I meant to post this yesterday but I needed my editor's (aka my sister's) opinion and she was unavailable.

#1 - I think you already know this but I do not own the Harry Potter world of any of the characters involved, J.K Rowling does. (I'm not sure how legally this legally discards responsibility for copyright infringement, but everyone here does it so who am I to pretend I'm special?)

#2 - Again, I enjoy and appreciate your reviews. Please leave one, as ego boosts are always a good thing. I don't necessarily need them to write, but I do enjoy the back pat. Makes me go about my day all warm and fuzzy.


October 27th, 2027

Rose Weasley should have ditched Med School and taken a degree in Divination.

Her prediction had hit it out of the ball park.

The shitstorm that had hit the Granger-Weasley household 'pon her announcement was nothing short of legendary.

"You're moving in with who?!" her dad had sputtered, nearly choking on the bite of loaf he had been chewing. "Over my dead body will you be moving with that… that… spawn of Satan!"

"Rosie, that is great, don't listen to your father," interjected her mother, throwing her husband a look that could only be described as savage. "Do you need anything? You can take anything that's on storage, plus everything on your—"

"Cool," professed the ever-chill Hugo, holding out his fist for her to bump. "Way to go sis."

"—room. Ron, remember to breathe. You're throwing a hissy fit." At this point her husband seemed close to having a seizure. Hermione gave her daughter's hand a supportive squeeze. "It'll be an amazing experience for you."

"How is this okay with you?!" Ron's face was about the same color as his hair. "I hate them. You hate them. We hate them."

"Grow up Ron, it's been over twenty years," Hermione chided, raising an eyebrow at her husband. "We see the Malfoys at functions all the time and they are perfectly diplomatic. Plus, you like Scorpius. You told us so yourself the last time Albus brought him around."

If was Ron's turn to glare at his wife. "That never happened! I-I never would!" The slight stutter however, betrayed to everyone the fact that he both remembered and now really regretted saying it. Ron and Scorpius had bonded over Quidditch opinions and a friendly match of Wizarding Chess (from which Scorpius had emerged completely and utterly defeated). "Oh, fine, I did say that! But no matter how gracious a loser he is, he's still genetically wired to be an asswipe. It just hasn't manifested yet."

"In spite of being an, er, 'asswipe', I bet Draco is taking the news with far more grace than you are."

That had shut him up… for about ten minutes.

Her mother had been a sport through all of this. She had calmly and rationally reminded Ron that Albus had befriended Scorpius almost ten years ago. That their friendship was tested and true. That they had seen Scorpius grow from a good boy to a decent man. That both kids had spent holidays in each other's houses. That this was not new information and that they were and had been on civil terms with the Malfoys for quite some time now.

When that didn't work, Hermione had finally (though less calmly and rationally) informed him that if he didn't shut the hell up and started being supportive of his daughter's decisions, she could always call his mother to ask for her opinion on the matter.

Ah, the threat of Grandma Molly. It was a low yet effective blow.

Days later, Rose could still hear faint echoes of her father passive-aggressively stomping around the house, occasionally bellowing a "You are breaking my heart" or "Betraying everything this family stands for!". The protest was almost instantly followed by her mother shouting back something on the lines of "Oh, can it Ron! That kind of idiotic bigotry was why we had to fight a War!" from the other side of the house.

Sitting on her bed for what felt like the very last time, Rose had given the room one final, hard look. It was now barren, devoid of anything that indicated she had ever lived there. She had feared it, y'know, looking around and realizing she had made a mistake. She had feared how she would feel, feared that she would end up bawling her eyes out like some pre-pubescent twit.

She was kind of proud to realize how little that square footage meant to her.

It was just a room.

It was only when she heard another round of her parents yowls downstairs, the merry banter between them (that she suspected was some sort of weird and frankly disgusting foreplay) and the resulting snigger from Hugo next door, that it truly hit her.

This was home. Not her room. Not even her stuff.

She realized that tears were rolling down her cheek. Well, at least she wasn't bawling. She wiped them clean with a rueful smile: she was going to miss them.


November 1st, 2027

Whether he was for it or (more accurately) strongly against it, her dad had been there with bells on to wave her goodbye before she officially flooed into her new home for the first time. They had agreed that Rose would go alone (despite Ron's protests, Hermione had insisted that them being there would disrupt more than actually help) and get settled with Scorpius and Albus.

She was in a good mood. Her notes and books had been impeccably packed. Her mother had coordinated the wardrobe move and her father had (reluctantly) helped take a few things from storage, namely that one grandfather clock that she had always admired.

All was good with the world.

The movers had already dispatched all her stuff and it was waiting for her when she popped out of the fireplace.

