Rose unlocked her door and walked into her apartment, smiling slightly as she reflected on how well the night had gone.

Scorpius, she thought again, was a perfect gentleman. He had been polite, kind, friendly, and humorous. She felt silly for not having really spoken to him before but shrugged it off as a misunderstanding that couldn't easily be fixed now.

She closed her door behind her and locked it again, "So how was the date with the gorgeous bastard?"

Rose screamed, flattening herself against the wall and pointing her wall at the shadowy figure across the room who yelped and ducked for cover, "Rose it's me!"

Rose sighed explosively with relief and lowered her wand, sagging against the wall and sinking to the floor, "Damn it, Al! You nearly gave me a heart attack! What the hell are you doing here?"

Albus stood back up from behind the couch with his hands raised in surrender, "Relax, Rose, I just came to ask about your date. Admittedly I probably could have given you more warning but, in my defense, I wasn't expecting to be attacked."

Rose frowned and shook her head, "It wasn't a date, Albus. It was two people – practically strangers – having dinner to clear up a misunderstanding. And, I'll have you know that it was a very enjoyable meeting as well."

Albus laughed, "Sounds like a first date to me, Rose. Its good for you, what is this, the first date since the Ravenclaw?

Rose sighed, doing her best to simply ignore Albus but unable to let a misunderstanding stay, "One, his name is Zachary Jettisons, not 'the Ravenclaw' as that could mean just anyone, including myself. And two, it wasn't a date, it was a meeting."

Albus laughed again and flopped down on Rose's couch, "Yeah, whatever. All that matters is that I can finally have the two of you in the same room as each other, right?"

He looked up at Rose hopefully and she sighed, feeling a slight tug at the corner of her mouth, "Yeah, sure Albus. The three of us can all go for coffee tomorrow or something."

Albus shook his head, counting the days on his fingers before shaking his head again, "Tomorrow wont work but the day after is good for me. You might text Scor to see if he can come too."

She frowned and sat across from him and sighed, "Why can't you text him? You've been friends for years whereas we are only just getting to be acquaintances."

Albus nodded, "All the more reason for the two of you to get closer as fast as possible. You're both my best friends and its inconvenient having to split my time for the both of you so its much easier if the two of you became good comrades as well."

Rose laughed and waved her wand at the kitchen area to brew some tea, "You're ridiculous, Albus. How do you expect us to be such good friends as quickly as you're obviously hoping?"

Albus thought for a moment before grinning, "Text him. Tell you what, Miss former Ravenclaw, Ill give you homework. Your homework is to find out his favorite color by the time we meet up for coffee. If you do, Ill buy. Deal?"

Again, Rose sighed, "I feel like you're trying really hard to make sure we are friends Albus. But fine. Since I love you, ill do my best to get to know Malfoy better."

Albus stood and intercepted her steaming cup of hot tea as it floated over and drank it quickly, ignoring her outburst, "Great, thanks Rose. See you in two days." And he dissaparated

Rose summoned another cup of tea to her and sipped it in silence, mentally composing the text she was going to send to Malfoy. She set her tea on the table beside her and opened her phone, tapping out a short message and smiling slightly.

"Malfoy, sorry to be a bother as I'm sure you're already comfortable and tired with dealing with me for one day but I have a certain cousin, I believe you are familiar with who would like to know if you'd have coffee with the two of us the day after tomorrow."

The response came relatively quickly, startling Rose who had set her phone aside without expecting a reply within the night.

" Miss Rose Weasely, I assure you, you are not bother me, nor was I comfortable. I enjoyed your company today and would be pleased to accompany you and your prat of a cousin."

She laughed at the equally formal message and typed out another message, falling into a rhythm of texting with the man.

"I'm sorry, again, for naming you Bastard."

"Ha-ha, no worries Weasley, that id hardly the first time I have been called such. Besides, it lead to the fulfillment of your note in my yearbook."

"Did you find it just to see what I wrote?"

"Perhaps. I was curious as to what I might find."

"Anything interesting?"

"Not particularly save for the fact that five years have taken their toll on Albus and more than half of our graduating class."

"Meaning?"

"Have you seen Zachary Jettisons lately? Looks a little rough around the edges these days, if I do say so myself. Seems someone else got the better end of the breakup."

Rose laughed and immediately logged into Facebook to do some purely professional stalking of her ex-boyfriend.

Sure enough, there he was. He was a mess, pudgy in the most unattractive ways, a patchy beard because he couldn't grow a full one. Shirts that didn't fit, beer stains on his clothes, always posting picture either of him sweaty with some caption referring to working out though it was obvious he hadn't in a while or, and this was worse by far, him posing with fictional, nearly naked women and calling them his waifus.

"Merlin, I just saw his Facebook profile. Thank Merlin, Godric, Salazar, Rowena, Helga, Dumbledore and Voldemort I broke up with him while he was still sane(ish)"

"Voldemort?"

"Figured he was worth throwing in. I can't believe I used to think Zachary was right for me. There had to have a better option in Hogwarts that would have taken me."

There was a long wait after that message and Rose sat staring at her screen for a time, waiting for a new message.

A part of stressed over the lack of a response but knew it was silly. She knew she wasn't the most attractive woman in the world and part of her was trying to whisper dark thoughts that she was ugly, that there hadn't been any other choices and that she had missed her chance for a family when she left Zachary.

She shrugged the thoughts away and soon determined that he must have fallen asleep as it was late. Besides, she mused, there was nothing saying, he had to respond. She didn't even know why she had sent the last message. It made her look needy and in need of reassurance.

She sighed and decided she had had enough stressing today. So, she plugged in her phone and set it on the bedside table and got ready for bed.

She took a long hot shower and changed into the warmest and comfiest clothes she owned and laid down, snuggling into her blankets before falling asleep.

In her dreams she was being tormented by a man with a receding hairline and was calling out to a shining stranger across the street who was riding a giant duck quite regally. Instead of saving her, he pulled out his phone and took a picture. The flash of his camera made the hairline man run away.

In the midst of her dream, she did not notice Scorpius Malfoy's message when it arrived,

"Rose Weasely, you had the pick of the school."