"Rose! Hurry up!" yelled Hermione from the bottom of the stairs as Rose scurried around for her boot. Where had she put the damn thing? She finally spotted it and grabbed it, pulling it on. They were quite pretty. Long and velvety, they stopped just short of her knee and had bright silver buckes down the side with black lace. She surveyed herself in the mirror. Not bad for first day of school. She was wearing skinny jeans and a black top and silver hoop earings. Her hair was braided and looked as shiny as ever. Rose grabbed her long, bright red coat and hurried downstairs to see her mother checking her watch impatiently.

"Isn't dad coming?" asked Rose, looking around.

"He has some urgent business right now, but he told me to tell you on! It's 10:30!"

"Coming! Coming!" grumbled Rose, pulling her luggage behind her. Hermione surveyeed the amount of it through narrowed eyes' then sighed.

"What?" asked Rose.

"Nothing, nothing," said Hermione in a low voice. She pulled out her wand and a split second later, Rose's luggage flew gracefully into the air.

"Do you remember what incantation this-"

"Wingardium leviosa." said Rose moodily. Hermione smiled at her then turned her back on her daughter and walked out of the door.

"Come on, Al!" yelled Rose, seizing her friend's hand as they heard the shrill whistle of the train. They hopped onto the train, waved their sorrowful parents' a quick goodbye and looked through the compartments once again for an empty one.

"Honestly!" said Albus frustratedly as they looked through the tenth one. "Is this going to happen every year? Spending time opening compartments to check if they're vacant? We could spend time catching up on some chatting!"

"Look no further, my friends'," drawled a silky voice behind them. Rose and Albus turned around to see Scorpious leaning against the doorframe of one of the compartments they had just passed.

"Scorpious!" shrieked Rose, hugging him tightly. Then suddenly, she whacked him on the shoulder hard.

"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing his arm. "What the hell was that for?"

"For not writing to me, you idiot!" yelled Rose, her dark blue eyes' flashing with anger. "You practically promised!"

"Yeah, well I've been busy!" said Scorpious.

"Doing what?" asked Albus curiously.

"My father took most of my time from the summer holidays teaching me how to play quidditch. He wants me on the team," he explained to Rose whose eyes' softened slightly. "By the time I finished playing, I was so tired I could barely lift my hand to write a letter. I'm sorry." Rose groaned guiltily.

"It's okay, Scorpious, seriously," she said.

"So, did you say you found a compartment?" asked Albus, looking around. Scorpious nodded and directed them to the nearest one. They enetered and sat down. Albus was about to sit next to the window, but Rose, grabbing him by his denim jacket, pulled him out of the way and took the place instead. Scorpious smirked.

"I thought you and your dad patched things up?" asked Albus, frowning. Scorpious rolled his eyes'.

"Yeah, me too. Turns out he hadn't changed."

"I thought he was going to just accept you for what you are?"

"Oh, he did," said Scorpious, with a slightly sarcastic tone. "But he just wants me on the Quidditch team. Probably to gloat to all his other friends on what a good quidditch player I am."

"Scorpious," said Rose slowly, frowning. The boys' turned to look at her questioningly.

"Don't you think it's a long name?" she asked him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Let's pick one for him!" said Albus eagerly.

"How about...Scorp?" asked Albus. Scorpious snarled.

"My father calls me that."

"Score?"

"Makes me sound like a player."

"Pie?"

"I'm not food, Potter."

"Cori?" asked Rose suddenly. The two turned to her.

"Yeah!" said Albus excitedly, his emerald eyes' glinting. He turned to Scorpious. "What do you think?" Scorpious looked deep in thought, but finally he gave in.

"Fine, fine." Rose and Albus grinned. The compartment door slammed open and the three looked up. It was Blaise, a Slytherin and their enemy from year one.

"What do you want, Blaise?" scowled Albus angrily. Blaise let a slow, evil smile spread over his features.

"Watch what you're saying Potter, or you might just have to face my wrath." He pointed his wand at Albus. Albus snorted.

"Like I'm scared of you, Blaise."

"You might not care about your own skin," said Blaise, still smiling. "But since you're a Gryffindor, I'm sure you care for others." He suddenly whipped his wand towards Rose, but before he could even manage to get a curse out, Scorpious jumped in front of Rose protectively and yelled, "Petrificus totalus!" Blaise's figure stood rooted to the spot for a couple of seconds, then he fell over and slammed hard to the ground.

"What is going on 'ere?" asked Victoire in her slight Fench accent, as she entered, intently looking at Blaise.

"He was annoying us," said Scorpious, tucking his wand back into his jeans. He turned to Rose.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," answered Rose.

"I haven't seen you for ages," said Albus as the two turned around again. Victoire flashed him a smile.

"Yes, you didn't come to my house this holiday." Albus looked down, then up again.

"Is, er..." he glanced at Rose and Scorpious, then turned back to Victoire. "Anyone in your compartment?" Victoire beamed at him.

"Of course! There's Zara, Kindra and...Rebecca, of course." Rose noticed Albus flush slightly at the sound of the last girls' name, and shooting an apologetic look at the two, followed Victoire out of the compartment. Rose stared after them for a while. Then everything clinked into place.

"Of course!" Rose said, slapping her hand against her forehead and then sitting down on the seat next to her.

"I know who Albus fancies!" Scorpious smirked a little.

"Can't believe it took you this long to find out."

"What, you knew all this time?" Rose spluttered out. He shrugged and continued staring out of the window.