"All I'm saying," Lily ploughs on relentlessly as we walk down the marble staircase. "Is that you really need to get laid. Please let me set you up with someone."

"I'm sorry, Lil, but no." I tell her firmly.

We enter the Great Hall, taking seats beside each other at the almost empty Gryffindor table. I turn to her. "And I do not need to get laid!"

"You do need to get laid." Lily contradicts me shortly. "You're getting grouchy."

"I am not grouchy," I say indignantly.

Lily raises one eyebrow looking suitably unimpressed. "How long's it been, anyway?"

I flush. "None of your business."

"God, you're such a prude," Lily complains. "You never give me any juicy details anymore."

"That's because you have all the tact and illusiveness of a Venomous Tentatcula," I tell her flatly, claiming a mug. "Now shut up and pass me the coffee."

"Fine," Lily huffs, reaching over and slamming the coffee pot in front of me. "Oh here they come. The Dynamic Duo." She adds dryly. I look up.

Albus and Scorpius swagger into the Great Hall, aloofly pretending to ignore the many adoring gazes of all the girls they pass. Albus winks at a third year Ravenclaw and she practically swoons into her eggs on toast.

"A'ight," With a brief lift of his eyebrows in acknowledgement to us, Albus plonks himself down opposite me and begins to load his plate with everything edible in sight.

"Good morning, Al," I greet primly, watching my cousin in disdain as he begins to shovel food into his mouth. "Malfoy." I add coolly.

"Weasley," Scorpius replies, looking mildly amused. "How are you this morning?"

I purse my lips a little. "Fine."

Scorpius claps my cousin on the back. "Catch you later, Potter. Lily." Scorpius makes to leave but then stops. "Oh, and Weasley –" Scorpius turns back to me. "The Prefect Rota is up."

With a wry smile, Scorpius leaves the Gryffindor table and takes his seat at Slytherin without as much of a backwards glance to us.

I check my watch.

"You gonna finish that?" Albus says to his sister, his mouth full of food.

"Albus, I've not even started eating it," Lily snaps, snatching her bacon sandwich up and out of Albus' line of sight.

Through the corner of my eye I see Scorpius leave the Great Hall. Albus and Lily are too busy bickering over the bacon sandwich to even notice.

"I'll see you guys later," I say suddenly, standing up.

"Bye," they reply in distracted unison.

"Oh – and don't forget you said you'd meet me in the Library at 9 to help me with my homework!" Lily calls after me.

I give a little wave and hurry out of the Great Hall. I take the enchanted staircase up to the fifth floor and turn down one of the lesser used corridors, completely void of student traffic thanks to the early hour.

I head all the way down the corridor to where a thick rich tapestry depicting the Hogwarts founders is hung. I take a moment to check one last time that the coast is clear before pushing aside the tapestry and entering the hidden darkened alcove. Immediately, I am enfolded in the darkness, and straight into warm eager arms.

"Took you long enough, Weasley," Scorpius Malfoy says in a low, gruff voice, arms wrapped around my waist as he stoops to kiss me hard.

"Sorry," I murmur slyly between heavy heated kisses. "Had to check the Prefect Rota."

"You got my signal then," Scorpius replies.

"Since that's been our signal all year, yes," I waste no time in wrapping my arms around his neck and entwining my tongue with his.

"Smart ass," Scorpius makes me give a little squeal as he roughly hitches me up onto the small ledge, and stepping between my thighs which I wrap around his waist.

Scorpius unknots my tie in one deft movement, discarding it onto the floor with his own. I begin to kiss his neck, biting him hard and hearing him groan; just the way I know he likes it. My fingers fumble with the buttons on his shirt as I claim each inch of newly exposed flesh with my kisses.

Before I know it, our shirts are flung on the floor, hands grabbing and pulling, mouths wandering down necks and chests; it's a show of how long we've been at this, that even in the dark, we are so in tune and know each other's bodies and movements so well. Scorpius' hands are slid beneath my skirt when the clock chimes 9am in the distance.

"Shit," I swear breathily and Scorpius gives a breathy chuckle against my neck.

"I've not even started yet," he says in a gravelly voice which I find hard to resist.

"No!" I attempt to push him away slightly. "Shit, I told Lily I'd meet her in the Library and if I'm not there she's going to get suspicious!"

Scorpius gives a noise of mild annoyance. "Oh come on, Rosie, I was looking forward to this!"

"I'm sorry!" I say, genuinely contrite. We've not had time alone together for ages.

Scorpius huffs into the darkness. "Fine."

"You're so ridiculous," I kiss him gently, trying to coax some softness from him. After a second, he melts into me a little. "Now get dressed."

"Tease." He grumbles as I jump down from the ledge and grab our clothes from the floor, shoving his in his chest, hurriedly buttoning up my shirt and knotting my tie.

I attempt to smooth down my hair, and in the blackness I can just about make out Scorpius tucking in his shirt. I kiss him quickly and apologetically.

"I have to go, I'm sorry; I'll see you later." I slip out of the alcove and hurry along the corridor, reaching the moving staircase. I'm already ten minutes late and have to wait even longer for a section of stairs to move to my platform.

Finally, I'm on the fourth floor. I try to keep from running down the corridor, aware I probably already look very flustered.

