"Rosie!"

I turn around with a winning smile on my face. "Yes, Daddy?" I reply sweetly.

"No boys!" He says firmly with an 'I mean it' face. Mum simply shakes her head wearily behind his back.

"Got it, Daddy," I reply with a breezy laugh and as much innocence as I can conjure. I kiss him on the cheek.

"Work hard and be good," my mother pleads, clutching at my hand. I refrain from rolling my eyes and attempt to be patient with her well meaning statement.

"I'm always good, mum," I tell her softly but firmly and try to disentangle her fingers from the cuff of my sleeve. "And similarly, I always work hard. Are you sure you haven't mixed me up with Hugo?"

My brother, much to my mother's dismay and everyone's genuine confusion, inherited the naturally troublesome gene. He's got far too much of Uncle George in him and my parents don't really understand where they went wrong.

"Both of you - don't worry. I love you, and I'll see you at Christmas!" I step off the platform and onto the Hogwarts Express, sticking my head through the window.

"Write to us!" Mum calls and I blow her a kiss in response before ducking my head back into the train as it begins to roll away from the platform.

It's not hard to find my cousins and it's Lily who accosts me first. "'No boys'," she mimics in exasperation after evidently having the same short conversation with her father. "Yeah right."

"Men are so clueless," I agree. We both find an empty carriage and throw ourselves down in the squashy seats. Subconsciously I find myself reaching into the pocket of my denim shorts to enclose my fingers around my red and gold 'Head Girl' badge.

"As if I'm going to turn down a boy because my daddy said so," Lily says in annoyance.

"Yeah, fat chance of that, Lil," I snort. She glares at me. "You had like six dates last year!" I attest.

Lily opens her mouth to argue back but we're cut off by the presence of Albus and Scorpius wandering in with Liquorice Wands hanging rather unattractively out of their mouths.

Whoever's master plan it was to assign Scorpius Malfoy as Head Boy for our last year at Hogwarts has some explaining to do. And not just because of the questionably poor choice of male role model for the younger kids to look up. But because this same person also thought that the perfect match to Malfoy's Head Boyship was to assign me as Head Girl. You literally couldn't make this up.

"Who had six dates last year?" Scorpius asks, pulling the sweet from between his teeth. "Because it certainly wasn't you, Weasley." His slate grey eyes bore into me and I can feel the famous Weasley temper bubbling in my chest.

"I have standards, Malfoy," I reply coldly.

"Lily, you didn't have six dates last year did you?" Albus asks seriously, looking at his sister with his dark eyebrows raised in big brotherly firmness.

Lily doesn't break a sweat or blush even slightly.
"Of course not, Al," she says with such sincerity that I almost believe her myself. She catches me grinning and flickers a warning at me with her intense brown eyes that scream; 'say a word, Rose Weasley, and I will hex you into oblivion.' I keep my mouth firmly shut.

"Scorpius, stop staring at me," I order, suddenly self conscious that Scorpius has been watching me carefully with a look on his face that I can't place.

Al and Lily both stare at Scorpius who flushes furiously and stands up suddenly.

"See you later, Al," he says quickly and walks out.

"What the hell was that all about?" Lily demands.

"He had better not be hitting on you, Rose," Albus says.

"Oh for goodness sake, you're beginning to sound like my father," I say in exasperation. Albus gets to his feet to follow Scorpius out of the carriage leaving Lily and I alone.

"You know you could blame this on Uncle Ron," Lily says suddenly.

"Hm? How?" I ask, puzzled at how Scorpius hitting on me is somehow now my father's fault.

"He told you not half an hour ago not to get involved with boys. It's like tempting fate," Lily says thoughtfully. "What do you think of Lysander Scamander?"

"Who?" I say. With Lily the conversation tends to move on quickly.

"Lysander Scamander," she repeats and when I still haven't caught on she huffs in frustration. "The Ravenclaw beater with the twin brother!"

"Oh!" I say. "Yeah he's cute,"

"Good," she says, pleased.

