AN: A 3 month summer when all you're doing is working and babysitting is not ideal. But thanks for all of you following this story, as long as I'm getting emails saying people are favouriting/following/reviewing, I'll continue to write it. This chapter starts off in Toby's POV then goes right ol' back to Scorpius.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and though I like to pretend I'm not, I am in fact what can be classified as a Muggle


(Toby POV)

"Fuck, I'm so sorry," I panted, wiping my sweaty brow with the back of my hand as I looked down at Lily Luna Potter, sat at the library table where we'd arranged to meet. We'd just had a particularly intense Quidditch practice; it was the last year Albus would be playing Quidditch against his older brother, and I knew he had his eyes on the cup even more than he had in previous years.

The Gryffindor team had consisted of his family and family friends since our second year, and apart from third year, the one year Slytherin had won, they'd won every Quidditch Cup. People who didn't take Quidditch seriously, like Lysander Scamander, had joked that it wasn't ever a competition for the cup, it was a competition for second place. And whilst I didn't really mind, Albus did.

"Wow," Lily said, setting her pen down on the table. Her eyes ran over my body, and I tried to ignore how attractive she looked as she raised her eyebrows at me. "Panting and sweating? Did you run all the way here because you were that keen to see me, Toby?"

Naturally, the rules of bro code say it's wrong for a guy to do anything with his friend's sister, especially if the friend is as protective as Albus. But I couldn't ignore the suggestive tone of little Lily Luna's voice.

"Um," I said, blinking hard and trying my hardest to fight the inappropriate thoughts I was having out of my head. "A-Actually, your brother's a bit of a tyrant when it comes to practice. Scor's punishment for showing up two minutes late, because he wanted to grab some breakfast before, was to lap the field twenty times, and I got the Quaffle launched at my head because I wasn't on target with enough of my Bludger hits. And I didn't want to seem rude because I'm late, but I really needed a shower because I didn't want to show up stinking post-practice –"

"Classic uptight Al," she giggled, cutting me off. "He tried to be like that with Hugo and Rose when we were kids. Hugo always listened and did what he said but Rose wasn't having any of it, even at that age." I forced a laugh, cringing inwardly as I heard how nervous it sounded, but I pulled out the chair next to her and sat down anyway. Thank Merlin she'd stopped me from talking, I was babbling like an idiot and I had no idea why.

Actually that was a lie.

I'd known Lily since she was nine years old, since the summer of First Year, but she'd always been Albus' little sister to me, no matter how attractive Lucas and the non-Weasley/Potters in our group had said she was in recent years. But it wasn't until she boldly approached me in the Inter-Floor Common Room and asked me to be her tutor that I'd actually noticed myself.

Had her hair always looked that soft and red? It wasn't a scarlet red like Rose's hair, or a light strawberry blonde like Dominique, Molly and Lucy's. It looked like a copper silk curtain, falling just past her shoulders. Had her cute button nose always been covered in that many freckles, or was it just because she'd been lounging out in the sun all summer? Had her lips always been that pink, or –

"Toby?"

I'd been so busy examining the youngest Potter that I'd failed to notice she was staring right back at me. Merlin, had her brown eyes always been that pretty? "Sorry, Lily," I said, ignoring the teasing tone of her voice. She definitely knew I'd been checking her out. "Must still be tired from Quidditch practice. Anyway, let's start that Poison Antidote essay of yours."

Al was gonna kill me.

/ /

(Back to Scorpius POV)

"Malf – I mean, Scorpius!"

I laughed at the sound of Rose calling my name. Though it had been a week since I'd comforted her on the Grand Staircase, she was still coming to terms with being friends with me. But to everyone's amusement, it wasn't the actual being friends part that she was struggling with, it was what to call me. I suppose, after five years of addressing me with either insults or my last name, you couldn't blame her. I slipped up sometimes too, though a lot of the time, I was pleasantly surprised by how easily her first name rolled off my tongue.

She walked over to our group's usual seating area, followed by Lysander Scamander. It was weird to think that until this year him and his twin brother been in our friendship group too; since the first of term, it had seemed like he was avoiding us like a bad case of the Dragon Pox.

"Pleasure to see you as always, Weas – I mean Rose," I said teasingly, smiling up at her as I mocked her mistake. She punched my shoulder lightly, and I pretended to be seriously hurt as she sat down on the arm of my armchair. "You're an idiot," she laughed, shaking her head at me. I could see the other guys exchanging baffled looks; they hadn't come to terms with us being friends yet either. "Anyway, do you want to work on that Herbology essay later? I know it's not that long, but I can't bring myself to start it."

"The one that's not due until next week?!" Lucas exclaimed in shock, and as Rose and I both raised our eyebrows at him, he rolled his eyes and said. "Oh yeah, it's you two." "Sounds good," I said, turning back to face Rose, who smiled back at me.

"Lysander, won't your girlfriend be jealous of you spending time with another girl?" Albus asked, the bitterness clear in his voice as he addressed the blonde boy stood behind Rose. I resisted the urge to groan at his obvious jealousy; since we'd seen them in The Three Broomsticks with Lorcan and Rose, Albus had been in a foul mood whenever he saw the blonde Ravenclaw boy.

Rose turned slightly, and I watched as her and Lysander exchanged a look, her lips curling into a slight smirk. I knew after spending a week hanging out with her that her and Lorcan were definitely just friends, but why did she look like she found Albus' question funny? "Who do you think is his girlfriend, Al?" Rose asked, evidently amused as she stared over at her cousin. Albus' cheeks burned at the question, and I knew he was a mix of embarrassed and angry, and was most likely not going to answer. So I answered on his behalf. "Tilly Carmichael."

