She took him to the room of requirement, a place her mother had told her about. Today, it had a roaring fire, two cosy armchairs, and a plate piled high with little cakes and biscuits.
They talked about Beauty, first, the book he'd given her. Looking at the publishing date, Rose knew that Snape must have bought the book shortly after her parents had started at Hogwarts. She wondered if he'd been thinking of Lily; it seemed more feminine than his usual tastes. She wondered if he'd thought himself akin to the lover who was believed long dead, and abandoned, but was found and reclaimed, almost too late.
She gave Scorpius The Visitor, a book about a future world where people had forgotten the present, and misunderstood the meanings of mundane items. Where people thought that muggles living today were magic, and that the simplest match stick was evidence of their great power. Rose found it frightening, how knowledge could be so easily lost between generations, and superstition grown in its place, and she thought Scorpius would be interested in that idea, too.
They settled down to read companionably, by the light of the fire, in peaceful silence, except when they wanted to discuss something in one of their books.
For the next three months, they were back to their old friendship. They were happy. The only shadow, as Rose saw it, was that of his parents.