Prologue

The Leaky Cauldron was crowded with people, and I was pushed around as I tried to search for a certain redhead.

"Yo! Scorp!"

Al's voice was loud and clear, which made it pretty easy to find him.

"I already ordered beer. Rosie's at the ladie's. Says it's the 'magic day'" He snorted. "She's a witch, bro. Every day's a magic day."

"I... don't think she meant that." I took a little sip of the beer.

"Who meant what? Ooh, has little Scorpie been playing around with the ladies again?" Rosie, who had been there for who knows when, chuckled next to me.

"Oh, fuck. For the millionth time, please stop calling me little Scorpie." I gulped down my glass of beer. "You do get that we're twenty six? Both of us?"

"Don't remind me. I'd like to think I'm forever twenty one." She took my beer and drank it at once. "Ah, the good old times."

"Hey. That was mine."

She gave my empty glass back. "It's not like we're kissing. For the sake of Merlin, stop acting like a girl!"

"One beer, Aunt Hannah." I looked into my empty glass. Empty.

"Tough up, man." Rose punched my left arm lightly. A sharp pain spread through my arm, and I winced.

"Ack. Careful, Rosie." Rosie gasped as she pulled out some bandages from her purse.

"Sorry, Scorp. Didn't think about the injury there. How's the investigation going, Al? Anything new?" Rosie rolled my sleeves up as she unwrapped my old bandages and examined the wound.

"Well, we're not supposed to tell anybody..." Albus took a quick glance at Rose, who was glowering. Al then quickly took a sip of his brandy and then started talking. "But then again, you're not anybody."

"Well, Alecto Carrow is, well. Still out on the loose. Even after Voldemort's death, she's still got some grudges against us. I mean, our parents. No, I mean the DA. I suppose that's why she killed Mr. Anthony Goldstein, Mrs. Katie Bell, and Mr. Ernie Macmillan, all members of the DA." Albus spat.

"And of course, as you know, we almost caught her, but bloody hell, she cursed little Scorpie's arm."

"For the millionth and first time, stop calling me little Scorpie." I grunted.

"Oh, for Merlin's sakes, does it matter? Oh, poor them. I remember Mrs. Katie. She taught me quidditch." Rose pulled my sleeves down.

"What about you, Rosie? How's it in St. Mungos?"

"Blah. Magical bugs and diseases. You thought that that would be fun, but it's just kids and old people with dragon pox walking up to me, saying that they've got an itch they can't scratch or, they've burned their fucking sheets! (As you all know, a person with dragon pox sneezes flames. But we all learned that in Hogwarts, right?)"

"Sounds awful, Rosie."

"And is awful. I'm only looking forward to this weekend. Oh, and speaking of this weekend." Rose looked at me. "Are you going to watch the game?"

Ah. The game. The game of the Chudley Cannons versus the Holyhead Harpies. Shit. That was this weekend?

"Don't think so, Rosie. Carrow's still on the loose, and the Auror's department lacks people."

"Well, I'll have to watch." I glared at Al, but he just shrugged. "Mum'll chew my head off if I miss the game. It's a Harpies game, Scorp."

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing Al at the Burrow this Saturday. Good luck to you, Scorp, I hope you get progress, and I must go, since I have a shift 3 hours later, and I want to be sober. Bye. Call you guys later."

And with Rose gone, Al and I parted, too.

...

Rose was a pure goddess. She wore a white dress, which was neckline was quite low for her taste (She showed cleavage! Merlin, CLEAVAGE!) And the skirt kind of torn up to her thighs.

She wore makeup. Not the flashy, glossy kind, but just enough to make her skin brighter, and her blue eyes look like the ocean.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and her left leg went around my waist. I tried as hard as I could not to gulp.

She opened her mouth. I looked at her lips. But the sound coming out of her mouth wasn't her voice, it was rather the sound of an alarm clock.

I gasped as I rapidly sat up. My head was spinning. I set the alarm clock off and tried to calm myself down, but I still couldn't get the image of Rose out of my mind.

One. Two. Three deep breaths. Still thinking about Rose's fucking cleavage.

My mind was fucking shit.