Chapter Text
-Twelve Years Later-
Rose hummed softly to the baby in her arms, rocking him into a blissful sleep. She smiled at the beautiful boy, his eye lids closed, his breathing steadying. It had been her first week back at St. Mungo's since she had him, and Rose already missed seeing him every day. She loved her work, but not as much as she loved being here with her children, rocking them to sleep.
Rose pressed a light kiss to his forehead, and laid him down in his crib.
"Goodnight Nile," she whispered.
Rose was surprised to see her husband leaning against the door frame, watching her. Rose scowled at him, and pushed him out of the nursery, shutting the door softly behind her.
"How long have you been standing there?" she asked.
"Only a few minutes," Scorpius replied, "I heard you humming our song, so I came to watch you."
They made their way to the kitchen so Rose could finish making lunches for tomorrow's picnic.
"Did Evynn go to sleep alright?"
Scorpius nodded, sitting on a stool. "She fell asleep during the middle of the story actually. School must really being wearing her out. Did the twins give you trouble?"
Rose sighed. "Asher was fine as usual. Addie not so much."
"Must be the terrible twos."
"Why did we decide having four kids was a good idea?"
Rose threw the sandwiches into the basket, put a quick cooling charm on it, and set it on the counter.
"Is Dom and Will going to make it to the picnic?" Scorp asked.
"She said they would try their best, Pamela has ballet class and they are hoping afterwards they can make it."
Dominique had done exactly what she said she was going to do. The summer after her sixth year, she would apparate to Nana's, then walk into town to spend time with Will. After seventh year, they dated for awhile longer before she finally decided to tell him that she was a witch. He didn't take it so well to begin with, not nearly as well as Charlotte did when Fred told her. He broke up with Dom but that didn't last long before he came to terms with her being a witch and came back.
"It should be an interesting picnic. Didn't Albus say that Cabe showed signs of magic the other day?"
"Yep," Rose replied, "Sarah thought she saw some floating cars attacking Vivienne's crib, but when she entered the room they fell to the ground. He won't admit it either of course."
Scorpius chuckled. "Won't that be fun when our little bundles of joy start showing signs? I can see Addie accidentally causing every glass in the house to shatter one day when she screams."
"Merlin help us," Rose muttered.
The two of them made the way up the stairs and down the hallway to their bedroom, peeking in doors to make sure the children were all fast asleep.
The twins shared a room for now. Both of them had the same silvery blond hair as their father. Asher slept with his thumb in his mouth, clutching his stuffed dragon that his great Uncle Charlie got him for his birthday. Addie was splayed out on her bed, blanket on the floor, her own stuffed dragon in her hand dangling off the bed. Her toy broom was lying in bed with her. She couldn't sleep without it. Rose quietly tip-toed over and put the blanket back over her.
Rose looked into Evynn's room, smiling as she saw her daughter curled up in the corner of her bed. Her strawberry-blonde curls were in a tangle on her pillow, and Rose knew that tomorrow it was going to be hard to brush it. Her room was a mess; toys were spilled out everywhere. Currently she was fascinated with the idea of pirates, so her toy box had to be emptied so it could serve as her ship.
Nile was only two months old. His hair hadn't come in yet, and the family had bets on what color it would be. Rose's dad wanted it to be red, her mother wanted it to be brown like Hugo's daughter. Rose had a feeling it was going to blonde, just like his father's.
In Rose and Scorpius's bedroom there were four pictures hanging on the wall, and two more in frames.
The first was on the last day of Hogwarts. Dom, Nicola, Sarah, and Rose were hugging goodbye, tears in their eyes.
The second one was at the Quidditch World Cup, in the center of the field. That was the first year that Perry was the keeper for England, and James was the seeker. Rose had her arms around the both of them, even though they were sweaty from the game. Perry was only 18 when they won the World Cup.
The third one was at Christmas, and their gigantic family was laughing and smiling as they scrunched together in one picture, everyone wearing their sweaters.
The fourth was their wedding day. Sarah was the maid of honor. Albus was Scorpius's best man. The wedding was perfect in every way. It was the best day of Rose's life.
On the dresser sat the two photos in frames, both alike but extremely different. Both were taken at Remembrance Balls. Both were of Scorpius and Rose dancing. But in one of them she thought she hated him, and the other she knew she loved him.
Rose crawled into bed beside Scorpius, and put her head on his shoulder.
"Remember when you loathed me?" Rose asked, using her finger to trace patterns on his arm.
"I never hated you," he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer, "I just didn't realize at the time that my strong feelings for you were love."
They lay there for awhile, reminiscing about the school days.
"Life really was eventful back then, wasn't it?"
"It was," he agreed, "And it still is. We should probably get some sleep before Nile wakes up again."
He flicked his wand to turn off the light, and Rose re-positioned herself so she was curled up against his side.
"Goodnight Rose," Scorpius said.
"Goodnight Scorpius," Rose replied, "I love you with all of my being."