The Hogwarts dungeons seemed to be colder than ever for Rose Weasley. She had, of course, already been there thousand of times for her potions classes, but she felt a very strange feeling that she was not accepted in there. Slytherins used to make fun of almost everybody that wasn't in their house.

Poor Rose, she wasn't an exception; in fact she was the target of most of the girls from her year. Trying to remember how to get in the entrance - Scorpius had already told her the path - she turned left, and then right and then left again. In this final corridor there were only Slytherin students, and in the very end there was the entrance for the Common Room. She obviously couldn't enter there, but for Rose it wasn't a problem. She knew what to do.

A pair of very young girls passed by Rose; probably a couple of silly first years, she thought. One of them was really short with blonde hair, the other had a long black hair and apparently this girl was really bossy. But before they could continue, Rose had already grabbed the smaller one and was dragging her to a corner. She screamed from fear and her friend, noticing what had just happened, screamed too and ran in Rose's direction.

"What are you doing? Are you mental?"the blonde girl was trying to get rid of Rose. "You can't jut grab and drag me with no reason, I am going to call the Slytherin Prefect!"

"Are you talking about Al? I mean... Albus Severus Potter?"

"Yes!" It was now the other girl's turn to talk.".

"This is going to be easier than I thought..." The girls laughed at this comment. "Look, I am a Prefect too so shut up and listen to me, or I can get you both into big, BIG trouble, if I want to!" The little girls suddenly stopped talking and moving and looked at Rose with disgust in their faces. "I want you to say to Albus, the prefect, that his cousin Rose requests to see him right now. And please oblige him to come out. Of course he will come right away but if he refuses say that he will be in detention!" The two girls kept looking at Rose for a while until she screamed, "Go on, now!"

The girls sped away the corridor and when they reached its end, murmured a few words and a concealed door opened. Rose caught a glimpse of a sofa and a few people, green lights and a fireplace, but her vision was blocked by a tall boy, with blonde (almost grey) hair and blue eyes. He was swaying for the corridor. But his show didn't last long.

Rose had already got to her feet, ran to the boy's direction and punched Scorpius fully in his face. He almost fell over, but two boys grabbed him before he reached the floor. Everybody was looking at Rose now and swearing at her. But for her luck, her cousin Albus Potter appeared.

Before he could ask any question, he was already in another corridor of the dungeons being dragged by his cousin. This one was a lot more empty. There was a wooden bench near the wall where Rose sat. Albus sat by her side, crossed his arms and looked at her.

"So Rosie, what do you need?" he asked her and chuckled. He had just used the nickname she most hated in the entire world. She looked at him with a furious look. "OK, sorry! What it is then?"

"Well, Albie – " he looked at her with anger because of the stupid nickname, "- I am sure you remember the day that you told me that I could count on you with anything right?" Rose started what would be a very long conversation.

"Yeah, I do, of course!" She smiled, but before she could continue he interrupted. "Wait! Will this be one of that long, boring talks we often have? Otherwise I will have to warn Cornelia that I will delay a little bit."

"When you say Cornelia... You mean Cornelia Carter?" He nodded "Aha! So that is why you are all blushed, covered in red marks in your face and neck and also your hair is messier than ever. Not counting, of course, the three first buttons of your shirt opened! Haha! I had suspected though..." Albus couldn`t help but laugh too.

Cornelia Carter and Albus Potter, Rose`s cousin, had been dating since the end of their O.W.L.s, the previous year. For Rose`s luck she was a nice Slytherin girl, one of the only ones that didn`t bully her. In fact they were kind of friends.

"Can you stop criticizing me and Cornelia and answer my damn question?" He had now tydied his hair and closed two of the three buttons of his shirt.

"Yes it will be a long talk, go warn her and do it fast. And don`t forget the last button." She was serious now, because she had remembered why she wanted to talk to Albus... Scorpius Malfoy, the cheater of the decade!

Albus was indeed really fast, probably because he noticed that he was going to have a serious talk with her. Or maybe because he wanted it to end soon so he could talk to Cornelia, the girl thought to herself, but no, I don`t really think so. He cameback and was now very tidy, just to please Rose.

"Can we talk in another place? It is very cold down here!" Rose asked.

"I was going to suggest you the same thing! I say we go to a secret room. I don`t know if you already heard about it, but very few students know of its existance. It was your dad who told me about it in fact. It is called..."

"The Room of Requirement! Yes of course I know of it, mom told me everything about it and when our parentes used as a HQ for a secret society! Let`s go!"

The cousins were soon on the seventh floor and in an Unplotabble room perfect for a talk. They both sat in a large and comfortable sofa.

Rose began to talk. She told everything to him, what she had seen and how she had punched Scorpius in the face... It wasn`t easy to talk about it, not for Rose anyway. Ocasionally she would gasp, or sob and a few times she started to cry and Albus had to hold her tight in his arms to make her stop. Rose was so grateful to Albus. He was like an angel to her, always supporting her.

"Now I want you to be a hundred percent honest with me Al! Really! Will you be?"

"Rosie, Rosie. Tell me, how many times have I ever lied to you?" She smiled, and he did too. "So, what is your question?"

"I want to know if you knew anything about it – the cheating – and why he did it, or anything!" She almost started to cry.

"No Rose, I didn`t! I only heard a few whispers in the Common Room while...talking to Cornelia—"

"Making out is more correct."

"OK, it doesn`t matter. What matters is that I didn't know anything about it and I am really angry at Scorp. But if you ask me to end my friendship with him, sorry. This is the only thing I am not willing to do! We are best friends and you know it. I will talk to him, actually I will punch him! I can`t believe he did this to you!" Rose started to cry and leaned her hed on his shoulders as he hugged her. "In the end every thing will be all right, and you know it! This is not the end of the world! Everything is gonna be all right..."

Rose Weasley was back in her dormitory. She was the only one there. Looking at the window she noticed that it had stopped raining. The silence was suddenly interrupted by a very tiny owl swooshing through an open window. It layed on a large table in the center of the room. Rose smiled when she saw the owl.

"Hey Sunny! What good news you bring now? I am really needing one at this moment!" She got the letter from Sunny`s legs (the owl she had got as a gift from her uncle Harry in her first year at Hogwarts) and turned it. One hand was stroking the bird and the other was holding the letter. When she looked at the sender`s calligraphy she let out a scream.

It was his letter. That delicate yet striking caligraphy, she loved so much. It was him.

It was Scorpius Malfoy.