Waking up was interesting, to say the least.

I found myself sandwiched in between Rose and Alice, with Alice falling off the bed and my body curved around Rose's.

Yes, we were spooning.

My nose was in her hair again, so I was surrounded by the scent of chocolate, fresh grass and something else that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but either way I was certain that I never wanted to move from this spot. Her legs were intertwined with mine; her hands holding my arms in their position around her as she slept.

My chest felt warm and strangely tight at the sensation of being so close to her, and I imagined Rose turning around to kiss me, how her hands would feel on my body… I shifted, and it was then that I realised I was having a rather hard problem in the downstairs area. I froze, my breath seizing as I tried to think of a way out.

The issue was that I couldn't get out of the bed without someone waking up, because I'd have to either climb over Alice to do so or crawl beneath the sheets out the other side. I screwed my eyes shut and attempted to think of everything I found the most disgusting – Al's unwashed Quidditch kit, my parents snogging, the earwax-flavoured Bertie Bott's bean – but to no avail.

"Alice," I hissed, turning my head away from Rose, "Wake up."

"Wha –" she started, squinting in my direction, "Wha's goin' on?"

"I need you to get up."

"Why?"

I blushed, and whilst trying to extract my arms from Rose's vice-like grip, mumbled, "I need the loo."

"For the love of Merlin, Scorp, just climb over," she groaned, mid-yawn. When I refused, she scowled, "Why not?"

I shook my head repeatedly, and successfully pulled my half-numb arms away from Rose, who muttered something in her sleep before falling silent again.

Comprehension seemed to dawn on Alice (it might have had something to do with the way I was wriggling uncomfortably). "Oh," she said, much too loudly for my liking, "I get it. Sorry, Scorp!" And in one movement, she was clambering out of the bed, unsuccessfully hiding a smirk.

I glared as I tried to get up as gracefully as possible, something that was particularly difficult to do given my predicament. I stomped to the toilet as fast as I could, leaving a snorting Alice and the still sleeping Rose and Albus behind me.

Just after having an extremely cold shower, I realised that I had no fresh clothes with me, due to the speed at which I'd practically run to the bathroom. I wrapped a towel around my lower half and bundled up my clothes into my arms, stopping only once along the way when James, who had just woken up, winked at me before he headed to the kitchen.

Speaking of, James was actually pretty cool, from my best-friend's-brother point of view. Although I'd always seen him as a sort of superior, popular hotshot compared to my social awkwardness, he was really just a normal guy once you got to know him – which I had, given the amount of time I'd spent with Al over the years, both at Hogwarts and at the Potter's house. Yeah, he was insanely amazing at Quidditch, could be called flighty and was slightly lazy when it came to his academic studies, but he was a very loyal, funny person on the whole. I was very jealous of his career though – being on the Tutshill Tornadoes at the age of nineteen was no easy feat.

That aside, I grabbed my clothes quickly from my suitcase back where Rose and Albus were starting to wake up. Alice was repacking her wreck of a suitcase, and started laughing the moment I came in, causing Rose and Al to look at her bemusedly. I glowered at her (again), hoping that she wouldn't tell either of them the reason for her giggling, before escaping back to the bathroom to throw on my clothes.

Once dressed, I traipsed downstairs. James was standing in front of his fridge, a frown on his face.

"Morning," I said, "Need any help? Where's Ahmed?"

"Hey," he said distractedly, "He's already left – doing a shoot for Witch Weekly this morning. I, uh, I'm having a bit of a food problem."

"Oh?" I frowned, walking over to peer into the fridge, "Oh."

"Yeah," said James, "I can't really remember the last time I went shopping, to be honest."

The fridge was basically empty, unless you count five beers, a mouldy-looking box of raspberries and a bottle of wine as food, which I definitely don't.

"Don't you have to eat a lot for your training?" I asked.

"Yeah, but they feed us at the stadium usually, or I'm out." He paused, running a hand through his hair and making a sheepish face, "Not gonna lie, Mum does the shopping for me. A lot."

I laughed, imagining Ginny Potter fretting about her eldest son's lack of nutrition, while James started to search the cupboards for any indication of edible food.

"I'll probably just go to the supermarket now, then," he said, and started to pick up his phone and wallet from the counter, shoving them into his pocket. It was at that moment that an owl flew through the open window, landing neatly next to us and holding out a small blue envelope that was tied to its leg.

James tore it open, eyes scanning the page briefly, before swearing, "Fucking hell. Carlotta's gone and broken her arm and they need me in for emergency training."