"Lily. Leave the poor boy alone. He'll need therapy for years when you've finished with him," I say.

My cousin grins wickedly. "I know," she says proudly.

The train surges effortlessly through the English countryside and streams through the all too familiar Scottish Highlands on the way back to Hogwarts. Throughout the trip, Lily has talked of nothing but boys. And for me – the daughter of the clueless Ronald Weasley – boys aren't such a gripping topic for me.

"And then I told him, 'don't worry, things like this happen to me all the time,' whilst trying to stop him from eating a Puking Pastille lurking in my bedroom!" Lily finishes extravagantly.

"So … he was a squib?" I ask stupidly having not listened to most of that recount.

Lily rolls her eyes. "No, this was the muggle I picked up at a club!"

"Lily Potter, what were you doing at a club without me to supervise you?" I snap quickly, my attention jumping back to action.

Lily rolls her eyes again. "You were there, Rosie." She says in a 'duh' tone of voice.

I frown. "Then how did I let you take him home with you?" I ask.

"Because that was the night that Scorpius Malfoy was there," Lily says suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows. "And you were getting rather cosy with him, might I add."

Oh God. Lily is so annoying when she knows everything.

"Lily Luna Potter," I say hurriedly. "I was not getting cosy with Scorpius."

Lily opens her mouth to retort in glee when the dynamic duo consisting of Albus and Scorpius himself are back with more snacks. "LIL!" I scream suddenly and launch myself from my seat to sit on her and clamp my hands over her mouth.

"Rose," Albus is eyeing me carefully. "Is everything OK?"

Lily is shaking with laughter beneath me. Suddenly her tongue strikes across the palm of my hand and I recoil in disgust. "EUCH!"

"Weasley, stop prancing around before you take someone's eye out," Scorpius says dryly.

"I'll take your eye out in a minute, Malfoy," I mutter, wiping Lily's saliva on her shoulder. She grins at me. I flash my eyes warningly at her. Lily Potter. I think desperately, hoping that as cousins, our brains are somehow hardwired to reach each other's minds in desperate situations. You had better resolve this.

To my amazement and sudden belief in God, Lily pipes up with; "I think I took a potion you left lying around at home, Al. It's making me voice rather odd thoughts and Rose here just stopped me announcing my undying love for Scorpius when you walked in."

Al and Scorpius both regard her, trying to work out whether or not she's having them on. "You what?" Albus says with a frown.

"Oh yes," she says seriously, gazing at a rather bewildered Scorpius with steady eyes which have just the right amount of affection. "I find you rather exciting Scorpius. And more than anything I'd like to -"

"Well," I say loudly. "That's enough from Lily."

"I don't know why I allow you two to be alone together; Lily, leave Scorpius alone and stop tormenting him," Albus says. For the boy who seems to take delight in charming every girl in Hogwarts and then crushing them all in turn, this seems a bit rich coming from him.

"Good news, Weasley," Scorpius has regained his monotonous, dry composure and now turns to me with one platinum eyebrow partially raised.

"Thrill me, Malfoy," I reply flatly.

"You and I are on rounds together until Christmas,"

I nearly fall off my seat. "Oh wonderful," I force through my gritted teeth. "What else would I rather spend my evenings doing than roaming the castle with you all night?"

"Funny you should say that," Scorpius narrows his eyes. "Because I was wondering to myself; 'if I get put with anyone for rounds, I hope it's someone with all the charm of a Venomous Tentacula."

I feel my face heat up in anger and my temper is about to burst. I open my mouth to retort when Albus sees fit to break Scorpius and I apart; we're one more insult away from ripping each other's throats out. Or drawn wands, at least.

"Scorpius, I think there are some Liquorice Wands left over," Albus gabbles quickly, grabbing his best friend by the arm and hauling him out of our compartment.

"'Thrill me, Malfoy'!?" Lily shrieks and explodes with laughter as soon as the compartment door has closed with a soft click.

I frown. "What the hell is your problem?" I say.

