I don't want to give anything away, so I'll save the real author's note for at the bottom...Enjoy! (god, that sounds like I'm giving you food, not another chapter)

"Guess what guys?" asked Lily, running up to wear Rose, Clarice, and Anna were standing in the court yard at break. It had been two weeks since the Hogsmead visit, and it was one more until the formal. Lily was practically bouncing with excitement.

"What?" asked Clarice.

"I'm going to the formal!"

"But, you have to be a seventh year," said Annabel, she was very popular with the entire Potter-Weasley clan, considering how little time she had known them for.

"No, Anna, you have to be a seventh year to go stag, but if a seventh year asks you to go with them…" she trailed off in an insinuating tone.

"Who asked you?" asked Rose accusatorily. She didn't like the idea of some seventh year messing with her little, baby, sixth year cousin. She already hated the guy. He could be the Minister's son for all she cared.

"Lysander!" said Lily in ecstasy.

"LYSANDER?" asked all three girls in horror. No one had said his name since that day; it was like a taboo in their group.

"Yeah! This will be so fun!"

Rose was turning pale. Lysander must have been so mad that he chose to get revenge. He would know that family was the most important thing to Rose, so he was going to go with Lily and…she didn't want to even think of the horrible things he could be planning.

"You can't go with him," said Clarice firmly.

"Why not?"

"Because," said Rose slowly, she and Albus had decided not to tell the family about what Lysander had done, and Lorcan had agreed. Luna, her husband, and her kids were like family, they came round for dinner often enough, and Lysander would be either shunned by the women who approved highly of Scorpius, or he would be used by Rose's dad to try and break Scorpius and Rose up. However there was no avoiding the subject now. "Because he's the reason Scorpius and I fought three weeks ago." The whole story came out and by the end Lily looked livid.

"What, you think he's asking me to the formal to get revenge?!? How could you think that? We've known him all our lives! The truth is, you can't accept that someone would be interested in me for me! I can't believe you Rose! You can't stop me from going to the formal!" and with that she stormed away.

"Crap…" muttered Annabel, "We need to find Scorpius, Lorcan, and Al.

"Did someone say my name?" asked Albus, coming up from behind Annabel, giving her a quick kiss and looking inquisitorially at her, Rose and Clarice.

"Yeah," said Clarice quickly, "We need to find Scorpius and Lorcan, there's a problem."

"What?" asked Albus.

"We'll explain later just find them!" Rose practically shouted.

"We'll meet in the Heads' Common Room," said Clarice, before dragging Rose away, afraid she would shout more if left in the same corridor as Albus.


"WHAT?"

"No way…"

"That bastard!"

"HUGO! Do not use that language in front of me!"

They were all in the Heads Common Room and everyone was talking over one another. Rose, Clarice, and Annabel had told Albus, Lorcan, Scorpius, and Hugo the whole story, and they were all in shock.

"Sorry mom," said Hugo irritably, "I didn't know that the Head Girl didn't like bad words!"

Rose was about to retort when Albus said, "Shut it! We need to sort this out!"

"We need James," said Scorpius, "We should write to him."

"Immediately," agreed Clarice, everyone's panic had calmed her, and she was ready to take control of the situation, "Get some parchment and a quill."

They all sat down around Rose, who had the best handwriting by far, and worked on the letter.

Dear James,

We hope you're doing well at Gringotts, and that you haven't been fired yet for doing something incredibly funny and dangerous. We have a MAJOR issue, but you CAN'T tell any of the adults about it. By adults we mean, your mum, your dad, my dad (your Uncle Ron), my mum (your Aunt Hermione), Grandma Molly, Grandpa Arthur, Aunt Fleur, Uncle Bill, Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, Uncle George, Aunt Angelina, Uncle Charlie, Teddy, or Victoire. Better yet, just don't tell anyone. Period. We found out about a month ago that Lysander Scamander is madly in love with me (I know, weird, right???) and he tried to get me to break up with Scorpius. Of course I wouldn't, but he got really mad, and was a total asshole (it was so bad that even Lorcan isn't talking to him). Anyway, he decided to ask Lily to the formal as revenge and I don't know what to do. I explained the situation to her, but she wouldn't believe me, and now she's really mad. I don't know what to do, and I'm terrified at the thought of what might happen if we don't fix this. Please respond…we need help!

Love, Rose

P.S. The others want me to add their names too, so: Love, Rose, Scorpius, Hugo, Clarice, Lorcan, Albus, and Annabel (and yes Annabel is Al's knew girlfriend, and yes I did make sure to check her out and discover that she isn't truly insane, she's actually great. I'm sure you'd love her, everyone else does.)

They sent the letter off with Rowan and waited eagerly for a reply.

Hey Guys!!!
Life at the bank's going great. I need to talk to you guys, face to face. I'll floo into the Heads' Common Room when I get home. I'm having dinner with Grandma Molly and Grandpa Arthur, plus mum, dad, Victoire and Teddy. Speaking of mum and dad, they're worried you haven't written, so write something generic about how great seventh year is…some garbage like that so they don't suspect anything. Talk to you later.

