A/N: I loved writing Albus in this one. :)

Disclamier: I don't own anything dealing 'Harry Potter.'

Rose settled well into the first few days of her fifth year. The only problem was that Lily still hadn't told her who she was dating.

She watched as in the morning Lily would always go to the Gryffindor table and eat with her friends, Andi and Phoenix. She'd never look over at a boy during this time and that made Rose wonder if anyone had asked her out. She remembered Hugo said there had been someone who had and she would wait as tolerantly as she could until she knew she would blow.

When breakfast had been over on the fourth day, Rose got up and sat down next to Lily. There she had asked the question that had bothered her for some time.

"How come you don't eat breakfast with this mystery bloke of yours?"

"He's not really a morning person, I guess," Lily had responded with a shrug. "Usually the morning's just for us to compose ourselves before we hang out and stuff." Rose nodded but did note she had never seen Lily eat with any boy during lunch or dinner unless it was a family member or friend. "But I might sit with him at breakfast occasionally," she added. Finally, that day came.

Rose had entered the Great Hall thinking about how hungry she was; this was a first from the past couple of days as she was always wondering why Lily wouldn't tell her who the guy was. It wasn't hard: just open mouth, say name, close mouth, and let Rose explode.

Anyway.

She decided to sit at the Gryffindor table when she saw Hugo sitting with Al. She squeezed herself in between them and began to reach for the porridge. Al and Hugo made faces at her; they thought she was weird for eating it for it looked and smelled strange. Al had managed to eat half a bowl after he had practically drowned it in honey.

When Emily sat next to Al, they began to talk, so Rose turned to Hugo to call him out.

"Does she really have a boyfriend?" Hugo nodded while chewing on his toast.

"Yes. Are you really that curious to know who he is?"

Rose thought a bit. Maybe she was getting a little over her head about something as silly as this. "No," she finally said firmly. Hugo grinned and piled some sausage onto his plate.

Now I can relax. It's not that big a deal she thought positively whilst blowing on the slightly hot porridge before spooning some into her mouth. She was eating it quietly and noticed that Lily had entered the hall. Rose was getting ready to smile and greet her for the day, but she wasn't headed for the Gryffindor table as usual.

Odd she mused. Her dark blue eyes followed her little cousin as she made her way over to the Slytherin table. Rose forgot all about the porridge in her mouth as she looked over at the green clad people. Her eyes stopped when they landed on their target. There he was, sitting alone.

Lily kept going and seated herself next to Scorpius who smiled at her.

Aha she thought. Unbeknownst to her, though, were two things: someone else was had just come into the Great Hall and was going to said table and there was a trail of porridge sliding down her chin. She did have good table manners, but she wanted to see what was going to happen. That was no excuse for letting food come back out of her mouth, however.

As she was about to say something to her little brother, the person came over and in between Lily and Scorpius. Rose looked on as Lily smiled and hugged the person and completely ignored Scorpius to talk to him.

Thank goodness she sighed well, not about him being ignored she corrected. Next to her, Hugo began to laugh.

"I hope you know that's supposed to stay in your mouth, not dribble down your front." When Rose was about to ask what he was talking about, some oats fell onto her uniform. Hugo laughed more as Rose quickly wiped her mouth off with a napkin and cleaned the mess up.

"Whatever, Hugo – " Rose stopped as she saw someone to her left stand. Albus had apparently just noticed his little sister was at the Slytherin table because he was headed over in that direction right then.

"What's he about to do?" Rose asked Emily. She only shrugged. Rose didn't know if she wanted to follow or stay behind and watch the scene unfold. She stood abruptly and went after Al; this way she could hear what was going on.

He was nearly there when she caught up to him.

"Al! Al! What are you doing?" She slowed down next to him and looked at his face. He didn't look mad or anything of the sorts. Unless it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. Al looked at her for a moment and seemed to do a double take. When he was gazing forward again, he smiled.

"Rose, you do know you have some food on your face?" Rose's eyes widened and she grabbed the nearest napkin from a table and wiped all around her face before looking down at her uniform once more. Al laughed and she glared at him.

"Whatever; this coming from the guy who has a toast crumb beard," she said. Albus only shrugged and wiped his chin with the back of his sleeve.

"Ew! Now you got your sleeve all dirty!" Al glimpsed at his sleeve and before Rose could shove him away, he had wiped the back of his sleeve down her arm. She resisted the shriek that wanted to come out and glared out Albus yet again.

"That any better?" he joked. She shoved him and tried to clean her arm off as best as she could. She turned the down the aisle behind him and tagged along her favorite cousin as he walked toward Lily, her boyfriend, and Scorpius. Rose swallowed and tapped Albus on his shoulder.

"What?" he asked without turning around.

"Let's not do anything rash, okay?" she said.

"Who said I was?" Rose hit his back.

"You better not," she said. He just waved his hand over his shoulder. Rose's mouth almost opened as she watched Albus create a space for himself between Henri and Scorpius.

"Come, Rose. Sit," he said as he looked at Henri.

In a row, it was Lily, Henri, Albus, and Scorpius. She thought about going over and sitting next to Lily, but thought they wouldn't really be paying attention to Scorpius and how he had sat next to her on September first, so she quickly sat down on his right before she changed her mind. He smiled at her and she returned it, hoping Albus wouldn't be too long as she would probably blush herself into a coma.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter and sorry for not posting yesterday; I had a boatload full of homework. :) Reviews are the best!

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--