"You asked Scorpius Malfoy to thrill you!"

"Grow up, Lily, not like that!"

"So what did happen that night?" Lily asks me and those intense eyes of hers bore into me. It makes me feel uncomfortable; Lily can read me like a freaking book.

"Uh…" I falter and start blushing furiously. "It was nothing really!" I begin playing rather manically with my hair.

"Rose Weasley." Lily says dangerously, switching from hyperactive puppy mode, to sounding scarily like Auntie Ginny in a split second – it's clear who her mother is.

"This is your entire fault, Lily," I hiss.

"My fault!?" She yelps. "How in the name of Merlin's underpants is this my fault?"

"You're the one who spiked my orange juice with bloody Firewhiskey," I say angrily, I fold my arms across my chest and push out my chin in defiance.

"Only a few times to loosen you up and stop you from noticing what kind of boys I was with –"

"Lil!" I say indignantly.

"But as it turns out, Miss 'I-have-no-interest-in-dating-this-year' Weasley, you might have a lot on your plate with Mr Malfoy,"

"Don't be ridiculous," I say primly, sitting back in my seat and opening a Chocolate Frog. I pull out the Wizard card, secretly hoping it to be my mum, dad, or one of my aunts and uncles who fought in the war. "Oh this is taking the piss!" I complain loudly as I see that my Wizard card is Draco Malfoy.

I give the card with the moving image of a surly looking, yet haunted, Draco Malfoy to Lily. She tries to decline. "Nah – I've got six of him. I'm trying to get another one of your mum so I can complete my masterpiece." I force it into her hand anyway.

Lily's so called 'masterpiece' happens to be a family tree of the adults in our family made out of Chocolate Frog Wizard cards. To be fair, it's very impressive; when you walk into Lily's bedroom, the whole of the north wall is covered. But Lily isn't stupid – she's got a curtain to cover it when she has boys over.

I shake back the sleeve of my knitted Weasley jumper and check my little gold watch which resides on my left wrist and was a 16th Birthday gift from Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny.

"Time to change, Lily," I announce to my cousin who is rather absorbed in the newest edition of The Quibbler. I get to my feet and reach up to the luggage shelf for my trunk. I curse. I'm not tall enough to get it down as it was Albus who put it up there for me.

"Need some help, Weasley?" Comes a voice from behind me. My insides boil at the familiarity.

"As if I would come to you for help, Malfoy," I retort over my shoulder.

"Stop being so bloody stubborn," he mutters and strides into the compartment. With one fluid action, Scorpius lifts down my battered trunk and sets it by my feet as easily as if he was moving a bag of flour.

I cross my arms. "Thank you." I force begrudgingly.

"Did that just kill you inside?" Scorpius smirks.

I narrow my eyes at him. "Don't push it." I say. "Now go away so we can get changed."

Pushing Scorpius out of the compartment, I close the door behind him, accidentally catching his heel in the process, and lean my back against the door.

"Um," Lily says awkwardly from her seat with wide eyes. "That was weird."

"What the hell do you mean?" I snap.

"The sexual tension was unbearable; I kind of felt like I was intruding on something." Lily says and tries to suppress a laugh.

"Before I throttle you," I begin sweetly. "Will you please stop insinuating that anything more than kissing went on between Scorpius and I that night?" I ignore Lily's jaw hitting the floor and I gather up my uniform and make to leave the compartment to change elsewhere.

"ROSIE!" Lily yells and tries to stop me leaving. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN-?"

"Later, Lil," I sing and run down the train corridor. I find my friends Clem and Jennie halfway through getting changed in a compartment a few down from the one I was sharing with Lily.

"The hell!?" Clem says, holding her discarded t-shirt against her chest.

"Sorry," I apologise, dumping my uniform on the seat beside Jennie who is knotting her tie and reapplying her makeup.

"I needed to escape from Lily," I explain and pull off my own t-shirt and shrug on my shirt.

"Ah," Clem nods knowingly. "Was she going all hyperactive and hiding stuff again?"

