"

 "That's disgusting! I've fancied Al for years!"

"Ugh, that's disgusting! Why? It's Albie!" Lily demanded. 

"Don't call him Albie!" Nia defended, making me smirk just as Lily cringed. Emily looked almost amused. Then, our blonde friend let out a breath, trying her hardest to calm the storm she was creating. "Look, Potter....Lily, I've been terrified Liam will love you more than he loves me. I'm selfish, I couldn't let that happen, but I then realized that me being selfish was making him unhappy. He fancies you. He wants to be with you. And that's a different type of love. I can't promise you my instincts to fight for him won't kick in, but I can promise that all I want is for him to be happy. And if you're it, then I can accept that."

Lily's temperament was all Weasley, therefor I expected her to warp what Nia was saying, all to give her an excuse to blow up on her. But that never came. I was (pleasantly) shocked when she stood, fluffing down the bottom of her dress before extending a hand in Nia's direction. 

"Maybe I am guilty of making him choose, but I never wanted you to disappear from his life. You're his best friend. And even if it made me jealous, I can understand you're a part of Liam that he's always going to cherish more than anything else in this world. For his sake, I can accept that. For his sake, let's call it a truce."

"For the sake of everyone," I chimed in, "please do call a truce. An Unbreakable Vow, if you will. I can perform it."

"You've just been itching for a reason to cast that spell," Nia said to me, rolling her eyes before turning back to Lily. She stretched her hand out, too. "For Liam. And everyone else."

When their hands joined, Emily leaned over to me. "It's an end-of-term miracle."

"I honestly could have prevented wars," I muttered mostly to myself before clapping my hands together. "Let's drink to this newfound peace!"

But peace at Hogwarts was unattainable. Especially when you had relatives like mine. 

Before I could remove the top from one of the bottles of pumpkin juice, a sound wave burst in our direction, the noise a mixture of incoherent arguments that were all too familiar. 

Freddie and Louis came running up the hill, shoving each other before diving in for the picnic basket. James jogged around the side, coming from behind Emily to put his arms around her. I noticed that she did not shudder at his contact, but instead pursed her lips for him to press a light kiss on them. Liam came strolling up alongside Lucas, both finishing up a conversation about Transfiguration. While Lucas scoffed at Freddie and Louis' poor manners, Liam distracted himself by smiling wide at Nia, kissing her at the side of her head before moving in Lily's direction. He kissed her cheek and she blushed a pretty pink shade. Coral McLaggen (who now had the misfortune of counting herself as part of our group) reached over for Louis, tugging at the back of his collar to get him off Freddie. Al threw his arm around Nia's shoulder, reeling her in, kissing her like there was no one around but them. James chucked a piece of his chocolate frog at them, making heaving sounds that made Emily giggle. Dominique rode up on Derrick Rowle's back, kicking her heels into the back of his thighs to hurry him up (anyone would often find the two like this since Dominique claimed pregnancy made it impossible for her to walk anywhere). Roxanne, Hugo, and Lucy came, too, forming their own clique right beside Lily and Liam. 

Then, with the sun as a spotlight, Scorpius made it up the hill. 

I glared at him. "Why did you tell them about my picnic?" I demanded, throwing the nearest thing around me (it was the book I checked out for light, fun reading—which, of course, was not light at all). He barely dodged it. "You knew I set out to accomplish a mission of peace today."

"This is a small army," he said to me, still smirking despite the annoyance in his tone. "You wanted me to keep a small army occupied, Rose. I'm grateful you think so much of me, but this was an impossible task from the start."

"If you're going to have anyone entertain us for a long while, at least make it someone worth listening to," James said with a smirk of his own. Scorpius flipped him the finger as he moved over to me. "He bored us endlessly with his summer plans. Here's a tip for you, mate: no one cares about your uncle the prince of wherever. Our uncle trains dragons—live, fire-breathing, monstrous dragons. Step up your game."

It was Scorpius' turn to glare at me. "You see, Weasley?"

"I'm still surprised Dad has taken this so well," Hugo said as he plucked a grape from the box of fruit I had prepared. 

"What is well?" Louis asked, tearing himself away from the sandwich he looked ready to kill Freddie over. "He got drunk that whole weekend and told anyone that'd listen he would disinherit Rose if she didn't break up with him."

"No," Al cut in, "he said he'd frame Scorpius for something so he'd go straight to Azkaban for the next eighty years."

"He said both," Dominique offered with an entertained grin. "Aunt Hermione chucked him and he ended up sleeping on our couch for the rest of Easter break, remember? He cried himself to sleep."

