And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

Scorpius nodded at Vena's choice of words. Hogwarts really was where he had figured out who he was as a person instead of as his name. He remembered who he had been, barely, before he had come to school, but it really held every important part of his life within its walls. Now that he was getting married, it only made sense that such a big step that would help define who he was as a man would happen here at Hogwarts. "It would be such an honor to us if you would let us do this. It's where all of our memories are....all of the important ones at least."

Mrs. Matcarey nodded her head. "And where on the grounds would you want to hold the ceremony?"

Vena looked at Scor, she was unsure of where he wanted the wedding to be, they hadn't really discussed it with eachother. "Well," She said still wondering what Scor was thinking. She looked at her wand twirling in her hand, having not noticed that she'd taken it out. "I was thinking on the flat area of grass near the lake close to the edge of the forbidden forrest." She smiled slightly and glanced at Scor. "Unless you'd rather not do it there, I'm open to suggestions, there might be some loose grass floating about." She teased him lightly.

Rolling his eyes over the remark about the grass (honestly, his allergies weren't his fault), Scor nodded. The area near the edge of the forest was roomy (not that they would have that many guests) and they could look out over the lake, which was probably the most beautiful view in the school. The grass didn't grow very high there either, which meant Scor wouldn't get itchy and blotchy, which would be unfortunate on his wedding day. Returning his focus back to his former headmistress, he smiled warmly. "I actually think that would be the perfect spot. And don't worry, we'll make sure that there's no mess left afterwards, and it shouldn't take all that long either. We won't have many guests."

Mrs. Matcarey shook her head in amusement. "I wouldn't worry about any of that, Mr. Hyperion. I wouldn't expect anything less of you, with your record here. As long as the wedding is taking place after school term is over, I see no reason why the two of you shouldn't hold your ceremony here. Couples have done it before actually, but very few so young or so unique as the two of you." The portrait of Dumbledore, smiling slightly behind her, had a twinkle in his eye as he looked down at the scene, one of the few portraits who wasn't slumbering or at least pretending to.

Vena smiled, she was happy that they were allowed to have their wedding at Hogwarts. The grounds were also very pretty which added to the appeal of having a wedding there. The three of them talked for a little longer about a few details about the wedding and then Scor and Vena left saying that they would be in touch. "You're welcome to walk around the grounds for a little while," Ms. Matcarey said standing up as they left her office. "Thank-you," Vena said with a nod and a small smile shutting the door behind both of them.

Scor breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the door click into place behind them. It wasn't that he thought the headmistress would say no, but he had still been rather nervous. It was like each little step that they took in putting the wedding together was another inch closer to something that he'd sacrificed everything for. On one hand, it was exhilerating, knowing that he was finally being vindicated; on the the other, he was scared half to death. Grabbing Vena's hand, he led her down the stairs, eager to see his old alma mater again. In really hadn't been long since they'd been here, but it sometimes felt like ages to Scor. "It all looks the same, I guess," he noted as they walked through the halls toward the door.

Vena nodded, holding the door open for Scor. Once that had both walked through she shut it behind them. "Hogwarts is that kind of place," She said as they walked through the grass. "It doesn't change, if it did it wouldn't be the same." She frowned slightly, realizing that that was quite obvious. If something changed of course it wouldn't be the same. "What I meant was, it wouldn't be Hogwarts. You know? Oh I give up, I've someone managed to catch your saying things in a paragraph instead of a setence." She sighed dramaticly, a smile on the edge of her lips.

"It's about time you picked up some of my habits," Scor joked. "But I do know what you mean. Hogwarts is....timeless. It's like it's always been here, and always will." Even just being here on the grounds sent Scor into a whirlwind of memories, some pleasant and some not so much. He found himself suddenly very pleased with their decision to be married here. It was something like stepping outside of their lives and seeing everything: their past, their present, and their hopefully long and happy future. That thought managed to pull up another, which he hadn't even considered until now. "Did you ever read about Time Pools?" he asked Vena carefully, wondering how she would react the concept if he had to explain it to her.

"I still would have rathered to pick up a habit which doesn't take more time then it is needed to say what I need to say." She said with a shrug and a smile. She pushed her hair behind her ear looking around the grounds. Hogwarts was such a nice place , but also meaningful to heaps of people. Anyone who went through Hogwarts would have had at least once nice memory of the place. Vena looked at Scor. "No?" She asked slightly confused at what he was talking about. Time pools? They sounded confusing with just thinking about the name. Though, time itself was a confusing thing. Expecially when you thought about time travel and the likes of that.