"Carlotta?" I asked, mulling the name over in my head, "Carlotta McCormack?"

"That's the one," he said, as the owl flew out the window, "Best Chaser on the team. She's even better than me, but because she's normally centre, I'm going to have to move from my usual spot."

He turned and started to get ready, pulling on a hoodie that was thrown over a chair, and shoving his feet into his trainers before pocketing his wand. Then, just as he was shutting the doors of all his empty cupboards, he turned to me. "Mind going to the shops for me?"

"'Course not," I said immediately. I already felt bad – we'd arrived without any notice at all, so the least we could do was get his food, "I'll get the others to help and we'll do dinner for you, yeah?"

"Cheers," he said, grinning, "You lot can come to practice if you want to. Just get Al to do all the talking at the stadium, security will recognise him." And with that, he stepped into his fireplace before vanishing in green flames.

"So…did James say where exactly the supermarket is?" Al asked. The four of us were congregated in the kitchen, after I had been subjected to at least five suggestive comments from Alice.

"No," I said, "I guess we just find one. It can't be that hard, surely?"

"I dunno," said Alice, "Al, we're following you. You're the Muggle know-it-all, so you can get us to a supermarket, right?"

"Um. Totally," Al said, in a way that inspired no confidence at all. Rose remained silent throughout the whole exchange, and if I hadn't thought she would bite my head off, I would have laughed at how grumpy she was at the prospect of having to wait for food.

"Come on then," I said, tying my shoelaces and grabbing my wand, "If we get a move on we'll be able to watch James' practice."

"Yeah, and maybe Rosie Posie will stop looking like the world is about to end," Al joked, elbowing Rose in the side lightly, only to jump back quickly when she practically snarled in response.

We decided to take the car, seeing as between the four of us we were likely to buy more food than we could feasibly carry, and so we all got in with Al driving, Alice next to him and Rose and I in the back as Alice refused to sit next to Rose whilst the latter girl's stomach was still empty.

Al drove us slowly out of the Wizarding part of the town and into the Muggle bit. Alice and I stuck our heads out the windows, yelling 'yes' if we saw either a parking space (me) or anything that looked like a supermarket (Alice).

"No."

"Maybe?"

"No."

"No, no, no."

"Yes…"

"No."

And so on.

"Yes!" We shouted in unison, after five or so minutes of searching. Al parked the car with more skill than I could ever hope for, and we entered the shop.

The supermarket was confusing as hell, or at least I thought so. Muggles were walking up and down corridors called 'aisles', according to the signs at the top of each one, picking up different items and putting them into little baskets or bigger ones on wheels.

Albus didn't seem fazed by all the different sections, and so suggested that we split up to get the job done faster. "Scorp, Rose, you take the first five aisles. Grab anything that looks vaguely edible, or anything you want for the car, and meet Alice and me at the front in half an hour, okay?"

Rose and I nodded, although I suddenly felt a bit nervous at the idea of spending half an hour alone with Rose, as that hadn't happened ever since…well, since the hand holding incident in the park the day before. Rose smiled at me and we took one of the nearby objects – she said they were called 'trollies' – and I wheeled it around as we started to walk down the first aisle.

I dumped a cucumber, a bag of salad, broccoli and a variety of fruits into the trolley whilst Rose put in the more unhealthy stuff – a block of cheese, three different pizzas and a selection of meat and fish. Together, we filled up the trolley as we strolled down the different aisles, taking what seemed like more than half of the shop. We finally reached the bakery section and went mental over the amount of pastries, grabbing cakes and doughnuts and pretty much anything sugary that we could get our hands on.

And that was how the argument started.

Rose had just taken a chocolate cake off the shelf and put it in the trolley when I put in a red velvet one. Our hands brushed against each other's and I froze, feeling tingles shoot up my fingers. Rose bit her lip in a way that really, really made me want to kiss her, and I narrowed my eyes competitively.

"We've already got four different chocolaty things in here." I stated.

Rose raised her eyebrows. We were stood face to face, looking between each other and the trolley. "So?"

"So, we should get the red velvet cake."

She scoffed, "Who wants red velvet when you can have chocolate?"

Frowning, I replied, "I do. Everyone knows red velvet is better."

She gasped, only half joking, "It is not. Take it back."

"Nope. Red velvet is better," I repeated, taking a step towards her in what I hoped was an intimidating way. Unfortunately, Rose seemed to take this as a reason to get even closer, and she tilted her chin upwards, hands on hips.

