Chapter 1

"Rose, seriously, we are going to be late!"

Rose Weasley gave an exasperated sigh and called back down to her mother, "Mum, relax, we have a whole hour!" She examined herself in the bathroom mirror. She didn't look too bad with her new haircut. Really, the hairdresser she went to managed quite well with her mane. She had, unfortunately, gained her mother's hair, albeit with her father's color. It was possibly the worst combination she had ever seen. Damn her parents. At least she got her father's blue eyes.

Although she had gotten her mother's hair and intelligence, she had managed to forgo her obsessive-compulsive disorder as she got older. Her father knocked on the door.

"Come on, Rosie, or your mother might blow a hole through the wall." Her father chortled at his own joke.

"Coming, Dad."

With one last look in the mirror, Rose prepared herself for her sixth trip to Hogwarts, unsure of why she felt so nervous. Everyone she would see on the train was the same people she had seen for the last five years. Really, nothing was any different…

"You did remember to pack all of your school books, didn't you? And you will remember to return these robes to Ellie?" Hermione Weasley marked questions off of her mental to-do list.

"Yes, mum, I will remember. Look, I have to go – interrogate Hugo." Rose pushed her younger brother in front of her, towards their mother – her own human shield to the overwhelming woman in front of them. Hugo looked up suddenly as the bushy-haired woman rounded on him. 'Ha, it worked,' Rose thought to herself as she hugged her father and rushed away to safety.

The family had managed to make it to King's Cross without her father hitting anything along the way. Seriously, she did not know why her mother let him get a driver's license in the first place. Though he had gotten better over the last few years, Rose suspected that it had more to do with her mother placing more sensory and protection charms on the car than his driving ability.

She looked around and saw Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry talking to Lily as James stood next to them with his arms crossed, looking bored. He had already graduated from Hogwarts the year before and was obviously dragged along on the trip to send off his younger siblings. She wondered where Albus was hiding. Not far from the Potters, she could see Fred and Louis trying to scare the Scamander twins and Lucy, who were going to Hogwarts for their first year.

"Really, most people come off fine, the troll isn't that big. Hardly anyone dies anymore, so you have nothing to worry about." Fred caught Rose's eye as she walked by and winked as Lucy looked positively horrified at her cousin.

"Oh, Rosie!" Rose turned at hearing her name to see her cousin waving at her, alongside their best friend, Ellie.

Rose grinned as she ran up to them. Dominique Weasley, her cousin, was, in Rose's opinion, the most gorgeous person she had ever seen. She had beautiful, silvery hair with just a hint of red in it that fell to her waist and gleaming blue eyes, similar to Rose's, but in a much deeper hue. Her skin was tanned from the summer sun and she was slender, but with the perfect amount of curves, and was about two inches taller than Rose. She wore the slightest hint of makeup that she in no way needed. She was as perfect as you can get. Standing next to Dom and smiling was their friend and roommate, Ellie Hawthorne. Ellie was pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. She was shorter, only about five foot, and had mousy, brown hair that she detested, but that the other girls envied because of its low maintenance. She had bright brown eyes, which were round and lovely. Usually she was quite pale, with just the slightest hint of freckles across her nose. She was wearing a yellow sundress that accented her petite shape nicely.

"Come hither, my love," Dominique said to her. "We already have a compartment waiting. Oh, no, don't worry about that," Dom waved her arm at Rose as she reached for her trunk. "We have someone to do that for you."

Rose frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Don't worry, Rosie. I got this," a voice said as her trunk lifted off the ground.

She turned to see a smirking Scorpius Malfoy, who only slightly took her off guard with his pale skin and grey eyes. Next to him was his best friend, and Rose's cousin, Albus Potter. Both boys were nearly spitting images of their fathers, except for the loss of glasses on Albus and the state of Scorpius' silver-blonde hair, which was nearly always disheveled. Rose smiled at both of them. "Thanks, Scorpius."

"This way," Dom instructed, pulling Rose and the others away. They settled into a compartment, Scorpius and Albus sitting across from each other and closest to the window. The girls filtered in next to them, Rose sitting next to Scorpius. 'Let the new year begin,' she thought.

Rose and Dominique had settled into a compartment comfortably with Albus, Scorpius, and Ellie's cat, who was gazing at Albus' and Scorpius' sleeping owls in a bored manner. Polite conversation started about how their summers had gone, while they waited for Ellie to return from her prefect meeting. Rose tried to pry information from Dom as the two sat across from the boys. Ellie and Dom had been nearly unreachable all summer and Rose had written to the two of her best friends without receiving any responses.

When Ellie entered their compartment an hour or so into the ride, Albus and Scorpius listened politely to the girls antics, though without much interest. Ellie, who had been held hostage by her Muggle parents as they visited various family members throughout the country, was chatting excitedly about her summer. On the other hand, Dominique, despite having spent the last two months in France, barely said a word about her trip. She would only say that she had just stayed around her grandparents' French countryside home. Rose noted the role reversal between the two. Usually, Dominique would have been bursting about all the hot French guys she was sure to have met on vacation, while Ellie listened patiently.

