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

Vena entered the lounge room after Scor and plopped down on the couch next to him, that couch was probably the most used thing in the whole house as they always sat on it. She leaned back into the couch with a small yawn. Other then working through the day she never really got too much done in the day, because by the time she got home she really was far too tired to bother to do anything.

Scor smiled as Vena sat down next to him, yawning. She was always more tired than he was, which he figured made plenty of sense, with her working for the Ministry. At the library, he could pretty much sit around and read until Reggie got in, unless there were recently returned books on the cart, or new shipments in. After that, the only really tough work was doing story hour. Scor wasn't as fond of children as his sister was, so he had to struggle through reading them silly kids' stories. Stretching his arms and getting more comfortable, he wondered what it would be like to be married. Would it be any different? He and Vena were already living together. He wondered if a ceremony would be able to change anything between them. There was a comfortable silence in the air that he wasn't sure if he should break or not, so he simply sat contentedly, thinking of the future.

The two sat their in silence for a while until Vena decided that it would probably be best to head off to bed. She was tired and while she didn't have work the next day she did prefere to be up earlier instead of later, it gave one more time to do stuff in the day. She yawned again heading off to the bedroom.

The next morning Vena was sitting at the table eating breakfast (Scor was either not yet up, or just not yet in the kitchen) when an owl tapped onto the window. It wasn't the paper owl as that one had already come so she guessed that it was a reply from Ms. Matcarey. She sipped on her coffee as she opened the letter.

To Scorpius Hyperion,

Congradulations on your engagement with Miss Riddle.

I am up for a discussion later in the day, you can come to Hogwarts and meet at my office at two.

Until then,

Ms. Matcarey.

Scorpius rolled over onto his side and threw his arm out gently to wrap around Vena. Blinking awake, he realized that she had already gotten up and groaned to himself, not believing it was morning already. He woke up and put on his bathrobe and brushed his teeth, squinting at himself in the mirror. Not bothering with anything else yet, he decided to go and see what Vena was doing.

Walking into the kitchen, he saw that she was eating breakfast. "Good morning," he muttered, shuffling towards the table. He got fairly close before he noticed the letter in her hand. "What's that?" he questioned, sitting down at a chair across from her and pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

Vena passed the letter to Scor taking another sip of her coffee, she'd gotten a liking to the drink sometime in her seventh year at school and was now something she had just about every day. It woke her up and was warm, so it was nice. "Letter from the headmistress." She said as he read the letter.

She finished off her drink and cleaned her mug and plate, also cleaning the cutlery she had used. Putting the things away she sat back down on the table grabbing the paper from where she had left it. Vena didn't particularly like reading the paper as it was all full of news of people killing other people but it was good to be informed on what was happening in the world.

Taking the letter up, Scor scanned it quickly, grinning broadly as he got towards the end. "Well, that was easy," he noted brightly, renewing his faith in the headmistress who had been nothing less than perfectly helpful to him throughout his school years. Sipping some more of his orange juice, Scor realized that it was really too early for him to want a full breakfast, so he accioed a piece of bread and tapped it with his wand, turning it to toast. He munched away at it as he re-read the letter, still smiling. "I don't think she'd meet up with us if she was going to turn us down, do you?" he asked his fiancee.

"Probably not," Vena agreed, stealing his toast for a moment. Taking a bite out of it and passing it back to him. She finished off her mouthful of toast before saying."Because that would just be wasting time and I'm sure she has enough things to do without meeting us just to say no." She looked back down at the paper, frowning as she flicked through the pages. "Everything they put in here is so depressing." She said flicking past another story of some person nearly getting killed by something or other. "Like really."

Scorpius nodded as Vena agreed with him. He would have liked to have said something about her stealing his toast, but by the time he had opened his mouth to complain she had already given it back and, resigned to his fate, he shrugged and took another bite. With his mouth full of crumbs, he examined the front page of the newspaper. "Twenty Killed In Freak Accident," he muttered, reading the headline. "I think that's all people care about these days. They're not having a good time, so they look at the paper and think, oh, well I'm doing better than that poor dead chap." He shook his head at the thought and finished off his toast. He had no idea what he was going to do until two o'clock.

