A/N: Infinite thanks to my prebeta, kerney. You helped me out immensely. Also: These characters aren't mine, they're Jo's, though I'm having fun playing with them, along with the world Jo so expertly created. x3 Now, before I start a rant on something obnoxious and off-topic, we begin:

Chapter One: Rows and Reunions

1 September 2023

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"No. That isn't right," Rose Weasley mumbled, viciously chewing on the end of her quill. She stared down at the open Daily Prophet sitting on her lap.Fourteen across. Six letters. Only one has ever escaped. What could it be? She went through all the possibilities in her head—what could escape? All of the magical creatures she knew of that could possibly fit the criteria had more than six letters. It has to be something that moves. But in the Wizarding World,everything moved around to some extent—what kind of clue was that? She furrowed her brow, already frustrated with the blasted crossword puzzle.

Suddenly, the paper swam in front of her. She shook her head slightly, wanting to banish the image she knew was coming. Not right now, I'm busy! she told her own head sternly, sounding almost exactly like her mother. But it became evident that the vision would not be quelled; she finally succumbed to it, hoping that it would be quick.

A large, pale hand, drawn into a fist, connects with an equally pale face. Vivid green eyes widen in surprise; a pair of glasses, now broken, fly to the ground with a clatter. Someone gasps in the background of the scene. A wand is drawn.

And then she was back. Rose wrinkled her nose. That was it? She felt tired and sluggish, as she did whenever she had a vision, and started to vigorously rub her eyes, forgetting that one of her hands had a smudge of ink on it and that she was probably going to look like she was the one who was punched now.

A gentle hand reached towards her face and pulled her hand away. "Rosie, you've got ink on your face now," said a familiar voice. She smiled a bit, looking up from her paper into the face of her boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy. He studied her face for a moment, frowning slightly. "Have you had another, then?"

She shrugged and nodded. "Really bad timing, too. Now I can't think, and I so want to get this done. Bloody fourteen across'll have my knickers before I figure it out."

Scorpius grinned evilly and hooked a finger around her belt loop. "Those are mine," he said, ignoring Rose's cuff to his ear. "Anyway, why must you be so stubborn? We could probably help you," he said, motioning to himself first and then to the corner of the train compartment in which they sat, where Rose's cousin and best friend Albus was snogging his girlfriend Juliet Scamander like there was no tomorrow. Rose made a scoffing noise, but before she could protest, Scorpius snatched the paper from her lap and studied it for a second. "Fourteen across," he recited, a wicked smile slowly spreading over his face. "Six letters. Only one has ever escaped. Oh, honestly, Rosie, that's easy!"

Albus and Juliet resurfaced, looking smug and confused, respectively. "How could you not figure that out instantly?" Albus said, shaking his head. "And you call yourself a Weasley."

Juliet furrowed her brow. "I don't know it either," she said, biting her lip.

Albus looked down at her kindly, placing a long white finger on her nose. "Of course you don't, love," he said softly. "You don't follow Quidditch!"

"Quidditch?" Rose interjected suddenly, snatching the paper back from Scorpius, who was watching her with a mixture of amusement and fascination. "What in the name of Merlin's saggy left—oh!" She studied the paper again, her ears reddening with embarrassment. "A snitch!"

"Finally got there, have you?" Albus teased, grinning over at Scorpius. "Took you long enough."

"Oh, hush up, you. I'm not a star seeker like some people in this compartment. Maybe Quidditch isn't the only thing I can focus on for more than ten seconds, yeah?"

Scorpius raised his hands up in defense. "Hey, I'm not a Seeker! And last time I checked, you were a bigger Quidditch fan than even me!"

Juliet chewed her lip, her large, rather protuberant eyes fixed on Rose. "But you're the new Gryffindor chaser, yeah?"

Albus practically fell out of his seat. "What?! James told me he didn't even do tryouts yet--"

"Well, he did," Rose said, shrugging slightly. "On the last day before our O.W.L. tests. He only invited five or six of us and had us play a quick game. He said that he didn't want it to be a big deal, considering what Teddy said he went through when he tried to replace one of his Chasers. Apparently there were only three serious players in the bunch- all the rest were his admirers."

Scorpius furrowed his brow. "But why would he hold tryouts at the very end of the year? Normally they're done in the beginning of the year, after the seventh years have all left."

"I didn't tell you about this?" Albus said, his fingers trailing through Juliet's long blonde hair. "Michael Bexley left at the end of the year, said he was done with Quidditch. Apparently it was taking up all of his time, and he said he didn't wanted to spend his last year at Hogwarts being bullied around by a great prat like James." He shrugged. "They were practically dueling by the time I stepped in. I thought I'd told you."

Scorpius frowned. "Well, you didn't. And there was nothing about you making Chaser in your letters, Rosie. Why didn't you at least tell me? You said you tell me everything!"

"Well, it's not as if I can say anything about being a Gryffindor in my letters! You know what both of our fathers would do if they found out about us. I was going to tell you. You're just overreacting."

