"Get lost Malfoy." Al immediately sprung to her defence, squaring up to Scorpius. Lily reached down and tried to haul her cousin off the ground, but Rose swatted her off in embarrassment, pulling herself up using a carriage door.

Scorpius shot her an amused look but addressed her cousin. "I am merely standing here Potter. I think it was Weasley who barged into me. Of course I can't blame her; I understand that she finds me irresistible."

"It's not my fault your big head blocks the whole corridor Malfoy!" Rose butted in before Albus did something stupid. She hated Scorpius for his arrogance and his ability to stay composed whenever they had a slanging match, which always left her angry and flustered.

"Let's go," she muttered to her cousin, grabbing his arm and dragging him down the corridor towards the prefects' compartment. Scorpius grinned for a moment at her retreating back, before following the two of them down the corridor.

Rose scowled to herself as she looked up and saw Scorpius enter the prefects' compartment. For a glorious moment she had almost forgotten he was also on the prefect team. To be fair, throughout most of her time at Hogwarts, she had tried to have as little to do with him as possible. He had gotten on her bad side the first time they met, when, as an eleven year old aboard the Hogwart's Express, he had made a passing ginger jibe at her. Rose could deal with redhead, scarlet, chestnut, auburn etc. but she did not like being called ginger. This- along with her father's warning right before she got on the train- planted in her an immediate dislike for Scorpius, which her cousins quickly caught onto. Perhaps Ron had not thought how great an impact his words had on an eleven year old, but as he had told his daughter to beat Scorpius in every class, she had determined to do so, and on the quidditch pitch as well.

Of course Rose realised Scorpius had changed a lot since the first time they had met on the platform in first year. From being small and skinny he had grown huge, at least six foot tall, broad shouldered and built from quidditch training.

"Protein shakes I bet." Rose mumbled to herself.

"What?" said Al, sitting next to her.

"Huh? Nothing."

Rose continued her glowering at Scorpius. She noticed the girls around her looking flushed when he entered. This was rather a common occurrence with him, his good looks and cool manner normally left girls falling at his feet, earning him a bit of a reputation as a player. Rose might possibly have agreed that he was quite handsome…if the sight of him didn't make her sick of course. And she was pretty sure he had a girlfriend. He was definitely seeing that dark-haired Ravenclaw in the year below them before the holidays. But then again, Scorpius's girlfriends never seemed to last long.

Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of the head boy and girl, ready to give their start of year speech. Rose lazed back as they talked, she had heard it all before. Forgetting all about Scorpius, she let her thoughts drift to Matt, she was going to search him out as soon as this meeting was over, and it was taking forever.

As soon as they had finished there was a dash towards the doors, and Rose made sure she was at the head of it. She began fighting her way down the corridor, until she heard Scorpius call after her;

"See you for corridor duty later this week then!"

She stopped sharply, "What?!"

He smirked, "Oh dear Weasley weren't you listening in the meeting? You're paired with me for patrolling the corridors after dark."

"There is no way in hell I'm going anywhere with you after dark Malfoy."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice Weasley, it's all sorted now. Shouldn't have been dreaming during the meeting should you." He gave her one last sneer, and then strolled past her to find his friends, or possibly that dark-haired Ravenclaw. Who cared? Rose stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds until Albus caught up to her.

"You alright? You look like you've just eaten a blast-ended skrewt."

Rose punched him on the shoulder. "Why did you let me get paired with Malfoy?!"

"Ow Rose! I dunno, you didn't complain at the time."

"I wasn't listening in the meeting!"

"Well serves you right then. Look never mind, it's only one night a week. Let's go find the others."

Rose kept grumbling but followed Albus down the corridor until he stopped outside a compartment containing some of their fellow Gryffindors; Rose's roommates Louise Macmillan and Tina Sloper, and Albus's friends Brady Finnigan and Matt Jordan.
Rose promptly forgot her annoyance when she saw Matt and she started smiling instead, quickly patting down her mad curls and silently cursing her mother for passing them on to her. Matt got up and greeted Albus with a slap on the back and then grabbed Rose in a hug which lifted her off her feet.

"Get a room!" yelled Albus and Rose pulled a face at the jeers from her friends.

"Come on." She pulled Matt out into the corridor.

"I missed you Rose." He smiled and bent to kiss her.

###

A few minutes later, after they felt sufficiently reacquainted they headed back into the compartment with their friends, where a loud debate was taking place over who Albus should be putting into the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year in James's old place as Chaser.

"As long as you don't chuck us off, eh Al?" Matt sat down next to his friend, patting the seat on the other side of him for Rose. Matt was a Beater on the Gryffindor team, while Rose played Chaser and Albus was, of course, the Seeker.

"You know Slytherin have a pretty good team this year Al?" Brady asked. "I heard Malfoy was told he was going to be captain last year, and he's been planning the team since then."

"Don't remind me." Al groaned.