Rose and Lysander exchanged another look, before both of them burst out into peals of laughter, Rose laughing so hard that tears were shining in her blue eyes. I looked at the other boys to see if they were as bewildered as I was at the reaction, and saw that they all looked just as confused as I felt. "What's so funny?" Albus demanded, folding his arms across his chest defensively. He tried to make his voice calm, but you'd have to be an idiot to miss the anger in it, and on cue, Rose and Lysander stopped laughing.

"Firstly, Al," Lysander said. "Even if we don't hang out as much as we used to when we were younger, I wouldn't ever do that to you because I know how strongly you feel about her. Tilly just has and always will be my best friend, except for Lorcan obviously." Albus' face relaxed slightly, and I knew he secretly wanted to jump up and down and celebrate, but he was still looking over at Lorcan, who was shifting awkwardly, like he still had something to say. "And secondly… I'm gay."

I felt my jaw drop in surprise, and I didn't have to look around the group to know they would be reacting in a similar way. It wasn't that Lysander had ever been a massive player, like his brother had once been, but he'd hung out with us for the past five years. A group in which one of the primary topics of discussion just so happened to be girls. "I bet you feel stupid now, Al," Rose snorted, narrowing her eyes at her cousin, who seemed lost for words.

"Don't be too harsh on him, Rose, he didn't know," Lysander said softly, and it was only then I remembered what a calming influence he'd always been on her. Something I'd always liked about Lysander was how rational and levelheaded he was, and I don't think I'd ever seen him hold a grudge. "As I said, Tilly is one of my best friends, she has been since we were both scared first years sorted into Ravenclaw. I've just depended on her a lot more since I came out, she's been really supportive about all of this.

He paused, running a hand through his blonde hair and sighing heavily. "That's why I stopped hanging out with you guys," he confessed, and my face fell at the revelation. I knew exactly what he was going to say, the same thing I'd been over-thinking for a while now. "It wasn't because I didn't enjoy spending time with you, I really did, you're all great friends. All the girl talk just made me feel uncomfortable sometimes, Lorcan said I just needed a breather."

"Anyway," Rose said, breaking the silence that had fallen. "I need to get those books from the library. Come on, Sander." She smiled at me briefly before slipping off the armchair and nudging the blonde Ravenclaw. I could tell by the look on her face that she was proud of him for telling us what he'd probably wanted to for ages. They both turned to leave, but Lysander paused, turning around to face Albus. "If I were you, I'd throw caution to the wind and just kiss her. Tilly, I mean. She's such a girly girl, she loves big gestures like that."

"What a nice guy," Ben murmured once they were out of earshot. Albus was the first to nod as a sign of his agreement, guilt written all over his face.

I knew the feeling.

/ /

"I saw you."

I raised an eyebrow as Rose sat next to me in one of the study areas of the Inter-Floor Common Room later that day. I could see the other boys sat in our usual area, minus the seventh years, who were in the Gryffindor Common Room, studying for an important Defence Against the Dark Arts test the next day.

She rolled her eyes at my confusion and sighed. "Don't even try and pretend you didn't feel guilty after Lysander said it was all the girl talk that made him uncomfortable." She paused as my lips curled into a frown once again, and she nudged me gently, a sad smile on her face. "I'm not having a go at you. I saw the look on your face when he said it."

"Honestly?" I said, setting my pen down so I could turn to face her properly. I sighed heavily as I got what I'd wanted to say for weeks now off my chest. "I felt awful. I felt awful that we'd made Lysander feel uncomfortable with all the talk about girls, and even worse that Lorcan thought it was for the best that they stopped hanging out with us because of it. I'm just growing tired of it all."

"Growing tired of what?" Rose asked softly, knowing she'd touched a sensitive topic. Part of me considered keeping it bottled up for longer, but I knew I could trust her. "My friends," I sighed, shrugging my shoulders as she blinked at me in surprise. "Not like that, they're still my best friends, but I don't know, sometimes, I get tired of them. And it's not just me, we all seem to be on different pages a lot of the time, like we've grown apart. All Lucas, Frank and Toby care about is sleeping around. Al will go out with them with the same intentions despite the fact he's caught up with Tilly, but is just too shy to make a move."

She nodded understandingly, and something about the simple gesture encouraged me to continue. "Then there are the other guys, who all seem to have grown up. James is obsessed with Alice, like we all reckon he's gonna ask her to marry him before he graduates." Rose smiled fondly at the mention of her cousin; it was a known fact that James had changed considerably in the short time he'd been going out with Alice, and it had definitely been in a good way. "And Louis and Fred are busy thinking about their careers in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes after they graduate. Last week, they didn't go out with the others because they had an inventing deadline to make, and I know they've been working on loads more since."

"What about Ben?" Rose asked, nodding over in the direction of the friend I hadn't mentioned. He was slumped in an armchair, looking bored at whatever the others were discussing, and I guessed it was probably another girl rating session. "He's one of the only ones I can talk to nowadays," I admitted. "But neither of us are gonna confront the other guys about how rubbish they can be towards girls. I don't know, sometimes I can't help but think how much easier it was when I didn't feel guilty about it."

"You don't have to confront them you know," Rose said, her blue eyes looking strangely serious. "And I know you feel like it was easier when you didn't feel guilty, but you don't mean that. You just want to stop feeling guilty." I exhaled heavily as I realised how right she was. As usual. "It's stupid how it's possible to feel so alone sometimes, like there's no one to talk to, in a castle full of so many people."

I cringed inwardly at the way my voice cracked mid-sentence, and blinked hard in an attempt to get rid of the unshed tears in my eyes, but I knew by the way her pink lips had parted in shock that Rose had already seen them. She stretched her arm out, and grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently. "Hey, you aren't alone," she said sincerely, her blue eyes shining at me as a sad smile graced her lips. "You've got me."