Max's POV

Harry and Ginny took Albus to the Hospital Wing after he collapsed on the ground. Ron was the next one to follow them up to the castle, while Draco and I took our time walking back with Scorpius. I wasn't sure if he realized what he did was completely stupid and dangerous.

"Now, Scorpius," Draco spoke up. "Would you mind explaining to your mother and I what happened today?"

Scorpius let out a nervous laugh. "Well, it's a funny story, actually..."

"I'm sure it is,'' I said, crossing my arms.

Scorpius sighed. "Albus and I didn't want to come back to school this year. We decided to start over in the Muggle world. That didn't work out so much for us. We were coming back to Hogwarts when you found us."

"In Durmstrang robes?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"We were trying to fit in with the Muggles," Scorpius replied, making it clear that what he said was a lie. "Apparently, Muggles don't wear robes like these. Can you believe that?"

Draco and I looked at each other. I knew that he was thinking the same thing as me: What a bunch of bullshit.

"Okay, how about you tell us what really happened?" Draco inquired.

"But that's what happened," Scorpius protested.

"Really? You and Albus wanted to live like Muggles for the rest of your lives?" I spoke up.

"Well, neither of us fit in at Hogwarts," Scorpius said.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked.

"No one wants to be friends with Albus and I. He's the Slytherin Squib and I'm You-Know-Who's son."

"You are not his son," I clarified.

"Well, why don't you go tell the other students that for me?" Scorpius retorted. "Maybe they'll listen to you two."

My heart was filled with sympathy for Scorpius. "Oh, Scorpius..."

"You guys just don't understand how hard it is for me and Albus to come to Hogwarts every year. Everyone calls us names whenever we're walking in the corridors. They say rude things about us. We don't belong here and we never will."

I sighed and shook my head. "That's not true, Scorpius, and you know that."

"It is true, Mum," Scorpius retorted. "Hogwarts isn't what it used to be like when you two were students here. Things have changed. No one cares about me or Albus." With that, Scorpius stormed off towards the castle, leaving Draco and I behind.

"Scorpius, wait!" I called out to him as he was getting closer towards the castle.

"Max, just leave him," Draco replied. "Give him some time to cool off."

I huffed a sigh, shaking my head. "I didn't think fourteen-year-olds could be so difficult."

"We were like that, remember?" Draco told me.

"Yeah, I do," I answered. "Do you think Albus will be okay?"

Draco took my hand. "He'll be fine," he responded, leaning in for a kiss.

I quickly turned my head so that he kissed my cheek. "I haven't forgotten what you said."

Draco sighed. "I haven't, either."

I let go of his hand. "Did you mean it? About Harry and I being a constant curse on the Malfoy family?"

Draco gave me a sad look. "Max--"

"I'm not going to stand here and say that you're wrong, because you're not. Harry and I are a curse on the Malfoy family. I would've understood if we were kids and you had said that, but it's different because we're adults now. We're married. We have a son, Draco."

Draco huffed another sigh. "I shouldn't have said that."

I shook my head, running my fingers through my hair. "I've been thinking about something. I've been thinking about this ever since our argument in your office. Maybe we should take a break from each other."

"You mean, you want us to be separated for a while?" he asked.

I nodded my head. "Yes."

"Max, Scorpius needs us right now."

"It's hard to help Scorpius if all we're doing is arguing. We're saying hurtful things to each other. When we stop arguing, we just go at it again for another reason. It's almost like..." I trailed off, sighing.

"It's almost like what?" Draco questioned.

"It's almost like we...we lost the spark that we had," I replied

"You think we've lost our love for each other."

I nodded my head again. "Yeah, I do."

Draco looked down at the ground. "You do realize what will happen when Scorpius finds out about this, right?"

"I know. I thought about him and what he would say when he found out. I thought about you and how you'd react. I've taken everything into consideration, Draco. I think this is what's best for both of us."

"How long will we be separated?" he asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "I just know that we can't keep arguing like this, not with everything that's going on right now."

He huffed a sigh in defeat and nodded his head. "Okay. Fine. You know where to find me if you decide to come back."

I swallowed hard. "Goodbye, Draco." With that, I walked past Draco and headed towards the castle, not looking back at the man who was heartbroken by our decision.

Once I was back at the castle, I bid McGonagall goodbye and went back to the house to grab a few of my things. I closed the door behind me and rushed upstairs, wanting to rush out of here with my stuff before Draco came home.