The two boys were quieter. They had seen a lot of one anther over the holidays as Scorpius often stayed over at the Potters' on breaks from school. Rose, who had been abandoned by her two girlfriends, had spent most days with the boys, which she actually didn't mind. When they were kids, she and Albus had always been very close, as their families were nearly always together. Even now, though they were in different houses (he in Slytherin with Scorpius, while Rose and the other girls were in Ravenclaw), they had always gotten on.

Similarly, her younger brother, Hugo, had always been closer to Lily than to her. Rose had never had a necessarily bad relationship with her younger brother, but they had grown farther apart once she started at Hogwarts. Hugo and Lily were both starting their fourth year, and both were in Gryffindor.

They all gossiped throughout the day, Dom telling them about how her older sister, Victoire, had driven her crazy when she visited the house in France with her husband, Teddy. The couple had gotten married the year before and they apparently hadn't stopped bickering and making up since. They laughed as Ellie tried to explain a muggle television program to them that she watched over the summer, and gasped in the right places as Albus told them quidditch stories of his and Scorpius', even though Rose had been there for all of them.

About halfway through the train ride, when the guys left the compartment to change into their robes and find the food trolley, Rose's two best friends rounded on her.

"Spill it," Dominique said, glaring at her.

"What?" Rose asked, confused.

"Since when do you have a thing for Scorpius?" her cousin asked impatiently, as though it was blatantly obvious what she was referencing.

"What? Why would you assume I have a thing for Scorpius? Did all that sun you got in France addle you?" Rose said and looked at Ellie for support, but her petite friend just shook her head.

"Oh, no, Rose. You aren't getting off that easy. I'm with Dom – spill it," she said.

Rose scowled at them. "It's nothing," she said sourly.

"I don't think that's a correct answer," Ellie said, grinning. "I believe the question was, 'Since when do you have a thing for Scorpius'. So, your answer should be a time frame."

Rose sighed. "Fine," she said shortly. "Over the summer, he was round at the Potters' a lot with Al. So, we were hanging out almost daily and… I don't know. Whatever. He has been with his family the last few weeks anyway." She tried to shrug her shoulders, as to indicate that she had barely noticed her mounting crush on the boy herself.

Dom looked smug. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Rose sighed. "It's not a big deal! We have all been friends for ages - it's not like this summer was really any different than normal. I haven't even seen him the last couple weeks. Besides, you were doing god-knows-what in France for all of break. I don't hear you telling what you were up to."

Dom just shrugged, looking completely unabashed and did not take Rose's bait to change the conversation as the red-head had hoped.

"So… have you talked to him since?" Ellie asked.

"Well, we have been talking the whole train ride, so…" she stopped when Dom narrowed her eyes at her. As beautiful as Dominique was, Rose generally did not want to be on her bad side. "He sent me an owl saying that he had fun seeing me and would see me at King's Cross," she gave in, shrugging her shoulders.

Ellie and Dom practically squealed. Rose winced. "We are so happy for you!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Guys, really. Nothing has even happened yet, so-" she was cut off by the compartment door opening. "Cool it," she finished as the boys walked back into the room.

"What are you guys screaming about in here?" Albus asked.

"Oh, just that I heard the new Transfiguration teacher is mega-hot," Dom covered smoothly and with the pretense of getting something from her trunk, she stood up and sat back down across from her, forcing Scorpius to sit in her now empty seat, next to Rose. Dominique grinned widely, proud of herself. Rose glared at her in response.

The guys both rolled their eyes as they sat down and ripped open new packages of candy, continuing a conversation about Quidditch they had apparently started in the corridor.

As Dom started to ramble on about classes that year, Rose tuned her out, so lost in thought that she didn't notice the blond boy next to her stealing glances at her slightly flushed face.

The welcoming feast at Hogwarts was the same as it had always been. The sorting took far too long for the older students, who just wanted to eat, but the food was as good as ever. The girls caught up with their fellow Ravenclaws at the table, but were starting to get worn down from the long journey on the train.

After the feast, Rose, Dom and Ellie headed out of the Great Hall, towards the Ravenclaw common room, laughing and chatting about their summer break. As they reached the top of the second set of stairs, Rose heard someone calling her name. When she turned around, Scorpius was standing at the bottom of the stairs. She swore her heart stopped.

"Hey, Scorpius," Dom said sweetly. Rose could tell she was hiding a smirk.

"Hey," Scorpius replied as he climbed the stairs towards them. "Rose, I was wondering if I could have a word?" he said as a question.

Her stomach did a flip. What could he want a word about? "Of course," she replied nonchalantly.

Dom and Ellie exchanged a knowing look. "We'll just see you upstairs, then. But I am in no way guaranteeing that you will have any shelf space in the bathroom if you take too long," Dom said before the two girls headed down the corridor to the next set of stairs they needed to take to get up to the west tower.