"Hrm," Vena said with a slight frown. "Which is kind of makes sense but is also stupid." She yawned again and stood up, going off into the bathroom to have a shower and get ready. She didn't know what the plans for the day until two were but she liked being ready and dressed just in case something came along. Twenty minutes later she reentered the kitchen pulling her hair into a pony tail.

Scor waited patiently for Vena to return from the shower so that he could have one. Normally he would have been in and out very quickly but he took his time, trying to get properly woken up and having no particular hurry. He got dressed in some decent robes, for once, although his normal Muggle-ish clothes were underneath. Wandering back into the main part of the house, he tapped his wand on the wall and saw that they still had several hours before they needed to be at the school. "Do you want to go into town?" he asked Vena, hoping to waste some time.

Vena nodded at Scor question as he reentered the room, they might as well do something in the few hours they had. And it was their only day off that they got. "Sure," She said getting up off of the chair she had been sitting on. "We should go grocery shopping while we're are it." Vena then proceeded to go around the kitchen, placing the things she needed into her pockets. She didn't see the reason of taking bags, when what she needed could fit into her pockets.

Slipping her shoes on, she looked around for Scor, to see if he was ready. Half of the time there weren't ready at the same time. Either she was and he wasn't or he was and she wasn't. "Walking or apperating?" Vena asked Scor as he made his way to the front door. Vena herself preferred walking, when she wasn't in a hurry and when the place she was going to was in walking distance.

Vena's suggestion of going shopping while they were out was actually an excellent idea. Muggles, of course, had to buy groceries just before they left home, so that they wouldn't spoil before they got safely tucked into the refrigerator. He and Vena, though, could shrink the groceries and put a cooling charm on them, which would make them small enough to carry for the rest of the day and safe from any heat in the air. He ran to the kitchen to get the grocery list from the kitchen. At the top, someone had written, "Anything but chicken." He wasn't sure if he had written that at some point or if Vena had, but either way he laughed and tucked it into his pocket along with the letter from their former Headmistress and a few other spare things.

He met Vena at the front door and contemplated their options. With the amount of time they had on their hands, they might as well walk, so he said so and opened the door for Vena to walk out into the morning sun.

Scor shut the door behind himself and Vena, it locked itself once it was shut which was useful, so one didn't need to stick the key in and lock it or as Vena and Scor did half of the time. Tap it with their wand. It was a nice day, not too sunny and not too cloudy. Vena frowned slightly at the fact that she was commenting on the weather, she generally did not care what the weather was. Just as long as she wasn't outside when it bucketed rain.

The two set off at a walk down the street, neither of them were talking but the silence wasn't awkward. Cars whizzed past them, Vena actually wanted to try driving for some odd reason. She thought it would be interesting to learn how to do.

It didn't take long for them to walk, side by side, down towards the town, where they could get pretty much anything they could possibly need. Vena and Scor lived pretty simply and didn't bother to buy any fancy things, and not just because they didn't have the money. Scor, for one, liked being able to live somewhere where he was just a normal person instead of being waited on hand and foot. He and Vena got to do things for themselves, which was twice and fun and actually made him feel like he was doing something worthwhile.

As they made it into the outskirts of town, Scor looked up and down the rows of shops, then looked back at Vena. "What do you want to do first?" he asked. He had the grocery list at the ready if they would be doing that first, but there were plenty of other things to do in town.

"I don't really mind," Vena said looking up and down the streets, she couldn't really think of anything she needed. Magic fixed things when they broke and Vena had never been one who needed a lot of things, which was mostly because of how she had grown up. "I don't really need anything, so I'm up to going whereever you need to." She yawned and then glanced up, sneezing as the sun bleared into her eyes. Vena didn't really get why the sun made her sneeze, it just did.