Scorpius blanched. "I'm not overreacting! I'm just always the last to know everything, that's all. It's not fair; I can't see any of my friends all summer but you two live right next door to each other. I missed both of you so much! And you only wrote, like, once a week even though you said—"

Rose leaned over the compartment bench and kissed him. For a second, he was stiff with surprise, but after a few moments he leaned into it and the two were snogging all over the compartment bench. Both teenagers forgot about everything else for a minute; he was mussing up her hair, she was clawing at his back. His hands had traveled to her bra strap before Albus coughed discreetly, reminding them that they were not alone.

They broke apart; Scorpius looked sheepish, but Rose just grinned. Albus wrinkled his nose at the two. "Oversexed deviants. Honestly, you two, just because I'm fine with you dating doesn't mean I want to see my best friend and my baby cousin shagging on the floor right in front of me!"

Rose wrinkled her nose. "I'm not your baby cousin! I'm easily two months older than you, you great prat!" Albus just rolled his eyes. "Besides," she added, leaning into Scorpius, "I had to shut him up somehow."

"Hey!" Scorpius protested, feigning indignation. "At least pretend that you think I'm irresistible!"

"I do think you're irresistible," she said, kissing him on the nose. "And I'm very, very glad that we don't have to pretend that we don't know each other anymore." Scorpius grinned, then pulled Rose back into another kiss.

Albus, who had settled his arm around Juliet's shoulders, made a gagging sound, but Juliet silently reprimanded him and he stopped, kissing her with almost as much fervor as Scorpius was kissing Rose in the seat across from them. For a few moments, there was relative peace in the compartment, everybody being too busy to talk, but that didn't last; with a scraping noise, they realized that the compartment door had opened and broke away from their significant others. Albus and Rose looked over at the door impatiently, but Scorpius and Juliet both looked nervous.

"Nice going, baby brother," said James Potter, leaning casually against the compartment doorframe. "So you've finally snagged the Scamander-Lovegood offspring? Dad'll be so proud." Albus flushed, but said nothing; Juliet chewed her lip.

"And who is this that is so willingly taking advantage of my dear baby cousin?" James said, his eyes traveling to the other side of the compartment. His eyes met Rose's, then Scorpius', and the easy grin slid off his face like water off a duck's back. His brown eyes flashed angrily. "Malfoy? I thought I told you to stay away from her," he said, his hand going to his wand. "And you, Rosie, snogging a Slytherin like that! You're a Gryffindor, you're a Weasley! Have some pride!"

His wand came out, and it was now pointed at Scorpius, who looked frightened and defiant at the same time. The latter opened his mouth to say something as his hand twitched to his own wand, but Rose was in between the two in a flash, her ears burning so red they looked as though they might catch fire. "James, put it away before I use your own mum's Bat Bogey hex on you," she said, her voice starting out dangerously low and rising in pitch and volume with every word she spoke. "And listen to me: Scorpius and I are going to date whether you like it or not, all right? You act so overprotective of me just because of what—whathappened, but I can take care of myself! He's not evil just because he's in Slytherin—look at your own brother, you great selfish prat, he's in Slytherin and you know he's a good person. But still, after he got Sorted you wouldn't speak to him for months! What does that say about you, huh? Besides, I know what you were doing, going through the compartments like this, you great filthy hypocrite—I can see Grace Michaels hiding outside of the compartment. So do us all a favor and get your bloody face out of here so you can shag your girlfriend in peace and I can live my life as I so please!"

There was a pregnant silence as James looked at her, shock written all over his handsome features—this was an uncharacteristic outburst for Rose, who was normally cool and collected, and the fact that she'd mentioned 'what happened' in her childhood was almost unthinkable. The cousins stared at each other for a moment, blue eyes meeting brown, Rose breathing heavily and James slowly putting his wand away. And then, without a word, he turned and left the compartment, shutting the door quietly behind him.

No one said anything for quite some time. Rose sat down on one of the benches, her face in her hands, and Scorpius gingerly sat beside her, placing a gentle arm around her shoulders. Albus looked unnaturally pale as he watched the two of them; Juliet had her face buried into his neck and he had both his arms around her waist.

After what seemed like forever but was probably closer to a minute, Albus spoke, his voice shaking. "Rosie, that was… that was bloody brilliant. Are you all right?"

Rose looked up, her eyes rather shiny. "Yeah, I think so. I—I don't know what came over me, I just snapped—you know he's been saying horrible things about Scorpius all summer. I know he means well, he thinks he's protecting me, but—oh, I do hope he's okay," she finished lamely, biting her lip. The weight of Scorpius' arm on her shoulders felt nice, grounding; she was glad that he was there, and she felt herself leaning into him without consciously making a decision to do so. It had been so long since they'd last seen each other…

---

She remembered quite vividly their last meeting, on the final day of school. They had both finished with testing and had one full glorious day of sunshine to spend together before being apart for an excruciating three months. They'd walked hand in hand along the lake, talking quietly about Quidditch and the weather, about how happy they were that lessons were finally over and about how much they'd miss the school. Scorpius had stopped walking at that point and she'd turned to see him staring at her with an odd, hungry expression in his eyes; quite suddenly and without warning, he'd leaned forward and kissed her. It had been their first kiss.