"Er, so… What's up, Scorp?" Rose asked as the girls walked away. 'Very smooth, Rose, mumbling is definitely a quality that devastatingly attractive guys look for in a girl. That will absolutely seduce him.' She thought to herself, wincing.

"Er… I actually had a question for you, if you don't mind." He gestured around the corner, away from the busy set of stairs, which was full of students filtering to their common rooms.

As they rounded the corner, Rose focused on making sure she wouldn't trip or embarrass herself in any other way possible. She stood up straight and smiled in what she hoped was an attractive manner.

"Well, actually, it isn't so much a question…" he faltered and she tilted her head to the side questioningly. "I was just hoping you wouldn't mind this…" He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.

Rose could swear that her heart exploded at that moment. She gasped and her whole body tingled. She was elated. When he pulled away from her she just stared at him, dazed.

"Er…" Scorpius faltered, suddenly looking very nervous. "I'm sorry," he said quickly, "I should have just asked. I was going to—"

"Scorpius!" She interrupted him, "Calm down. It's okay, I didn't mind." She turned to walk away and said over her shoulder, "I will see you at breakfast tomorrow."

He stared at her back as she made her way down the corridor, smiles on both of their faces.

The first few weeks of the term breezed by for the students. Classes were well underway and the girls were already getting overwhelmed with the amount of homework they were accruing, though, they agreed it was not as bad as the start of their fifth year had been, as this wasn't a major test year for them. The three of the girls often kept company with Albus and Scorpius, exerting way too much energy into getting them to focus on their studies, before the boys would give up to practice flying on the grounds.

One morning about three weeks into term, the Great Hall was buzzing with students hurrying to eat breakfast before their classes. Rose, Dom and Ellie were sitting at the Ravenclaw table eating breakfast together before their first lesson of the day, Charms. Dom and Ellie were talking about relationships.

"I don't know, Dom," Ellie was saying, "I mean, look at Rose and Scorpius. No one seemed surprised by them."

"Yeah, but it took them ages," Dom responded.

"Hey!" Rose cut in, "no knocking my relationship." Scorpius had asked Rose out a few days after their first kiss, and they had been happily together ever since.

Dom continued, ignoring her, "I am just saying that in my experience, it isn't always so straightforward."

"Which experience are you talking about?" Ellie asked suspiciously. "Andrew Corner?"

Dom had dated Andrew Corner, a Hufflepuff who was in the year below them, for several months during the previous year. They had broken it off about a month before the end of the school year so Dom could focus on her OWLs (or at least that was the excuse she had told everyone else).

"Er…" Dom was saved from answering by Albus and Scorpius walking over to join them from the Slytherin table.

"What's up?" Scorpius asked Rose as he hugged her from behind while she buttered a piece of toast, which Al instantly took out of her hand.

"Not much, just finishing up breakfast," she replied, smiling.

Scorpius grinned back at her. "Perfect. May I escort you to class?" He asked, holding his hand out to her suavely. Albus made a gagging noise around his toast.

"Sure. Catch you guys later," Rose responded, shooting fake glares towards Al.

As the couple walked off, Albus took Rose's seat next to Ellie. "So, what are we talking about?"

"Rela— Ow!" Dom yelled as Ellie kicked her under the table.

"Not much!" The brunette answered as Dom glared at her.

Ellie and Dom were sitting in Charms as Professor Harrington, a nice younger witch who had taken over for Flitwick when he was named Headmaster at McGonagall's retirement, started class.

"Where is Rose? She left breakfast before we did…" Dom inquired and Ellie shrugged.

As if on cue, Rose stumbled into the classroom, running a hand through her hair. "I'm so sorry, Professor!" she muttered to Harrington as she rushed toward her seat. The professor glared at her as she sat.

"Now that Ms. Weasley has decided to join us…"

Rose instantly took out her parchment and quill to take notes, as her two best friends raised their eyebrows at her. She pointedly avoided their gaze until Dom slipped her a piece of parchment.

'And where have you been?' She had written.

Rose scowled and wrote 'What's it to you?' and slid the parchment back across the desk.

"Nothing, I guess I just don't assume you fancy getting detentions for being late to class…" Dom wrote grinning, before passing it back to her.

Rose shoved the paper away. Ellie grabbed it from the other side of Dom. 'Lose track of time?' she wrote. Dom transferred the parchment from Ellie's desk smoothly back to Rose's.

'I used to like you, you know.' Rose wrote before passing it back to the other two. Dom and Ellie both grinned.

'Fix your hair, Rose.' Dom wrote before passing the parchment to Ellie's outstretched hand.

'Would you like a brush?' Ellie scrawled, smirking as she placed the notes back in front of Rose.

'Shouldn't you be paying attention to the lesson, prefect?' Rose scribbled and passed the sheet back to Ellie.

'Says the one who was late for class because she was too busy making out in the hallway.'

Rose just smiled as Dom finished writing and handed the notes back to her. She scrunched up the paper, looking straight ahead.