Scor nodded and Vena and decided that getting the grocery shopping out of the way was the best plan of action. He bought some different meats so that they wouldn't be constantly eating chicken, and with the extra money that he was now earning at work he bought some very expensive steak, just because he could. He got some vegetables and remembered to pick up some different kinds of drinks so that they wouldn't have to drink just pumpkin juice or butter beer all the time. By the time they got checked out, Scor was mildly exhausted with it all, but it got a lot easier when they shrank and cooled the groceries with magic.

Afterwards, Scorpius tried to think if there was anything else that he really needed. He decided to stop by the book shop and buy a book about wedding ceremonies, since he really knew nothing about them. The vow that he would've taken with Celine was an ancient one that was more of a magical contract than an actual wedding, and he wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for their day. He wanted to make sure that it was special for Vena, as she was what his whole life was about. After picking up that book and a couple of others (since he was running out of things to read at home), he checked the time and saw that it was just about time to leave for Hogwarts. "About ready?" he asked Vena.

Vena didn't really like grocery shopping, she found it rather tiresome but it was something that had to be done lest there be nothing in the house that was both edible and that tasted nice. They shrunk the groceries and kept them someplace where they wouldn't get squashed before heading off to the book store. Vena got a few books, they were both fiction as Vena prefered reading fiction to fact.

She shrunk those books and put them in her pocket nodding at Scor. "I'm ready." She said, quite anxious to be off. She was actually semi excited to be seeing Hogwarts again, having not seen it for a few years. Hogwarts had been a big part of her life, though not all good. It was where she learnt whom her father was.

Following Vena's lead, Scor shrank the books he had picked out in the shop and dutifully tucked them away into one of the tiny bags of groceries. Seeing that Vena was ready, he took her gently by the elbow as a warning and quickly Apparated them away. Now, Scor new perfectly well that Vena could Apparate all by herself, and was most likely much better at it than he, but he thought that appearing at the same time in a place made them look more put-together...more like a couple who would soon be married. So, they were squeezed through the small space that was characteristic of apparation and found themselves on the path that led away from Hogsmeade and toward the school. It was big, even in the distance, but somehow not as huge as it had seemed on that very first boat ride in, which Scor could barely remember now, with it being about a decade in the past.

Vena looked up at the castle as she and Scor apperated out near Hogsmeade. It looked about the same it had a few years ago, when they had left for what they hadexpected to be the last time. It still looked as grand as it had. Vena still faintly remembered when she had first seen the castle, almost a decade previous. How big it had seen and how it had made her feel somewhat small and outcasted.

Vena shook her head, she didn't want to think of that. It was behind her, in the pas. Though while she was still sometimes judged on her name. She was different now, and she had Scor. Which at the age of Eleven she never would have expected.

Vena gestured towards to the castle with her head, and the two of them set off at a walk. They'd walked the path many times throughout their years but this time felt different. Probably because it was. Vena took Scor's hand, smiling.

Scor felt like he'd been transported into his past as he walked hand in hand with Vena on the path that led to their alma mater. The only thing that had changed was the lack of something ominous hanging over them, whether the approval of their classmates or the seeming impending doom of the battle on the horizon. Scor was happy that the world was as it should be, at least on a grand scale. He knew that people still had all sorts of problems in their loves, and it wasn't that his own life didn't have a few itself, it just seemed like as a collective, things were looking brighter. Then again, perhaps that's what love does to a person.

Finally reaching the grounds of the school, Scor noted the many students scattered around on the campus. Some of the younger children were playing games, acting many years their junior, but having fun nonetheless. Some of the older students walked about in pairs, clearly couples, occupied with nothing but themselves. Scor smiled and felt a sort of kindred with them as they walked past towards the school's giant double doors that whooshed open at their approach, clearly indicating that the headmistress was waiting for them. "Well, here goes," Scor said, taking a deep breath and taking a step back into the place that had brought him both harm and good over his school years.