Literally waiting for her.

Lying there in wait.

In a pile.

In the shape of a fucking wall.

Someone had piled up about fifty boxes in front of the fireplace from floor to ceiling, creating a barrier between the corner and the rest of the living room. She was certain that some of the boxes weren't even hers. Did they even have that many boxes between them?!

It must have taken them hours.

Rose could hear quiet sniggering from the other side of the wall, accompanied by a few breathless 'schhhhs, she'll hear us!'.

"Al…? Malfoy?" The sniggering turned into full blown laughter. "Merlin, you guys are idiots." Rose brushed a hand through her hair and groaned, tilting her head back to look at their... erm... creation. "Really?!"

Oh, Merlin. "Ha. Ha. Hilarious," she sneered drily. "When you get it all out of you systems you'd better start tearing this stupid thing down."

This only elicited further guffaws from across the trenches. Rose rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall (not the one made of boxes), slumping down into a sitting position. This was going to take a while.

Those two nitwits were still laughing.

She removed a folder from her bag and started sorting through the notes. The lighting wasn't perfect but eh, at least the morons were busy on the other side and therefore physically incapable of bugging her.

It did take them a while to stop cackling like maniacs. About three pages worth of notes.

"My, my, my Rose, we didn't hear you from behind that…" Albus' tirade was interrupted by a snort and frenzied laughter from the two followed. He managed to choke out the word 'fence' between what could only be described as giggling.

It took them a while before they finally calmed themselves enough to breathe.

"Oh dear, oh my, old chap! Where did that come from?" This was Scorpius, obviously, using his worst old English impression. "I'm certain it wasn't here when we came 'round earlier."

"Quite right, dear boy! It must have materialized whilst we were having our luncheon," Albus retorted in an equally terrible accent (he guffawed the word 'luncheon', unable to keep it together). "Must be one of those foreign materializing blockades. You know the French and their utterly silly contraptions."

Their hysterical laughter was met with chilling silence.

"Rose?" That was clearly Albus. "Rose?" There was a tentative pause. "Do you suppose she died of laughter, old fellow?"

Nope. She wasn't going to deign answering that.

"Don't get my hopes up, Potter." That was obviously Malfoy, who by now had dropped the accent. "Though she is awfully quiet back there."

"Ro-sieee," Albus called out in a sing song voice. He paused and snorted, grinning at Scorpius. "Well we are hilarious. It could happen."

"Wishful thinking. Maybe she left," Scorpius retorted. She could hear steps echoing on their stone floor approaching the wall. Then there was quiet for a few seconds. "Nope, not dead. Nor left. I can hear her breathing. She's a mouth breather."

"What the-," Rose hissed, dropping her notes to her lap and directing an angry look at the wall. "Am not!"

"See? Told'ja." Scorpius sounded awfully pleased with himself. "And yes. You are. A loud one at that."

"Rosie?," Albus called out tentatively. He at least had the sense to pretend to concerned. "Are you okay back there?"

Rose leaned back and let her head rest against the wall for a second closing her eyes. "Yup. Catching up on some reading. Go back to doing… whatever it was you two idiots were doing."

On the other side of the wall, the two idiots joined in a strategic but not so silent huddle.

"This sounds like the calm before the storm," Albus whispered ominously. "I've seen it before."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Oh my. Did Scorpius Malfoy sound… uneasy? "Should we unleash the manticore?" Nope, he did not sound uneasy. Just a different shade of obnoxious. "Do you propose we set the Cerberus free? You do know she'll eat us alive and spit out the bones."

Rose could hardly resist the bait. "I can hear you, you know?," she huffed indignantly, her cheeks coloring slightly.

Albus was right. Rose could feel the anger bubbling beneath the surface. Mostly triggered by Malfoy. She pushed it down.

Nope. She was fine. She was studying. That was what she wanted all along, right? A place to study.

Nope. Not angry.

However she needed to remember to make her revenge short and painful.

They were just lucky she didn't have any tests in an imminent future.

"Well if that got you talking you can't be that angry," retorted Malfoy. "I'm disappointed in you, Weasley. I was expecting some fireworks. Fizz. Crackle. Pop!"

It was incredible how she could see the smirk in his voice even though he was behind five feet of cardboard box. The anger boiled a little a little stronger. She could feel the blood rising to her cheeks.

"Are you really angry, Rosie?," coaxed Albus, approaching the boxes and knocking on one of them cautiously as one would on a door. The whole structure wobbled a little and he laid both his palms on it to stabilize it before giving a few cautious steps back. "Because if you aren't we could unleash… er… I mean, release you from your imprisonment and we could inaugurate the new coffee machine Scorp got us."