James

P.S. Congrats Al!!! Annabel, I'm sure you're lovely, but I will, of course, be putting you through some basic psycho-analysis, just the usual routine, ask Scorpius, it's no biggie.

Albus hid his head in his hands, but Annabel burst out laughing.

"He sounds HILARIOUS!" she said through giggles.

Albus glared, "Nothing on you though," she finished, giving him a quick kiss before turning to Scorpius, "Is it really psycho-analysis?"

"Something like that," said Scorpius, smiling slightly, "You're lucky you're not meeting him in person…back when Al and I became friends, first year, that was scary. A big second year, interrogating you…totally freaked me out. Once he decided I was an okay guy we were great friends."

"But he didn't have an issue with you dating Rose?" asked Annabel uncertainly.

"An issue?" asked Al, through howls of laughter, "He set the whole thing up."

"Really? How?" asked Annabel interestedly.

"I can't believe you don't know this story!" said Rose.

They were all immersed in the story that Rose was telling, because even though they had all been there except Annabel it was a thrilling tale.

None of them noticed James popping through the fire and onto the hearth until he said, "Are you telling her my story?"

"Your story?" asked Scorpius incredulously, "You mean our story!" he pulled Rose a little closer to him on the couch making room for James to sit down. With those three on the couch Annabel and Albus sat in one armchair while Clarice sat in the other, leaving Lorcan and Hugo on the floor.

"I set the whole thing up!" said James, "Anyway, we're not here to talk about that. What about Lily?"

Everyone fell silent.

"We need to find a way to convince her of the truth," said Clarice.

"Yeah, but we can't use anyone in the family, or Scorpius," said James.

James tried to continue, but was interrupted by Albus who nearly shouted, "What the hell is she thinking???"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Annabel, all the girls and James nodded in agreement, while Albus, Hugo, Lorcan, and Scorpius looked confused.

"No," said Scorpius, "It's not."

"Well, she's jealous," said Annabel simply.

"Of what?" asked Hugo, looking even more confused than before, his expression was mirrored on Al's, Scorpius', and Lorcan's faces. The girls were looking exasperated and James looked bored by the whole thing, as if this preliminary work wasn't even worth his time.

"Of Rose," said Clarice, "Lily probably really likes Lysander, so when he asked her she was really excited. Then, she finds out that he's really in love with her cousin, so of course she doesn't really want to believe it. Rose has so many amazing things in her life, and has always overshadowed Lily a bit. Now, Rose has a boyfriend who loves her, and Lily wants the same thing, but Lily feels like Rose is denying her what she really wants, and that she made the whole story about Lysander up."

Scorpius, Lorcan, Albus, and Hugo all had their mouths hanging open.

"Now that these emotionally unintelligent dolts have caught up," said James, who unlike the rest of the boys seemed to have totally understood Clarice's speech, "How are we going to convince Lily that Rose isn't lying???"

The group fell silent again until Annabel said, "Rose and I can fight!"

"WHAT?" said everyone, but Rose seemed to understand exactly what she was thinking.

"Yes! That's brilliant! You would go to her, angry and crying and she would believe you because we'd fought!"

James had caught on by now and said, "And then, Annabel can say that you fought because you, Rose, blamed her, Annabel, for the fight with Lily!"

By now Scorpius had figured it out, "Because you, Annabel, and Albus were the ones who had heard what Lysander had said, and had told Rose about it!"

"Then," said Annabel, "she'll know that Rose was telling the truth!"

"Brilliant!" said Lorcan.

"AMAZING!!!" said Hugo, "Why didn't I think of it?"

"Maybe because you're a sixth-year boy who doesn't understand how girls think?" asked Annabel in mock-thought. Everyone laughed, and once they started it was hard to stop, they were rolling all over the place.

Once they'd collected themselves Albus said, "Now we've got that sorted, I'm going to bed," and he left the Heads' Common Room, followed by Hugo, Lorcan, and Clarice. Annabel and Rose stayed behind with James for a while working on the 'fight', and Scorpius watched, mainly because he had no where else to go.

"Well guys," said James, getting ready to go home, it was nearly midnight, "If you perform it exactly as I scripted it it should work. I know my sister. See you!" and with that he stepped into the fireplace and whooshed out of sight. Annabel watched him disappear before saying, "I'm going to bed, night!" and she left the Common Room, heading back towards the kitchens.

"Well, I'm going to bed," said Scorpius.

"Me too, goodnight," they kissed softly and headed up to their separate rooms, hoping the plan would work, and dreading what would happen if it didn't.

A/N: I know everyone was expecting more on the Clarice story line, but I'm trying to develop that gradually, because it will actually involve about five-six characters, not all of which have been introduced yet. I'm planning to give a lot of hints, there are even some in this chapter, because when this explodes it will really explode. REVIEW!!!