Sorry it took so long…My brain wouldn't cooperate for a time. But here you go, chapter 7.

Rose didn't like that she was missing her own mother's birthday party; Weasley family parties were always quite fun. Sighing, she pulled out her Charms book as Flitwick had instructed them and flipped to page 257 where the words "Softening Charm" were spelled out in large, bold letters underneath which was an image of a wizard performing the charm on an indistinguishable object. Scorpius was present for this lesson though he hadn't bothered to pull out his book-he rarely ever brought it to class anyway. He sat, perfectly poised in his chair, gazing at the professor as the small man rambled on and gestured widely with both arms.

Rose grinned when Flitwick conjured a large wooden platform in the middle of the room. She already knew how to perform the spell, having done it numerous times at home for entertainment of both herself and Hugo. Albus was leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head and his eyes closed, knowing the spell himself as well. In fact, this lesson was probably unnecessary for approximately half the class, give or take a few half-bloods.

Flitwick demonstrated the spell on the platform then asked each student to perform it on the small blocks they were each given at the start of class. Most everyone performed it perfectly, Albus didn't even open his eyes.

Flitwick continued his lecture and Rose groaned and buried her face in her hands, wishing desperately that if she couldn't be home celebrating then the least the school could do was give her a semi-exciting day. But of course, the entire day had been full of lectures and simple spells and information she already knew aside from the news that Fred had actually stayed silent for a day...well, close to it...okay, three hours but, for him, that's an achievement.

Teddy had taught his first day of Defense and quite enjoyed it, smiling like a kid in Honeydukes the entire time. Albus being Albus had sat sucking on a Tootsie Pop the entire time. Albus Potter never appeared to pay attention but anyone who knew him knew that he was always listening and rarely ever forgets. He says it's because he likes to know things but Rose knows it's because he hates to miss anything that might aid him in moving forward. Rather like a Slytherin. He probably should have been but Rose guessed the Hat is biased towards the Potters and Weasleys and Gryffindor house in general. Fred had floated about the ceiling in the Defense classroom humming variations on Happy Birthday to the annoyance of most of the class.

The day had been just as uneventful for Scorpius who had noted Rose's frustration in every class, having been bored for most of them himself. "So, what's got your cousin all pissed?" he asked Albus during supper in the Great Hall.

"Her mum's birthday is today and she hates that she has to miss it," Potter had replied. "Don't know why, though. Lily always asks to paint everyone's nails pink because according to her it's the greatest color on the planet, and ever since Dad bought her ForeverLast it's all she uses."

"ForeverLast?"

"I envy you your lack of sister," Albus chuckled. "Clear coat that is resistant to any vanishing or cleaning spell, only removed with the specially made remover which Dad didn't think to buy because he apparently trusted her. Never trust Lily not to make pink permanent. I mean, she turned her pony pink."

"Can't she just send a letter or something?"

"She did, but with our family, we take every chance we get to gather together. It's one thing to miss Sunday brunch-there'll be plenty of those-but missing birthdays on top of it all can be hard on someone who enjoys gathering the entire clan."

"So why aren't you upset?"

Albus shrugged, "I'm the silent one," he replied. "The observer. I see and hear everything and people sometimes forget that. I never interact that much, and I suppose I've got plenty to do here being the new gossip filter for the school so I don't have much to miss."

Scorpius gaped, "We've been here for two weeks, how much gossip could there be?"

Albus laughed, "This is Hogwarts, Scor. There's always gossip, it's practically a necessity. My family was the topic of most of it in their day, what with my dad being Harry Potter and all."

Rose walked by just then, "Remember the one about mum and him in their fourth year? Absolute rubbish that one, and it's still going around."

Albus rolled his eyes, "Of course I remember it, I get asked about it at least twice a day. I just about died of laughter the first time and nearly slapped the third person. I mean, can't they see that your mum's too busy staring at your dad to have an affair with mine?"

"Obviously not, I mean, nobody seemed to notice them a few days ago when they were-" she suppressed a gag and shook her head. "I don't even want to think about it."

Albus raised a curious brow, "What were they doing?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. On a desk. In the Defense classroom. Not ten minutes before class."

"What?" both boys asked.

Rose sighed, "You know that thing we never want to imagine our parents doing even though we know they do it quite frequently."

Albus thought for a bit, "Oh God," he gagged. "On a desk?"

Rose nodded. "Might have been yours."

Albus covered his mouth and dashed out of the Hall.

There was a moment of silence before Scorpius stated, "I'm still a bit confused. What were your parents doing?"

"I envy you your sheltered life," Rose replied. "My parents were having sex, Scorpius. They do it rather frequently and they seem to be just as careless here as they are at home."

