Chapter Two: Falling Off the Roof

"This," Al announced proudly, "is our roof."

"Wow, Al, I never would've guessed."

"Shut it, you," he joked, yanking my arm down to a sitting position. It turned out that Al had a direct passage from his room into the attic, and in turn, there was a window in there that led out to the roof. We were facing the backyard, and incidentally, the pool everyone else was at.

But let's just say we were a bit busy to notice.

I grinned against his lips and pulled back. Al's grip around my waist only tightened the farther back I leaned; I narrowed my eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't fall off." I laughed and he caught my lips again. I pushed him away.

"Just because we haven't seen each other in a month, it doesn't mean we have to snog all day," I tried to reason with him. Don't get me wrong; I loved kissing Al, but there was more to do than fit the stereotypical couple in love. Al looked disappointed but accepted it by pulling me closer and grabbing my hand.

"What's been going on for the past month, then?" he asked. "You said that you were going to tell me your NEWT results in person."

My grin grew wider at the thought. Wow, that must've been creepy. "I got O's and E's on practically everything. Including," I hinted, "Defence." Al laughed; he'd been my tutor - well, more like fake tutor, since he changed my grade in order to tutor me, aka get to know me. Still, I think some revision credit should go to him.

"That's great, Soph!" he exclaimed. "Congratulations."

"Thanks!" I said cheerfully. "And that's not all."

"Hmm?"

"I got into Healing School." It was almost giddy, the way it came out; hard work really does pay off in the end. Al looked excited - and practically relieved.

Which was good, because he was the reason I almost didn't get in.

"We have to celebrate!" he announced, squeezing me into oblivion. "Stay for dinner, okay? I'll tell my mum to bake you a cake or something."

"Thank," I replied, beaming. He ruffled my hair and turned to the direction of the pool. Scorpius had evidently just arrived, as he and Rose were "greeting" each other (swapping spit); Lily and Aiden were splashing each other in the pool; Luke was shamelessly flirting with Scarlett, who was twirling her hair in response.

"I got into teacher's college," Al blurted out. I squealed.

"I knew you would!"

He grinned cheekily at me. "Do I get a prize?"

"Don't push it."

He pulled me closer. "You love me."

"That I do," I admitted shyly, "but don't deny you love me just as much."

"More."

"As it should be." He laughed and buried his face in my hair. After a moment, I felt his lips on my neck, and rolled my eyes.

This boy is seriously hormonal.

I looked down to the Potter's backyard, seeing it from the roof from the first time. They opted for a huge yard with a smaller house, thickets of trees lining the back of the yard and fencing around the sides.

"Is it just me, or is Scorpius completely okay with Rose?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. Even from the roof, I could see him smiling at her and definitely straying his eyes lower than he normally would.

"Why wouldn't he be okay with Rose?"

"You know what I mean," I said absent-mindedly, straining to see. "Rose's freaky transformation. All the pink stuff."

"Oh..." Al trailed off, thinking for a moment. "I guess it gradually just happened, I didn't notice."

"How can you not notice her wearing a skirt?"

"Hogwarts uniforms included skirts."

I shook my head. "Not that short. Or pink."

"Oh."

"How can you not notice something so..." I struggled to find the words, not really wanting to insult Rose, but knowing this wasn't my confident best friend. "... so different?"

"I dunno."

"C'mon Al, look at her," I reasoned, gesturing in her direction. She and Scorpius were sitting on the edge of the pool, Rose wearing a bit of clothing she called a bathing suit and Scorpius staring happily at her - almost in a bit of a daze. I was willing to bet that he'd fall into the pool if someone jumped up behind him.

Damn, now I want to try it!

"I see her."

"Then you can see - she's not Rose," I explained. "She's turned into... Vanessa bloody Brown, or -"

"She's not that bad," he said, grabbing me around the waist from behind. "Vanessa Brown was messed up. Didn't her dad run out on her or something?"

"Yeah."

"Rose is probably just going through a phase." His voice was soothing, but somehow, it only infuriated me.

"Rose doesn't go through phases."

"Everyone goes through phases."

"Not her," I denied, shaking my head yet again. "Rose stays grounded. I go through phases. She feeds off the them."

"She's fully entitled to making her own mistakes." His hand found the skin under my t-shirt and was now tracing patterns, making it tingle. It was a little distracting, to say the least. "She'll go back to normal, I promise."

I sighed. "Do you think she's doing it for Scorpius? Did he say something -"

"No," Al said flatly, dropping his head on my shoulder. "No, Scorpius would ever ask for that. He's liked Rose for years."

"Oh." A small smile flitted across my face. "How long did you fancy me?" Al stiffened a little, the tips of his ears reddening ever so slightly.

"A while."

"Really?"

"Mhmm."

I turned so I could press a kiss on his jaw. "Since first year, for me."

"Oh."

"Is that all you can say?" I asked teasingly, pulling back and grinning at him. "Here I am, telling you that I've been pining after you for seven years, and all you can say is -"

"Do you want to move in with me?"

My jaw dropped. He didn't just ask that. He couldn't have asked that. Why would my boyfriend of a month ask me to move in with him when I just told him I wasn't ready to have sex. I mean, isn't that what it means?