Rose had loved Scorpius for years. She'd been conscious of it ever since they were twelve and had come across a bird with a broken wing in the Hogwarts grounds; Scorpius had mended the wing clumsily with a spell he barely knew and then kept it in the Slytherin dungeons until it could properly fly again. He, too, had loved her since they met, and had told her one night in the middle of their fifth year. She remembered how pink his cheeks were, how she had wanted nothing more than to kiss him but had merely hugged him, worried about how he would react, worried that she wouldn't be good at it. It had been torture, the first few weeks; they had held hands awkwardly but still spoken about the same things. In fact, their relationship had barely changed at all except that Rose had then become aware that all she wanted, all she'd ever wanted, was to grab Scorpius as tightly as she could and kiss him, to muss up his already tousled blonde hair and to make him moan for more.

So, after weeks of wanting him, needing him, when they finally kissed Rose found it hard to control herself. Something primal had risen up in her and she'd given in to a reckless abandon, kissing him deeper and more sensually than she'd meant to. She'd pushed him up against a tree and her fingers had clawed his back; he, too, was breathing heavily, his own hands becoming tangled in her long, curly red hair.

But before it could have gone any farther, Scorpius' body had become rigid against her own and fallen backward onto the ground with a dull thud. Rose had looked from Scorpius' fallen figure to the source of the Body Bind curse: Her own cousin, James Potter, who was standing above Scorpius menacingly and telling the boy to stay away from his baby cousin. Rose hadn't been able to say a word; she'd stood there, pale and silent, until James had left and she could release Scorpius from the spell. He'd kissed her more gently afterwards and assured her that he still loved her, no matter what. They had made plans for the summer, for keeping their affair secret to everyone in the family but Albus and her uncle Charlie, who was very understanding when he walked in on the two of them kissing each other goodbye in a bathroom at King's Cross.

Now, after three excruciating months away from one another, Rose couldn't wait to get Scorpius alone again. Of course, she didn't mean to go all the way with him- at least not yet- but it would be nice to do something more than just snog, especially in front of her cousin—what a turnoff.

The light had faded outside of the train window. It was getting later, and they were getting closer to the school that was Rose's second home. She felt the familiar excitement thrill up from her stomach and through her chest; snuggling deeper into Scorpius' embrace, she closed her eyes and focused on his heartbeat, feeling perfectly content.

---

"Rosie, could you pass the shepherd's pie?"

Rose blinked, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from the Slytherin table to look her best Gryffindor friend in the face. "Sorry?"

Nora Parish pursed her lips, her chocolate brown eyes narrowing. "Honestly, Rosie. You haven't been this way in a long time. What's up? Aren't you glad to see me? You didn't even come find me on the train."

Rosie felt her ears burn. "I'm sorry about that," she said, and she truly meant it. "I was… I was with Scorpius," she added, knowing that that would probably make it worse. Despite her best efforts, Rosie could never get Nora to like Scorpius, and vice versa; the two were just too different. In fact, Nora held the opinion that most Gryffindor students did—that all Slytherins were rubbish. It took years for Rosie to even muster up a relationship of cool apathy between Nora and Albus.

Just as Rose feared, Nora's already annoyed expression worsened. "What, now that you guys have kissed you're going to abandon your House friends? I know you never liked me as much as them, but you could at least make an effort."

Okay, this was going a bit far. Rose felt anger flare up in her belly but quelled it—for now. "Nora, you know you're my best friend, so don't try to make me feel guilty. And just because Scorpius kissed me doesn't mean that I'm going to stop being friends with you. I wasn't even looking at him!" she added defiantly. "I was… I'm worried about Albus," she finished quietly.

The anger melted off of Nora's features in moments. "What happened?"

"He's been acting strange all summer- shutting himself up in his room, sometimes even refusing to come up for meals. And… I don't know, his demeanor seems different too. Mostly he's just the same old Albus, but every once in a while there's a flash of something different, somethingmore. Almost like a mean streak or something. It makes me uneasy."

Nora went into concerned-friend mode almost instantly. "Has anyone else said anything?"

"No one knows him better than I do."

"Even Scorpius?"

"We haven't seen him all summer."

"Why not?"

"We're not allowed to associate, remember?"

"Who told you that?"

"No one. Well, my dad as a joke, but it was mostly inferred. Can we please get back to the topic at hand?"

Nora furrowed her brow. "Well… I'm not sure what to tell you. We'll just have to keep an eye on him. And if worse comes to worst, we can always go to McGonagall."

"No way," Rose said, blanching. "There is no way we go to McGonagall about this. And it's probably nothing, anyway."

"But if it's not?"

There was a pregnant silence. Rose scowled at Nora, defeated. After a moment: "How come you always know what to say?"

"Magic," Nora said airily. Rose nearly spat out her pumpkin juice.

It was good to be back.