Scorpius read the letter and blushed. Albus felt a twinge of annoyance at that. Who was sending Scorpius letters that made him blush? Scorpius looked at the head table and sure enough his father was looking at him with a smirk on his face. Scorpius glared at him. Draco's smirk only got wider. "Why?" Scorpius mouthed. "Don't ask stupid questions," Draco mouthed back. Albus was watching this little episode with interest. Scorpius had got a letter from his dad?

"What is it?" He said trying not to look too curious.

Scorpius handed him the note. Albus read it and he found himself smiling.

"Handsome? Really?" He said.

"Told you he likes you," Scorpius said. "And now he wants to get to know you better."

"That's what my dad will want when I tell him about us. So I guess I understand."

"I know. But we've only been together a couple of weeks."

"I'm going to get the whole hurt my son and I'll kill you speech, aren't I?"

Scorpius groaned. He looked at his dad and shook his head. "No," he mouthed.

"You never let me have any fun." Draco was pouting almost.

Scorpius chuckled. His father could be such a child sometimes. "Fine! Happy?" He said.

"Very."

Scorpius wondered often who the child in their relationship was. He knew from everything that his grandmother had told him when he was a kid that his father had never had anything like a childhood. He had always been expected to be proper and perfect and everything that the heir of a pure blood family should be. So he indulged his dad as much as he could. Besides, who will indulge him if I don't? he thought and he sighed.

"What is it?" Albus said.

"Sometimes I forget just how lonely my dad is..."

...

Albus was nervous. It was not like didn't see Professor Malfoy every day, but this was different. This was a father wanting to get to know his son's boyfriend. And Albus desperately wanted to impress. He was willing to admit, in the privacy of his own head that Scorpius was probably too good for him. He was willing to admit that to Scorpius as well, but he didn't want Draco Malfoy thinking that. It didn't help that he was a bit in awe of the man either. Professor Malfoy had been his favourite teacher since his first day of school and not just because he taught Albus' favourite subject. He was an excellent teacher and probably the most intelligent person that Albus had ever met.

Albus loved the way Scorpius spoke about his dad. It was obvious that the two of them had the kind of relationship that was hard to find among fathers and their teenage sons. Draco was clearly a doting father and would therefore be unwilling to admit that anyone was good enough for his son. Which brought Albus back to the reason that he was nervous in the first place. He looked at himself in the mirror again, checking his robe, trying to fix his hair...Frank was lying on his bed and watching him.

"What's going on Al? If I didn't know better, I'd say you have a date," Frank said.

Albus coloured a little. "Nothing of the sort," he said

"Just off to see Scorpius then," Frank said. He sounded entirely too innocent.

Albus frowned wondering what Frank was getting at. "Perhaps," he said.

"So you're good friends huh! You certainly seem to spend a lot of time together."

"Uh...huh." Albus tried to sound noncommittal.

He sat on his bed and started putting on his shoes, trying to ignore Frank and his obvious curiosity.

"You can tell me, you know," Frank said softly.

"Tell you what?"

"About you and Scorpius."

Albus froze. "What about me and Scorpius?"

"I know that you're together..."

"I can't believe that Rosie told you."

"Lily let it slip actually. I'm your best mate, Al. I can't believe you felt like you had to hide this from me." He sounded a bit hurt. "Don't tell me you thought that I wouldn't understand."

Albus sighed. "I'm sorry Frank. It's not that I don't trust you. I just wanted to keep it quiet for a while. Scor and I...we're still getting used to each other. We didn't want all the attention and the drama that would follow if we told everyone."

"Isn't it hard, though? I can't imagine having to keep a distance from Rosie and think about where we are and who's watching all the time."

"It is very hard. When I see him every morning all I want to do is pull him into a hug and kiss him. I meet him between classes and I want to reach for his hand without thinking about it. But..."

"Then why keep it a secret?"

"I just want to wait until I get home for Christmas before I tell my folks. I know that mum won't like it at all. She's never got over her distrust of the Malfoys. Jamie will flip out. You know how he's been all week and Fred has been trying to talk me out of my friendship with Scor. How do you think they'll react when they find out that he's actually my boyfriend?"