Rose scowled at the mention of Scorpius's name, and squeezed Matt's hand which was entwined in hers. He looked around at her and smiled,

"I'm sorry I didn't owl you yesterday Rose. We didn't get back until last night, I thought we'd be back earlier."

"Oh," Rose smiled back at him. "It's fine, I wasn't worried." She saw Albus grinning at her over Matt's shoulder and narrow her eyes at him, daring him to say something. "So," she said brightly. "Who's for some exploding snap?"

###

"Rach!" Rose squealed and threw her arms around her best friend. "I missed you like crazy, how was France?"

"Urgh unbelievably dull," Rachel's eyes sparkled as she looked at her friend. "I'm actually really glad to be back. Too much family bonding time, stuck in the middle of nowhere with only my parents and an annoying little brother for company. I have no idea what Dad was thinking."

Rachel Longbottom had been Rose's best friend for as long as she could remember. Their parents were old friends and the girls had grown up together. Rachel hadn't been on the Hogwart's Express, her father Neville was the herbology teacher at Hogwarts and had arrived in school a day earlier than the pupils. Rachel and her brother Tom had come along early with him to help prepare his greenhouses for the year.

Rose laughed and grabbed her friends arm, pulling her into the Great Hall. The girls settled at the top of the Gryffindor table beside Albus and Matt, who were already impatient for food to arrive.

"Come on Sprout, let's get this over with so we can eat." Albus was staring in a rather manic fashion at their Headmistress.

"You know the Sorting is really important, right Albus?" Rose raised her eyebrows.

"It's also important that I don't waste away from hunger."

"Merlin no, I wouldn't want that." Rose's voice dripped sarcasm.

"And that's why you're my favourite cousin." Albus grinned at her.

Rachel was digging in the pocket of her robes. "Here guys, I managed to dig up our timetables early." She handed out the timetables to the four of them, and then got up to pass some to their fellow seventh years, stopping for a moment to say hello. When she got back it was to hear Rose complaining loudly;

"I can't believe this, double Potions first thing. What a way to start to the year. And no Arithmancy tomorrow."

"Why would you take Arithmancy anyway?" Matt was glancing at her timetable. "It sounds so complicated."

"It's my favourite!" Rose said indignantly, swatting him on the shoulder. "Anyway, I like to keep my options open. I have no idea what I want to be yet."

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the Sorting Hat, and they didn't commence talking again until the last eleven year old had been sorted and food had appeared on the plates in front of them.

"It's good." grunted Albus, mouth full of roast beef. Rose and Rachel looked at each other.

"Guys." Rachel mouthed, rolling her eyes.

###

A while later when the meal was over, Professor Sprout rose to say a few words. Rose only caught a few of them, she was busy staring at Matt, thoughts full of how cute he looked when he was listening intently. She allowed her eyes to drift fondly around the Great Hall, she was pleased to be back really, she loved Hogwarts. Rose's eyes flickered to the Slytherin table and landed on Scorpius Malfoy. She scowled. At that moment he looked up and caught her staring. He raised his eyebrows and Rose looked away quickly, furious with herself. Now he would surely be thinking she has been staring at him for ages.

"Are you ok, Rose?" whispered Matt beside her, "You look a little red."

"What? Oh, I'm fine." She blushed, and was startled by the sudden applause breaking out around her. Professor Sprout had finished speaking, and the students were beginning to stand.

"Let's go unpack," said Rachel, getting up. "I am absolutely shattered."

The four of them headed for Gryffindor tower, where the girls bid the boys goodnight and headed up the stairs to their familiar round dormitory. They were the first two there. Rachel immediately flopped down on her bed, while Rose started unpacking her trunk rather forcefully.

"You alright Rose? You seem a bit…" Rachel tailed off.

"I'm just annoyed at being forced to do my stupid prefect rounds with Malfoy, that arrogant prat. Did you see him in dinner? Sitting there smirking as usual, thinking he owns the place. He's going to drive me crazy."

Rachel pursed her lips to stop herself laughing at her friend's annoyance.

"Who's going to drive you crazy?" Their roommate Louise Macmillan entered the room, followed by Tina Sloper.

"Scorpius Malfoy." Rachel filled them in.

"Ah. Wouldn't mind getting into him." Louise grinned.

"Are you out of your mind?" Rose looked affronted.

"Well, he does have a nice arse." shrugged Louise, smiling when she saw the look on Rose's face. The other girls started laughing.

Rose was exasperated. "So I suppose it doesn't matter how much of a git he is then? As long as he has a nice arse I mean."

Louise flumped down on her bed. "Now you get it. Hey, you know who else has gotten hotter over the summer? Al."

Rose just stared at her and shook her head slowly. "Louise that is truly revolting." Honestly, sometimes she wondered about her friend's sanity.

AN: I hope you enjoyed this. These first chapters were really just bringing things together, but next chapter the real drama starts. Feel free to review, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading. :D