"Worse," I reply, now wriggling out of my shorts, zipping up my school skirt and beginning a battle with 15 denier tights. "She's turned into Miss Know-It-All,"

"I see how that could be annoying for you, Rosie; that's usually your title," Jennie says. I look round for something to throw at her and find an empty water bottle. It finds its target with a pleasing thud.

Lily bursts into the compartment. "Rose Weasley," she hisses, her brown eyes a light with mania.

I actually fear for my life. I gulp. "Yeah?"

"What happened that night?!"

"What night?" My best friends frown confusedly at me and Lily. I look guiltily at their faces as this is the only thing in the world I've never told them.

I almost relent but I'm not going to.

I hate clubs. I hate loud music and loud people and drinking and ugh – dancing. I'm here to keep an eye on Lily as I'm the closest thing she has to parental supervision, but she's not making it easy for me. I sit on the red booth chairs that run around the edge of the club and demurely sip orange juice to give my hands something to do. This is the stupidest thing Lily has ever made me do. There are plenty of Wizarding nightlife places we could go to, but no. She wants to sample the Muggle nightlife.

It's too dark to read and the crazy lighting is making my eyes ache and my head hurt – not to mention the pounding music. I glance at my watch; I've only been here an hour and Lily will have no intention of coming home until at least 4am. I sigh.

I watch Lily flirt with a guy I've never seen before. Muggle clubs are very strange and the music is dreadful. Lily has a drink in her hand which definitely wasn't there a minute ago. I watch her as she staggers over to me.

"ROSIEEEEE," she slurs and plonks herself beside me.

"Ready for home yet, Lil?" I ask her with naive hope, yet still knowing full well what her answer will be.

Lily gives a high pitch giggle and picks up my glass of orange juice as she's drunkenly inspecting it, I turn my head away from her to find a tissue in my pocket which I use to tidy up Lily's smudged lipstick. She's still giggling to herself and the guy she was dancing with before has come over to help her up.

"Stay where I can see you!" I instruct her firmly as she staggers away again, her arm looped around the neck of the boy, knowing she's not bothered or listening. This is such a waste of my time.

"Well, well, well."

Awesome, great; another guy trying to make me dance.

I turn round to yell at him to go away, but the noise ends up dying in my throat.

"Rose Weasley speechless! Well this is something I thought I'd never witness."

This simple jibe is enough to bring me back. "Goddamn it, Malfoy, the hell are you doing here?"

"Don't sound too pleased to see me, you're smothering me." Scorpius teases.

I narrow my eyes and him and sit back in the booth sulking.

"What are you doing here?" I grumble.

Scorpius sits back with me. "I come here for fun, but you're obviously not having fun, so why are you here?"

"I'm supervising Lily," I say and try to gesture in her direction but the distraction has made me loose her in the crowd. "Aw shit," I mutter and begin craning my neck to try and spot her.

"Lily can take care of herself," Scorpius says flippantly.

I open my mouth to argue but close it again. I take another swig of orange juice but frown at the weird taste in it. I take another few sips. I offer some to Scorpius. He makes a face.

"Let me buy you a real drink, Weasley."

"No thanks." I decline primly, but Scorpius is already at the bar and before I know it he's pushed a tall blue drink in front of me.

I take a drink and make a face. Scorpius laughs. "Is our little Rosie not used to alcohol?" He mocks. I narrow my eyes and defiantly drink more to prove some sort of point. It's very strong.

Scorpius takes a long drag of his own drink. "So." He starts. "How are we?"

"Not yet drunk enough to be flirting with you," I quip.

"Ouch."

I try to find Lily again and finally spot her being engulfed by some guy in a corner. I relax a little and absentmindedly drink again, forgetting it's alcoholic.

Scorpius reaches forward and sips my orange juice and frowns.

"Rose, you do know this has Firewhiskey in it, don't you?"

"No!?" I'm going to actually kill Lily.

Scorpius gives a low laugh. And leans into me slightly. I like the warmth of his strong arms against mine.