Scorpius groaned, possible remembering the aftermath of our coupling. I leaned my head on his shoulder. "It could have been worse."

"It was worse," he said. "Father almost gave himself alcohol poisoning and kept ranting about how he'd move us all to Alaska before being related to the Weasleys."

"Thinking about it now," I said, "that actually wasn't the nicest thing he could've said about our situation. It just pissed off my mum."

"It's Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger," Scorpius scoffed. "When are they not pissed off at each other?"

Dominique coughed, something along the lines of 'sexual tension' was mixed in, making her boyfriend laugh, but before I could demand if I heard right, Emily's voice rung out. "At least you're finally together." 

It was customary to see a paleness take up Emily's soft, pretty features, but whenever James was around, hints of warm pink popped up from beneath her cheeks. He gave her some normalcy back and all of us were grateful he did. Because her skin was flushed, the gentle smile on her lips seemed real and whole.

 "At least we are all finally together," she continued. "This year was hard, Rose was right, as she always is. And she was right about us being our own worst enemies. We made things harder than what they should've been, but we also loved each other more than we ever have...I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you. For staying despite it all."

Scorpius smiled at his best friend, something light and glittering in his gaze. "We're not going anywhere, Em."

"Never ever," offered Freddie with an open-mouthed grin, one full of food.

I looked up at Scorpius, the feeling in my chest too strong for me to contain. Just looking at him set my world aflame. Add that to having the most important people in my life around me—well, this is what genuine happiness must feel like.

Scorpius leaned in and pressed his lips on mine.

Correction: this is what genuine happiness feels like. 

"Oi!" Then something hit me on the forehead. It was a grape. "No snogging. A brother does not need to see his sister swapping saliva," Hugo said with a grimace. 

I glared. "I saw you snogging that Hufflepuff boy yesterday!"

My brother's grimace turned into a leer. "True, but Dad paid me a hefty sum to make sure you and Malfoy did not get opportunities to snog."

Freddie took a giant gulp straight out of the pumpkin juice bottle. He then stood, dusting off his hands on his torn jeans. "Zabini, what do you say we get out of here? All these idiots are coupled together and we're the odd ones out. The Singh twins were sunbathing by the greenhouses. Let's go smitten them."

Lucas did not remove his back from the tree, instead crossed his arms and adjusted his sunglasses closer to his face. "That would've been fun a month ago, mate, but I've got a girlfriend now."

"What?" demanded almost everyone. "Who?"

"Mate," Al pressed, outrage in his eyes. "What the hell? You've known about Nia for years, but you've never once mentioned to me you were seeing someone."

"I'm actually a very private person," Lucas said with a laugh. "Have you lot really not noticed?"

Louis scoffed. "Sounds fake, then."

"Yeah," James added. "If you can't provide proof, then we're just going to start spreading the rumor that you're seeing Moaning Myrtle."

Freddie snorted. "Like he can get Myrtle. He'd be lucky to get Peeves. No offense, Zabini, but you're just not—"

"I'm his girlfriend, you idiots."

No one was prepared for Roxanne to stand. 

Louis and James stopped snickering. Lily, Hugo, and Lucy started sputtering nonsense. And Freddie looked like he'd been hit over the head with a beater's bat.

"Roxy," I called with a growing grin, "when did this happen?"

"After the Muggle London incident," my cousin said, smiling beautifully at me as she joined Lucas at the tree. He put an arm around her waist, looking at her like she was the sun. "Lu checked up on me every day after that and things just sort of happened."

"Lu? Don't call him Lu," Louis grumbled. "His name is Zabini and I'm still in denial."

Lily blinked, clearly lost. "But...you're horrible at keeping secrets. How'd you not say anything to any of us?"

"Well, Rose was still reeling from the chaos her relationship with Malfoy made, not to mention the family went bonkers after Dominique's abrupt pregnancy announcement, that I just didn't think it was the right moment. But don't worry," Roxy said, "I'll tell you all about it now. Oh, and yeah, he's an excellent kisser."

A battle cry pierced the summer day. 

We all saw Freddie launching himself at Lucas before it actually happened. All the boys, including Nia and Dominique, charged forward, shouting obscenities and spurring on the wrestling between the two.

I snuggled closer into Scorpius, closing my eyes as the sunlight rained down on us. Even though he was placing a bet on Lucas, he wrapped his arms tightly around me. It took far longer than it should have, but I finally was where I needed to be.

We all were. 

fin.