It's been seven months of secret make out sessions with Scorpius Malfoy. For some reason, our final year at Hogwarts being Head Boy and Head Girl left us with a lot of frustration and hormones which we let out on each other.

But in the last two months it progressed to something more than late teenage angst. It's started to progress until we're in the situation we're in now. At first it was easy; some rough love here and there, before it became routine. Then there was the jealous and uncertain stage with the understanding there was no one else for each other. And then came the talk: let's wait for a while before we tell anyone.

Because there's a very real possibility that Albus would kill him.

I reach the Library and with one last preparatory deep breath, rush in, seeking out a very sulky Lily, slumped at a table in a far corner between the crammed shelves.

"Hi! Hi, sorry I'm late, I –" I stop suddenly, seeing Lily's expression as she looks up at me, her eyes falling down to my chest. Her eyes are blown wide and her mouth has dropped open. "What?!" I follow her stare, looking down at myself, and my heart and stomach drop to the very bottom of my torso.

My tie is green.

Oh god.

"Rose … what …" Lily starts, words, for the first time in her life, failing her. My mind is racing at a million miles a minute with excuses and lies, each one getting more ridiculous with my increasing desperation. "Rose … is that … that's a – a Slytherin tie." I blink. "Why are you wearing a Slytherin tie?"

My mouth opens and then closes. I have nothing to say.

I am in very big trouble.

"Rose," Lily says in a very low, even tone which is more terrifying than if she was screaming at me. "Is that Scorpius Malfoy's tie?"

I gulp. "No?"

It's a terrible lie.

"Oh my god," Lily's low voice is rising to a manic high whisper. "You are shagging Scorpius Malfoy."

"Lily, shut up!" I plead, quickly unknotting the tie and stuffing it deep into the pocket of my robes.

"How long has this been going on?!" Lily is in a state between anger and a love of gossiping.

"Since September," I say painfully.

Lily swears colourfully. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I don't know," I bury my face in my hands. "It wasn't supposed to be anything to tell! And then it started to become complicated and messy and ugh."

"Oh god okay, Al cannot find out about this, he'll go nuts."

"I know," I concede. "I feel terrible."

Lily is quiet for a minute before a small smile creeping to her face and a twinkle in her eye returning. "So … is he good?"

"Lily!" I start indignantly and then bite my lip, not being able to stop the smile tugging at my own lips. "Yes."

Lily squeals gleefully.

Suddenly, we freeze at the sound of Albus' voice cutting through the dull buzz of library conversation from somewhere behind us. "Scorp," Albus sounds confused. His voice draws closer. "Why aren't you wearing a tie? I swear you were wearing a tie this morning."

I freeze. Lily's eyes lock with mine in mirrored horror and panic.

Albus is about to see me, also without a tie.

And even he's not that stupid.

I bow my head in a quick and laughably useless attempt to conceal my lack of tie. Lily reaches to her neck and I can see she's about to give me her own tie but she's too late.

"Hey girls," Albus says, sitting beside me. Scorpius takes a place beside Lily, and diagonal from me. Albus doesn't seem to have noticed yet. My heart is racing.

Scorpius flashes his eyes at me in silent panicked communication. I respond with a look which reads 'don't look at me like that, this is your fault too'.

"Hey, Rosie," Al turns to me. "Did you do the Potions … homework … yet …?" Slowly, his voice trails off. His eyes flick to my chest and then to Scorpius' chest, and then to both of our expressions. Behind those green eyes of his, I can literally see the cogs turning and finally clicking.

Albus stares at me.

Lily stares at me.

Scorpius stares at me.

Everyone stares at me.

I have never wanted the ground to open up and swallow me as much as I do now.

I can feel myself going bright red as I dare to glance agonisingly at an equally crimson Scorpius Malfoy. The heat creeps up from under my collar. Everyone is silent. No one dares say a word. I realise I've been holding my breath.

Slowly, we both reach into our pockets and pull out each other's ties. My arm is shaking as we exchange the ruby and emerald ties across the table.

I hold my breath again. The tension is painfully unbearable. I can't work out whether Albus is going to vomit or have a stroke.

"Please say something," I say finally and tentatively.

Albus blinks.

"Al?" Scorpius dares to prompt.

"Oh for God's sake –" Lily jerks suddenly and kicks her brother hard in the shin.

"Shit, Lily –" Albus swears, his eyes watering.

"There we go."

"So uh," Albus clears his throat, flushing a little. "You know what – I don't want to know anything. Just. Do your thing. And don't make me hear about it."

We're silent. Scorpius and I glance at each other uneasily.

"So … that's it?" I ask carefully.

Albus looks between the two of us. "Well yeah. I don't care."

"I thought you'd be furious," I admit, relaxing a little.

"I mean, I'm not happy," Albus concedes. "But I suppose I can understand." Albus stares Scorpius dead in the eye. "And you can be assured I'll beat you with a Quidditch bat if you so much as –"

"Knock it off, Potter," I scold. Albus sulks. "So Scorpius," I daren't look at him. "Fancy checking out the Prefect's Rota? I didn't get a decent look at it earlier."

The muscles in Scorpius' mouth twitch as he tries to hide a grin. "I got rudely torn away from it this morning." He comments casually. I struggle not to laugh.

"Alright, alright, we all know you're talking about sex," Lily says finally. Albus goes bright red.

"Wait what?"

"Nothing, Al."