"And Jamie will waste no time in telling mum and Uncle Ron as well. All this will happen whether I tell them now or later, at home, but at least then I'll have dad backing me and Scor won't be there, so no one can be nasty or mean to him...That's the one thing that worries me the most. I guess I'm hoping that the holidays will give everyone time to get used to it before we get back to school...I know how messy this can get. I'm just trying to contain the damage."

"I guess that makes sense. So where are you off to then?"

"Scor's dad invited us both to dinner in his rooms tonight."

"Meeting the father already? No wonder you're nervous."

"I'm terrified."

"Where are you meeting Scorpius?"

"Ravenclaw common room."

"I'll go with you. It'll give me a chance to see Rosie. She's been very busy today."

They got to the Ravenclaw common room and got in, thanks to Albus' ability to answer tricky questions posed by pesky portraits.

"Why can't they just have a password like normal people?" Frank grumbled as he stepped into the room.

"They're Ravenclaws, Frank. They're driven to prove themselves or haven't you met Rosie?" Albus said as he followed his friend inside.

Frank could only chuckle in reply. They stood there for a minute and took in their surroundings. It was very different from the Gryffindor common room. It was bigger and there was all the blue and bronze which to Albus at least, said cool and comfortable. The chairs and couches were spread widely across the room and most of the students sat in quiet groups of three or four unlike the Gryffindor tendency to sit in large groups and make a lot of noise. Gryffindor was warm and cosy, but Ravencalw was peaceful.

Rose and Scorpius were in a corner over on the other side of the room and they hadn't seen their boyfriends yet. So Albus and Frank walked over to them, feeling a bit surprised that no one paid any attention to them. It would be impossible for someone from another house to enter the Gryffindor common room and not have to answer a hundered questions.

Rose was sitting at the piano. She seemed to be working on an unfamiliar piece of music. She would stop every few seconds and stare at the music with a frown on her face and then try again and stop again and try again...smiling in triumph when she got it right.

Scorpius stood next to her, brush in hand, staring at a half finished painting. It was an image of Rosie at the piano. He had a hand on his hips and a look of intense concentration on his face. He would look at her and back to the painting, add a few strokes and then look at her again and add another few strokes...He stopped once and pushed her hair out of her eyes and turned her face this way and that. It seemed that Rose was used to this sort of thing. She didn't protest once. She just went on playing as if nothing particularly unusual was going on.

The two Gryffindors were fascinated to see their partners like this, unguarded, and in their natural environment. So they stood a few feet away and watched in silence. Albus was totally taken by the painting. It was far from finished. It was little more than a few brush strokes...an outline of the face and her form. But Scorpius had already captured a certain ineffable something in the expression on her face that was very typically Rose at work...complete with the frown, the slight crinkling of her lips and the light in her eyes as she worked to master something that was difficult.

"I can't believe I haven't seen his paintings before," Albus said.

"I haven't heard Rosie play either. They take 'shy' to a whole new level, these two."

"I know. It's one of the things we love about them, though."

"True. Look at them. They're so comfortable together...so content. I'm jealous almost," Frank said softly.

"Me too. But it's been just them for the last five years."

"I'm surprised they let us into their lives."

"You barrelled your way in Frank."

"Details...details."

Scorpius turned round just then and saw them. He made a hasty attempt to cover the painting and Rose stopped playing.

"How long have you too been standing there?" she demanded.

"Long enough to realise that you two seem perfectly content without us," Frank said.

"As if the you ever think about me when you're on the quidditch pitch," Rose countered.

"True. But I don't stop playing just because you turned up to watch," Frank replied with a smirk.

Rose had to smile. "Fine. Sit. I'll play for you."

Albus meanwhile was studing the painting in silence. "It's beautiful," he said.

"Thanks."

"Could I see more of your paintings?"

Scorpius looked a bit uncomfortable. "Maybe later," he said.

"Why?"

Because a lot of my paintings are portraits of you and I'm not sure I want to share that yet, Scorpius thought. But he didn't say anything. He just looked a bit sheepish.

"Not ready to share that part of yourself yet?" Albus said softly.

"Yes...in a way."

"It's okay, love. I understand." Albus said.