The two of them stepped into the grounds, Vena still smiling faintly. It felt good to be back, even if they were only going to be back for a few hours. If that. But nonetheless it felt good to be back. As the two of them walked up to the main doors of the school Vena watched the students, most of whom seemed to be having quite a lot of fun. A few of the students looked over and she and Scor, obviously wondering who the guests were. Hogwartians were a curious bunch, Vena had decided. And they liked to know what was going on, or who people were when they entered the school.

Again, inside of the school looked the same as it had years previous but that wasn't really surprising. Had she expected it to change? Vena wasn't too sure if she had. She twirled her wand about in her hand, the one that wasn't holding Scors. "It looks the same," She said as they made their way to the Headmistress' office. "But kind of different at the same time."

Scor nodded at the assessment as they walked through the school at a medium pace; he would have liked to have slowed down and seen the small details of the school again, but they were of course due for a meeting. They could stop and poke around on their way out, if they felt the need to. Scor smiled as he reached the stairway that led to the Headmistress's office, although he remembered several bad experiences in the room, he's also always associate to becoming closer to Vena. He knocked quietly on the door and he heard the Headmistress's voice, unchanged, call, "Come in!"

Scor opened the door and then stood back to allow Vena to enter first, she walked in. Still holding Scor's hand and looked about the room. Her eyes first flittered to the portatrias on the walls. vena had always liked the portraits, not so much the portaraits themselves but more the magic that they required and how they showed a history of the school. But it was the magic more then anything else about them that Vena found interesting. Most of the portraits were sleeping, or feigning sleep at least. Vena wondered why they did that.

"Good Afternoon Miss Riddle and Mr. M-Hyperion." Vena picked up on the slight slip as the headmistresses nearly called Scor by his former last name but caught herself in time. Vena nodded at her. "Afternoon," She said. While she was more civil (not that civil was really the best word) then she had been. When around people she wasn't comfortable around her personality did revert back to how it had, bording on the edge of civil and not. Though still probably a tad more civil then she had been.

"Take a seat," The headmistress gestered to the two seats sitting in front of her desk. "Thank-you," Vena said sitting down in one of the seats and glancing around the room again. She wondered if anything at Hogwarts ever changed or if it just stayed the same.

Scor cringed slightly as the headmistress nearly called him Mr. Malfoy. Most of the people he knew now didn't even know he had been a Malfoy, so he didn't have that problem often, but when people from Hogwarts saw him there was always that creeping feeling that they had not forgotten his past, as if it were haunting him. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Matcarey," Scor said formally, taking the remaining seat and smiling at the woman. This would go a whole lot faster if they were pleasant to her. "Thank you for seeing us," he added.

"Of course, Scorpius," she said mildly, with a faint smile. The lines that drew up around her eyes showed that she was aging much faster than he would have imagined, and he realized that three years of freedom for them had been three more years of trying to keep hundreds of children in line for her. "It's a nice distraction from my average day around here. You'd be surprised how few students ever come back after they graduate."

"Well, I guess we're a special circumstance, ma'am," Scor admitted, looking over at Vena. "I know that what we've asked for is a little unusual, but we just want you to hear us out."

"Oh, that won't be a problem. Tell me, why is is that you want to be married at Hogwarts?"

Scor looked over at Vena, hoping she could come up with a better, simpler answer than he could.

Vena's mind whirled as she thought of the question placed before her. She wanted to phraze the answer so that there was doubt in that Hogwarts was the perfect place for their wedding. "Weddings are usually held in places important to both of one of the people being wed." She said. "It just makes it more significant in a way. And Hogwarts has really been such a big part of our lives, we lived here for seven years, it's where we found out who we are. Where we found out who we really were and where we met. Some of the most important things in our lives happened here." Whether they were good or not was beside the point. "It just seemed fitting, with everything else that has happened here for this to be the place where we were joined."

Vena wondered if that had made any sense, it hadn't come out how she wanted it to, but it was the best she could do. She glanced at the ring on her finger for a moment, smiling. It didn't matter if it made sense or not. Love didn't make sense.