"You looked lonely over here so I came over to offer you company." Scorpius tells me suddenly. "And I didn't like how so many guys kept coming over to you."

"Why?"

He shrugs. "I guess I was worried one of them might get to … insistent."

I shudder. But then what he's said actually sinks in with me. "Thank you." I say without any hint of sarcasm. "But why do you care that much? You don't actually like me, remember?"

Scorpius smiles and shakes his head slightly. "That's not true, Rose."

I like the way he says my name; softly and lightly. Maybe I have had too much to drink. Can people get drunk that quickly? I feel drunk. How long has Lily been spiking my innocent orange juice? I feel violated. I'm sure there are laws against this.

"Albus would kill me if I ever made any move on you." Scorpius adds casually and I hope the crazy lighting is making it so he can't see that I am blushing madly.

"What?" I say stupidly.

"Because I would if I thought I had the chance." I'm suddenly aware of quite how close to me Scorpius is and I don't make any move to change it.

"Don't be daft." I mutter uncertainly.

Scorpius' eyes are unwavering and honest. "I'm serious, Rose."

"You've had too much to drink."

"No, I haven't."

He leans in and kisses me and I'm stunned but something kicks me and I kiss him back. I can taste him as our tongues tentatively entwine and I feel his warm hands on the cool skin of my waist. My heart sort of stutters and my brain totally shuts down.

I am kissing Scorpius Malfoy in a club.

I am turning into Lily.

Oh shut up, Rose, and enjoy the bloody kiss, I order myself firmly, allowing myself to give into him. I wrap my arms around his neck, knowing that later we will both use the excuse of alcohol and bad lighting.

But why shouldn't I enjoy myself? Lily certainly is. And Scorpius Malfoy is proving to be a very good kisser. But my conscience kicks in and I reluctantly pull away.

"I really need to find Lily —" I groan.

"Alright," Scorpius says. He doesn't seem angry at me. "You wait here."

"Scorpius, what —?"

He gets to his feet and I watch him weave through the crowd to find Lily. Girls are staring at him with their mouths open and some attempt to flirt with him, but Scorpius ignores them all. I feel an irrational surge of protectiveness over him.

Eventually he comes back.

"Lily is okay; I've told her she is to no way leave without you. She's smashed, but she made a pinky promise with me to stay in the club."

I heave a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," I say. "If I'd have given her those instructions, she'd have done the opposite."

Scorpius chuckles.

"Now where were we?" I kiss him again, confidence surging through me even though I'm no where near drunk; just mildly tipsy.

"What I wouldn't give to kiss you every day," Scorpius murmurs against my lips. I hold him closer to me. "Please don't use this against me. Tomorrow; I won't be able to talk about this. Please — I don't want to ruin my friendship with Albus."

"I wouldn't dare come between you."

"Maybe one day we can work this out —"

I shut him up by kissing him and he gives into me, the both of us moving perfectly in time as if we were meant for this. We pull away slightly and rest our foreheads together; his fingers trace my features as if he's trying to memorise me.

"Earth to Rose Weasley?" Lily's voice shakes me out of my stupor.

"Sorry," I shake my head a little, trying to clear away the memory. "Totally distracted."

"I bet she was thinking about Scorpius Malfoy," Lily teases, nudging me in the ribs.
"Cut it out, Lil," I reprimand lightly, trying to keep from blushing.

The carriage door slides open and we all look up. "Hey ladies," Albus and Scorpius stroll in again.

"I see you haven't managed to grow a few more inches to hit me yet, Weasley?" Scorpius teases, knowing exactly how to wind me up.

"I see you haven't managed to get a girlfriend yet, Malfoy," I retort, bristling.

"Cut it out, you two," Albus says wearily as if he's the long suffering parent of two bickering toddlers.

"Shut up, Potter," Scorpius and I snap in unison.

But when we catch each other's eye when no one else is looking, out expressions say it all: just wait for the nightly prefect rounds.