Scor heaved a preparatory sigh, wondering how best to explain the concept. "Well, there's something in magical time theory...I don't really know all that much about it.....that says that time is....reflective in nature. Like a mirror. It helps us to remember things, and most magic to do with time deals with that." He paused, wondering if that had made any sense to begin with. He had only heard this mentioned in books once or twice, and very recent ones at that, but he'd been instantly intrigued. "Some wizard in Belgium studied the similarities between the way time reflects and the way mirrors reflect and somehow...he really must be brilliant...learned to shape a mirror out of time. It takes a lot of magic and they don't last very long, but for a while you have a perfect little pool of time." He looked hopefully at Vena to see if she had understood at least that part. That was necessary before he explained what they actually did, and why he was interested.

Vena nodded slowly. It made some sense, though it still confused her slightly but she did kind of get it. Though she was wondering why Scor was telling her this, becase it would be leading up to something. Though also knowing Scor who was an encyclopedia of random facts that no-body needed to know, he could just be saying it because, well just because. "Alright," She said. "What are you getting at?"

Scor looked up into the sky, wondering how Vena would react when he finally got around to what he was getting at. He was interested through pure curiosity, of course, but he wasn't sure that she would feel the same way that he did about the situation. "Well," he began, "we think of time as being stable...but really it's unpredictable. When you trap into a small space like that, it turns....wild. It doesn't follow rules anymore." He stopped walking and pulled Vena around so that she was facing him. "It jumps around between the past and the future. And when a person stands in front of it, it reflects their past and future." He bit his lips nervously. "What I'm trying to get at is that....I know how to get one. And I thought it might be nice for us to see...on our wedding day. I know that neither of us likes our past very much, but just the chance that we could see our future..." He trailed off and waited, hoping that Vena would like the idea.

Vena frowned slightly, thinking about what Scor had just told her. It sounded interesting and was in fact a good idea. But she wasn't too sure. She wasn't that fond of her past, as she would rather not think of it again. Which would obviosuly never happen, and she wasn't too sure whether she wanted to see what their future was going to be like. Because what if it wasn't good and on their wedding day they found out that someday it would all fall to ruins. Or something. She sighed slightly running a hand through her head and looking at Scor. "It's a good idea," She said with a slight nod. "I'm just not too sure." She shrugged slightly. "But I think it would be nice."

Scor's hopes fell a bit. Vena's words were reassuring, but he'd known her long enough to sense her hesitance. "I know that all sorts of things could go wrong. But they're not even sure, yet, if the future that is shows has to come true. It could just be one path we could go down. I just thought that it might show us what it would be like..." Scor had been avoiding the fact that getting married made him just as anxious as it made him happy. He certainly hadn't talked about it with Vena, who he thought might not understand. Something about marriage was so final....and he knew that he was being completely illogical when he thought that it would change anything. They already lived together, paid bills together, loved each other as much as any married couple ever did....yet he couldn't help but feel that everything would be different. "Just...just think about it," he asked with a hint of pleading in his voice. It would reassure him if he could see a picture of himself in the future, to know if he would be happy.

"I'll think about it," She said with a soft smile worming her hand into his. She could tell that Scor was anxious about the whole thing, about what the future would hold and what would happen. She was herself, but maybe less so then Scor. He had had to give up a lot when he chose to be with her. All Vena had lost weren't really doing her any good anyway. She sighed running a hand through her hair. "I know you want some sort of sign or something that you'd chosen the right path and that maybe seeing a future you, being all happy will show you that. But, what if you don't see yourself happy? What if we're happy for awhile and then we're not? What if your timepool thing shows us that? Then what Scor? Then what happens?" Vena was actually quite afraid that the luck she had gotten in the last few years, of being happy or having Scor was one day going to just run out.

Scor pulled his hand away and looked down at his feet. This wasn't exactly something he wanted to talk about, but he knew that they were reaching a point in their relationship where refusing to discuss something wouldn't cut it. "I don't know. I honestly don't." He knew that there was a chance that everything between them would fall apart. They were so young...and they had nothing to hold them together but love, which was a tenuous tether in itself. "I mean, I'd love to say that even if we were happy for a little while, it'd be worth it. But I can't. I gave up everything for this. I just...I have to know if...I have to know if it's going to be worth it." He felt his throat start to ache the way it did when he tried not to cry and cursed himself for being such a sap.

Vena wasn't sure what to say, so she took a step forward and hugged her fiance. "Sorry," She said quietly to him. "I just, I don't know. I want to see that we'll be happy, but I'm afraid of what will happen if we see that we're not. Cause I don't want it to end, I just." She ran a hand through her head pulling herself out of the hug. "I've been so happy since I met you and I don't want to lose that." She shrugged looking at her feet.

Scor felt a tear slip out as he felt Vena take hold of him in an embrace. He wanted to smile at her words, to tell her how happy he'd been as well, but if she didn't know by now then she never would. "I know. But, if it's going to end, then it's going to. Seeing it would just....save us from ourselves. But there's just as good a chance that we could ourselves happier than we've ever been, happier even than we are now." That was what he longed to see, and he wondered if it wouldn't do equally well to just seek out the fabled Mirror of Erised. That way, he would see only what he wanted and be blind to the reality of the world. But then he'd just be like the man who was once his father, wouldn't he? Caught up in his own inner world, convinced of things that were no more true than the fairy tales he read growing up. "I love you, Vena. I love you so much it hurts me to think that you'd ever be unhappy. And if someone told me today that I was going to be the one to make you unhappy, I'd leave today and make sure you never found me. Do you understand? I want to keep us from throwing ourselves into something that will only make us hurt."