Scorpius gave her a look that clearly said he'd never thought about anyone-his own parents let alone someone else's-having sex at any point in time. Quite frankly, he didn't know if his parents even had sex anymore. They obviously did at one point approximately twelve years ago, his existence is evidence of that, but did they still?

Rose laughed, the coughed when her water went down the wrong hole, "You've never caught your parents?" she wheezed. "Well, either they're more careful than mine which is very likely because a cat in heat could be more careful than my parents, or they just don't anymore which doesn't sound at all like a loving couple. At least, none that I've come across."

Scorpius didn't like that he didn't know which it was. His parents appeared to love each other but that didn't mean they were physically intimate.

Why did it matter?

"Oh, Merlin," she gasped. "Did I offend you? Was your parent's marriage arranged? I know some pure-blood families still do that."

"What? No," he replied. Then thought a bit, "Well, maybe, I don't know. They seem to at least care about each other."

"Well, either way, you're here. While the thought of what they had to do for you to be here is still a bit disgusting, I'm not about to wish they hadn't done it. Now, off this rather appetite-ruining topic and onto something a bit more interesting. How far in the Charms book are you?"

Scorpius grinned, "About half, maybe a bit more."

She smiled back, "I can't believe Flitwick took a week of our life to teach three people Spongify when the rest of us learned it five years ago."

"You were casting at age five?" Scorpius chuckled.

"I used to steal my dad's wand and charm an old tree stump in the backyard for entertainment," she replied with a cheeky grin. "I just mimicked what he did when he applied it for us."

That was when Scorpius realized that Rose Weasley never really tried all that hard, she just smiled and waved her wand and the world just fell into place for her. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but she was bound to get bored eventually and there was no telling what a Weasley could get up to when he/she was bored. She needed a challenge, and it looked like he was the only one in their class smart enough to present a true one. From the looks of things, her magical strength seemed rather average, maybe a bit higher; it was her knowledge a person had to watch for. Her shield might only protect her and no one else, but chances were she'd found ten other variations that did the job differently and managed to create one of her own that worked better than any of them. Of course, being a first year, it wasn't likely she'd created any spells, but she no doubt already knew most, if not all, of the curriculum being taught that year and probably even some of what would be taught next.

"Wanna be study buddies?" he blurted. He was sure she'd say no but he couldn't take it back.

She hesitated for a few seconds, before nodding, "Sure, why not? It might be fun."

To say that Scorpius was taken aback would be a grave understatement. Shock was etched clearly on his face. "I-um-well alright then. When do you want to start?"

She appeared to give it a good deal of thought before replying, "Well, we don't have a test for a while, and I'm sure neither of us needs much help with homework, but I suppose you could join the rest of us in an empty classroom while we work later today. The whole clan sort of gathers in the empty classroom on the third floor because we make too much noise for the library and we wouldn't all fit in the common room. Not everybody does their work, but we all sort of help each other as needed while spending time with the family."

Scorpius wasn't sure spending time with the whole clan of Weasleys was the best idea. His father hadn't expressed any real hatred of the Potters, but he'd certainly expressed a good amount of dislike for the Weasleys and Scorpius wasn't sure he'd like his father's reaction when the man found out his son was spending time with the whole clan. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Are you sure that's okay? I wouldn't want to intrude on your family time."

Rose snorted, "It's fine. Everyone else invites friends all the time. Besides, the more the merrier."

Scorpius had a feeling that that last statement was the family motto.

"If it's your dad, then I understand if you don't want to," she stated. "I know my dad doesn't exactly like yours and it wouldn't surprise me if the feeling was mutual."

"It's not that. And even if it was, it wouldn't matter to me," he hesitated before continuing, "sure. I'll go."

She clapped happily, "Perfect. Fair warning: If Teddy and Victoire start snogging, just ignore them. They don't do it every time, but it happens often enough that we've given up trying to get them to stop."

"Aren't they like cousins?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "Technically, no. Yes, my uncle practically raised him but he's not actually related to us. His mother was Harry's godfather's cousin. Both his parents died in the second war shortly after he was born so his grandmother and Harry took over raising him."

Scorpius wasn't quite sure what to say to that. It still felt a bit incestous to him, but he didn't think Rose would appreciate that comment. "Oh. Okay." He stated dumbly.

"But don't worry, Albus usually entertains us for a time by dancing around them before we start. He calls it the 'Snog prevention dance', and then he throws things at them when they start and vows to modify the dance until he gets it right."

Scorpius chuckled, "I suppose that makes it a little better."

Rose smiled, "Family tends to do that."