I knew that what Draco said was right. Everything he had said to me tonight was absolutely true. I just wished he hadn't said all of those things to me. It all seemed to hurt me even more when he said it out loud.

As I was gathering my stuff, I noticed a piece of old parchment sitting on Draco's nightstand. Curious, I picked it up and unfolded it, revealing an old letter. I looked to see that it was the letter that I wrote to him when I was hunting Horcruxes with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I read the letter, thinking about those days we were on the run and Draco was all I could think about.

It was Christmas when I wrote that letter. That was back when everything was chaotic with the war that was going on. Yet Draco and I still managed to stay together until the end. So why was it so hard to do that now?

I put the letter back on the nightstand and grabbed some more things before leaving the house. I headed back to Grimmauld Place and went to the living room, placing my bag full of things on the couch. I headed down to the kitchen and looked for something to eat or drink. Not to my surprise, I found nothing. I pulled out a chair and sat in it, trying to figure out what to do now.

I was wondering how Draco and I managed to get to the point where being separated was the best option for us. After all the shit we had been through since we were kids and it all came down to this?

Hopefully, this separation would be good for us.

All of a sudden, I heard footsteps coming from the hallway. I slowly stood up and grabbed my wand from my pocket, heading back upstairs. I tried to be as quiet as possible, hoping that whoever was here wasn't an intruder. I poked my head out and saw no one in the hallway. Confused, I gripped my wand tighter and walked down the hallway, wondering if I had been imagining it. Then, I heard more noises coming from the living room. I took a deep breath and then opened the door, pointing at my wand at the intruder. I shot a confused look and put my wand down when I saw who it was.

"Hello, Max," George Weasley greeted me, sitting on an armchair with a smirk on his face.

"George?" I responded, a bit surprised that he was here. "What are you doing here? How did you even know that I was here?"

"Well, you're the only one I know that would dare to have a Slytherin pin on your bag," he answered, pointing at my bag on the couch.

"Scorpius wanted me to have it," I told him. "Anyway, you haven't told me why you're here."

"Oh, right," he said, rubbing his hands together. "You see, I knew it had been quite some time since we had seen each other and I thought I owed you a visit. So, tonight, the night that I wasn't busy, I decided to pop around your house to talk to you. Of course, you weren't there. That was when I said to myself, 'I know where she would be at: Grimmauld Place!' So, here I am."

I raised my eyebrows. "Some story you got there."

"It's true," he answered. "Now, why are you here? Does it have something to do with that husband of yours?"

I sighed and sat down on the couch. I looked at George. "Draco and I have said some awful things to each other recently. I knew that he was right about some things, but hearing him say it out loud...that really got to me. I didn't want to believe that he felt the same way, you know?"

"And you think staying here and not at your house with him is going to help?" George questioned.

"Well, I can't just go home to him and act like everything is perfectly okay, because it's not," I retorted. "We both need time away from each other."

"What does Scorpius think of this?"

I looked down at my hands. "He, uh...he doesn't know yet..."

George widened his eyes and then shook his head. "Well, you're definitely Mother of the Year..." he said in a sarcastic tone.

"I'm sure Scorpius would rather hear the news from his father than from me," I said. "After all, Draco is his favorite..."

"That's not true, Max," George protested. "You know that Scorpius equally loves you both."

"I wish I could believe that," I replied. "I feel like I lost both of them."

"Want to hear my advice?" George asked. "You can't just run away from your problems like you ran away from the Malfoys when you were younger."

I looked at him in surprise. "How did you--"

"Oh, come on. Fred and I knew the entire time. We never said anything to you and Harry about it because we figured you guys were keeping it a secret for a reason."

I shook my head, letting out a chuckle. "And here I thought Harry and I did a good job at being secretive about it."

"Not really. I mean, why else would you two say goodbye to each other at the end of the year?" George responded. "Plus, you two were terrible liars back then."

I laughed. "We were teenagers."

George laughed with me. "Fred and I did notice something between you and Malfoy, though. We weren't sure what it was, but there was definitely something there."

My smile slowly faded away. "I just don't get it. We've been through so much shit and this is where we're at now. How did we let this happen?"

"Well, not every marriage is perfect."

I looked at George and sighed. "If only they were."

~~~~~~~

A/N: I was struggling with this chapter, tbh.

I apologize for being so late on updating. If you saw my long post a few weeks ago then you know what has been going on.

Anyway, I kind of know what I want to do for the next chapter. School is almost over for me and I know finals will kill me.

The song is What Is Love? by Frances (I love the FSD soundtrack tbh).

Comment, vote, XD

-A