But when I looked at Al, I could tell; he was being serious. Despite the fact that we had discussed our freaking boundaries an hour ago, he was asking me to move with him. I assumed he'd gotten some place to stay, and just blurted out some random nonsense. He didn't really want me to move in. Of course not.

And wow, we've really been sitting out here for an hour? It's a wonder my butt isn't sore.

Shit.

It's sore.

The dilemmas I have to go through, really.

"Move in... here? In this house?" I asked, trying not to panic.

"No," he answered. He was nervous. I could tell. "I'm getting a flat somewhere. Maybe near Hogsmeade."

"In a flat. With you."

"You don't have to!" he said quickly, retracting himself from how he had somehow gotten his limbs tangled in mine. He seemed really nervous now. "I mean, I might not even get it until next year, after the first year of teacher's college, but since we're going to different schools and we might not be able to see each other so often, I thought it would be nice. Since I'm not going to break up with you for a long time."

I couldn't believe my ears. "You're really not?"

"No!" he blurted, almost looking horrified. "I've fancied you since second ye – err, since the second I realized that you… are… so amazing," he tacked on weakly, practically sweating under my raised eyebrow.

Nice save, Al. Nice save.

(AND SECOND YEAR?

HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLYCRAP.

I LOVE THIS BOY SO MUCH.)

"Really?" I said softly, smiling as I moved back closer to him. "Second year?"

He visibly (and audibly) swallowed as I straddled him. Al reached out to grasp my hips.

"Maybe," he admitted. His face was like a tomato, it was so red. "But my point is that I'm not letting you go so easily. And that's why I thought we should live together."

I started kissing his jaw. "Really?"

"Yeah."

His breath hitched as my teeth grazed his earlobe. "And we'd have separate rooms?"

"Umm…" He seemed to be contemplating it, but maybe he just couldn't think anymore with his girlfriend practically mauling him. "Separate rooms… I… umm… are you sure?"

"Separate beds, maybe?" I murmured, kissing down his neck and sucking at certain points.

"I… I don't… know… if… mmm." He shuddered with a moan, his eyes fluttering shut. "Not if you keep doing that."

"I'm testing your self-control," I told him, grinning widely as I pulled back. He opened his eyes, probably annoyed that I'd stopped. "If we're living together, how do I know you'll wait if I want to?"

"That's cruel," he whined. I laughed. "I wouldn't ever force anything on you."

"You wouldn't seduce me, hmm?" I wiggled on top of him. He groaned.

"What do you think you're doing, hypocrite?" he asked. I shrugged innocently, and the next thing I knew, he'd flipped me over and was snogging the life out of me. And as much as I was enjoying it – scratch that, really enjoying this – he'd pushed me so I was lying down and my back was digging into the roof. All in the name of his hormones.

He was not getting away with this.

Somehow, through my haze, I'd managed to slide my hands oh-so-subtly in his hair… then around the back of his neck. Slowly – very slowly – down his back. And then to his arse.

Now, don't put your mind in the gutter! Didn't I make it very clear that I wanted to wait at least a little while until we take our relationship to a more intimate stage? I mean, we may have wanted each other for years, but that doesn't mean we can date for a month and do anything "special" before we've even went on our first date.

Nope. I wanted to see what that parchment was that was tucked into his back pocket and making his oh-so-fine arse glow like a Christmas tree.

Unfortunately, like most people, Al seemed to have hypersensitivity in this area.

"What are you doing?" he mumbled, panting slightly. I reached one hand back up to his neck and forced his lips on mine, as if to say, 'Don't worry about it.'

I wanted to see what he was hiding, okay?

He probably got the message… or maybe he forgot. I felt around for the slip of parchment, careful not to alert Al of my intentions. It was difficult. He kept pulling back to look at me and then losing himself in the kiss again. I had a plan, here. He had to stop noticing how I was poking at his butt.

But finally, the slip of parchment came free.

Right around the time Al came to his senses.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, resting his elbows on the roof to lift him up and look at me, still sounding out-of-breath. I froze, wondering exactly how I was going to sneak this parchment out of his sight.

Maybe I hadn't exactly thought this through.

"What do you mean?"

His cheeks reddened again. "You know what I'm talking about."

"Not really, no."

"Yes you do."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"LOOK, A FLYING SQUIRREL!"

He spun around, probably more because I had pointed with my free hand and yelled rather than for the supposed flying squirrel, and in that time, I'd sneaked the parchment past him with my ninja-like skills.

I wasn't that stealthy, since I didn't factor in how Al would look back after processing what I'd said.

"Hey!" he shouted, face screwing up in – panic? I scrambled back, holding out my hands in front of me. Where his precious glowing paper was.

"Let's be rational, here," I tried to reason. He wasn't listening.

"Give that back."

"What is it?"

"Give it back."

"I'm going to open it if you don't tell me –"

At that, he'd pounced. I wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but suddenly we were rolling around, both clutching the paper tightly, trying to get it without ripping it. Wrestling on top of a roof. Fear grabbed me as we rolled closer to the edge.

Shit, this totally wasn't worth the paper.

So I let it go. And maybe Al had the same idea, because he let go, too. It caught in the breeze and floated off the roof, somewhere into the backyard. For a split second, we glanced back up at each other.

It's on, Potter.