Vena sighed slightly looking at her fiance. "I guess," She said running a hand through her hair and looking up at him. "You're right. For all we know we could be happy and to see that would be wonderful because we then don't need to worry about what might come in the future. And if we're not. I suppose that knowing that would help, so we know that it will happen and don't need to worry if it will cave in on us or not." She sighed,

Somehow, Vena's agreement felt a lot more like disappointment than triumph. Scor shook his head. "I'm sorry I'm being so...I don't even have a word for it, that's how silly I'm being. I'm just nervous and scared and it's canceling out how ecstatic I am that you'll be properly mine." He forced a smile onto his face and looked back out over the grounds. He wasn't sure if it was being here that brought up all of his fears again, or if it was finally knowing something solid about the wedding that had done it. The odds were towards the environment, though, since he'd spent so many of his years here as a Malfoy, whether he had wanted to or not. Now, several years since he'd dropped that blood and that curse of a name, his history still had a chance to haunt him when he returned to the place that knew him for who was and had been. "What should we do now?" he finally asked, hoping to direct his mind away from his own insecurities.

Vena leaned into Scor, taking his hand in hers again. It was good that they were getting their feelings out now, so they all wouldn't explode at a later stage when exploding emotions might ruin everything. "Don't know," She said thinking over what they should do next. She was still in the mood to do wedding-y, as it was their only same day off until the next week. She frowned slightly. "Think we should go tell your sister?" She suggested wondering if that was really a good idea, telling Eris yes, but going there maybe not, not just because of who else they might run into but it would probably be hard for Scor to be there.

Scor blinked. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought about that yet. He of course would never just owl her about it, she was too important. He supposed he had thought he would invite her out somewhere to tell her, instead of having to step foot into Malfoy Manor for the first time in ages. Yet, today was the only day they both had off for the week, and he would feel wrong not telling Eris at the first chance he had. Scor made a noncomittal face. "Are you sure you want to go....there?" he asked his fiancee, very aware of the fact that it would be a hostile environment for her, never mind himself. "There's a good chance....someone other than Eris might be there."

Vena looked at Scor as the two started walking again, heading for the gate to the grounds of Hogwarts. It was weird walking out through the gate and thinking that they would be back again, unlike the last time they had walked out, Vena had been pretty certain that they wouldn't be coming back. She knew that Scor was refering to his ex-father when he said someone, but that didn't really faze her all that much and she was slightly curious as to where the place Scor used to live was like. "I'll be fine," She said as they exited out the gate. "Chances are he won't be there anyway."

Scor nodded in hesitant agreement. "If he's anything like he used to be, he's probably out bribing someone. Or trying to convince some dignitary from Poland to come and steal Eris away from James." Eris had already told him of the day when she had "accidentally" bumped into the youngest Sangpur in Muggle London, while she'd been out with James. It was almost comical how far Draco Malfoy would go to make his heir "respectable."

When they reached the gates, Scor turned back and smiled at the castle, towing over the landscape. "It makes me so sad that Muggles can't see this place. It's so beautiful," he muttered distractedly. The fact that they had just been here would probably help with showing Vena the manor; most people would be overwhelmed by it on first sight, but since they'd just come from a place twice or three times as huge and gorgeous, she'd be okay. "Well, shall we go?" He felt the moment that he stepped through the anti-Apparition wards.

Vena nodded at Scor, also feeling as they were no longer in the anti-apperition wards. Vena thought that Apparition wards should be one sides, so you could apperate out of them but not in. Which would make some aspects of life simplier. But then you'd have students who could apperate apperating all over the place. Which would help with sneaking around at night undoubtably. "Sure," She said taking hold of Scor's arm. He had to apperate the both of them, as Vena didn't know where Malfoy Manor was.

Scor felt Vena take his arm and paused a moment before closing his eyes and focusing hard. Before he had separated himself from the family, there had been an automatic pull that would snap members of the family back to their home, almost like a rubber band popping into place. Now, though, Scor had to focus on the garden (peacocks and all) and the front walk to finally feel the pop and unpleasant squeeze that meant they were on their way. A few moments later, he felt his feet connect with something slightly cushier than expected. Opening his eyes, he found that they had landed in a patch of clover instead of on the stone walkway. That was fine; he had expected something much worse, such as landing on the back of a peacock or in one of the enchanted thornbushes. Nudging Vena, he announced, "This is Malfoy Manor." He hoped that Vena wouldn't be too taken aback by the huge white mansion; it was a little daunting.