"It'll put some hair on your chest, Weasley," Scorpius goaded her. "Well, some more hair."

"Don't provoke her, you asshole," scolded Al. "Don't poke the bear!"

"Look at you getting in the spirit of it, Al!" Malfoy practically cheered. It was if he could hear her fuming. "At this rate the... hmm, what was the word you used? Oh right, bear! The bear will hex you too!"

"Oh for the love of—" Rose's wand was on her hand before she even knew what she was going to do.

All they were aware of was a faint pop from behind the boxes, a subsequent sharp cracking sound behind them. They knew that pop.

That was Rose's Disapparating and Apparating pop combo. Shit.

Before they could react, the pops were followed by two thuds caused by their own two bodies collapsing to the floor.

Once more Scorpius Malfoy found himself on a full body bind, laying on the floor, his nose mashed against the surface. He could hear her footsteps approaching angrily and would have smirked if his muscles had allowed him to.

"You guys are fucking jerks."

At least he wasn't the only one. Close by, Albus Potter had also fallen, though not on his face.

"To think I actually moved in with you two." She glared at them and shook her head. "I'm going to get my damned fucking coffee. Then, I'm going to set up my study. Then I'm going to study in my study. Only after that, when and, far more importantly, if I damned well feel like it, will I come back and grace you with a Reparifor."

There was a small silence. They obviously weren't able to answer.

"Asshats."

And she was gone.

They could hear her moving around. They could hear boxes being lowered, angrily at first. She had inherited her dad's passive-aggressive stomping and they could practically feel her trampling all over the apartment.

It couldn't even have been five minutes before her steps had become lighter and Rose was back. She approached Scorpius, who was currently facing the floor (and feeling rather uncomfortable for that matter).

At this moment he was about 90% sure she was going to kick him.

"You idiot," she sputtered, crouching down close to him. She grabbed one of his arms and spun him around so he was facing upwards. "You are both idiots. This crap better not happen ever again."

She cast two quick Reparifors, her face betraying only a hint of the anxiety she felt.

She really needed to stop hexing them whenever she got pissed. Odds were that was going to happen a lot from now on. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…" she mumbled while getting back to her feet.

They had barely heard it, but they could have sworn Rose Weasley had just apologized.

Nervously, she left the room and her two housemates to their defrosting. By the time she returned with two glasses of water, they were almost completely thawed and had moved to a sitting position. They were also unusually quiet.

She wordlessly handed each of them a glass and sat down on the floor between them, incapable of looking them in the eye.

The three of them stood there in silence, Rose stubbornly avoiding looking at either of them.

In the end it was her that broke the quiet: "I'm fucking sorry, alright?" Goddamnit, why was she even apologizing for?! They were assholes. "It won't happen again."

There was silence again. None of them was saying a word.

"From now on I'll leave the wand at the door or whatever."

Silence.

Ten seconds passed.

Twenty.

Thirty.

The she heard a snigger.

She looked up at Malfoy and couldn't believe it: the prat was laughing. She was about to protest when a snort from her left indicated that Albus was also laughing. How long had they been…? What was…?!

"Calm your tatas, Weasley. We good," drawled Scorpius, clearly relishing the moment. He threw a glance at the grandfather clock on one of the corners or the room. "Potter, you owe me five galleons."

"Godsdamnit Rose, you couldn't have waited five more minutes, could you?" Albus groaned, fiddling into his pockets and reaching behind her back to plant a few gold coins on Scorpius' outstretched hand. "I trusted your self-control. I really, truly believed you would last for more than half an hour."

She couldn't believe her ears. "You guys… bet on how long it would take me to hex you?! You did all that in order to measure my threshold of annoyance?"

The coins on Scorpius' hand jingled and he grinned, laying them on the floor. "Yup. I on the other hand bet you had absolutely no self-restraint. Zero, zilch, nada. Albus was foolish enough to trust your better judgment," he guffawed. "Guess who won?"

Rose's hands rose to her face and she breathed in slowly.

Idiots. She was living with morons.

"Well it was close," Albus added helpfully. "You almost made it. But just for the record, I think the idea of leaving our wands at the door is pretty stellar."

She breathed out.

"Yeah, cheer up Weasley. I second the wand thing," Scorpius chimed, prodding her leg with his toe and grinning madly. "That way you can't cause us bodily harm yet we'll still be able to hurt you with words. Seems like a fair trade."

"Oh, sod off, Malfoy."

But she couldn't help but smile a very little smile from behind her hands.

From that point forth on the Malfoy-Potter-Weasley household (it was in alphabetical order: Scorpius had insisted, Albus had acquiesced and Rose really didn't care), their wands were always left in a bowl at the door.