"No. Way."

"Yes."

"No."

With a surge of courage that must have come from my desire to win the argument, I lowered my head, backing Rose into the shelves behind her, and placed my hands on either side of her head. Our lips were mere centimetres away from each other, the gap between us closing as Rose was now on her tiptoes.

"You sure about that, Rose?"

My lips ghosted lightly across her cheek, and felt a sense of triumph bubble up inside me as she mumbled incoherently and blinked, "What?"

"Everyone knows red velvet is better," I murmured, my voice deliberately low. I felt like a bit of a tosser, trying to seduce her whilst talking about cake, but it seemed to be working so I wasn't going to complain.

"N-no," she stuttered. I had to hand it to her, the girl was stubborn. If we'd been the other way round, I would have given in ages ago.

"Come on, Rose," I said, dropping a kiss on her other cheek, and this time my lips almost grazed the corner of her mouth, "You know I'm right."

I saw her resolve crumble as her eyes darkened and flickered down to look at my lips. I was just about to swoop in and snog her senseless when Al's voice sounded from one aisle over. "Scorp, Rose? Hurry up, we have to go to James' practice!"

I groaned, resting my forehead lightly on Rose's. She laughed softly and took my hands. "We're nearly done, Al," she called to him, and then said in a quieter tone to me, "Chocolate is still better, but I'll admit that red velvet is pretty good too."

Rose reached up and kissed my cheek before she pulled away, starting to push the trolley down the rest of the aisle. I followed, holding back a sigh. If I didn't kiss her while I had the chance, when would it ever happen?

After we'd paid for the food, which had come to a ridiculous amount due to how much we liked eating, and because we figured that this way, James wouldn't have to go shopping for at least another month, we drove all the way up to the Tornadoes' stadium, hoping that we hadn't missed his entire practice.

We parked in the extensive grounds and made our way to the visitor's entrance. Two women were sat in the entrance, and we shoved Al forwards to do the talking.

"Hi," he said, looking slightly nervous as the women were very muscly and could probably beat us all to a pulp, "Is it okay if we watch the practice today?"

The woman on the left stood and smiled, "You're the Potter boy, right?"

"Yup," Al said, and if I didn't know him so well, I probably wouldn't have noticed the touch of irritation in his voice. Al had always been a little bit annoyed at being labelled because of his family, but I knew he loved them too much to care a lot. "Al Potter. My brother's practice should be on now."

The other woman stood and pulled her wand from her pocket, "We just need to scan your wands and you can go in, alright?"

"Sure," Al said, and the four of us passed our wands over. The women called out our names and wand specifications as they scanned them, and I was thankful for the way that they didn't stare at me for too long (I still received the occasional funny look because I looked so much like my father). They handed back our wands and opened the gates.

I had never been inside the Tornadoes' stadium, but it was awesome. It was much bigger than the Chudley Cannons' one, probably at least twice the size, and the ceiling was made entirely of glass, allowing sunlight to stream through every direction. Al led us up a few sets of stairs and we turned a couple of corners before arriving at a set of doors that read 'Section A'.

We entered, and I quickly recognised the pitch that I had only ever seen in the Daily Prophet. It was massive; three large golden hoops were stood at each end, and little flying specks were dotted through mid-air, all wearing the Tornadoes' blue robes. We sat down in the raised seating (it was a bit high, and I had to constantly look away from the ground so that I didn't freak out) and grabbed a pair of Omnioculars each, so that we could see what was going on. Alice started to pass around some of the food that we'd bought, and we dug in excitedly – especially Rose, who also "borrowed" some of Al's food while he wasn't looking.

Although I didn't support the Tornadoes, watching them in action was amazing, even if it was only the Chasers and the Keeper, who also happened to be Captain of the team. We watched in awe as the players swooped around the pitch, scoring goals left right and centre, high-fiving as they passed each other. Eventually, they stopped, and James flew over to us, landing in the raised seating elegantly without as much as a soft thump.

"Nice," said Al in approval, nodding at James, who ruffled his hair and grinned.

"I try," he smirked, before looking at me, "How was the supermarket?"

"Um," I mumbled, "It was fine. Got lots of food; you won't have to shop for another month." I neglected to mention that I'd also almost kissed his cousin (for what, the fourth time?), thinking that that might not have gone over so well.

"Good, good…" he hesitated, looking from us to the pitch, "Who wants a go on the pitch?"

Al began jumping up and down in his seat like he was a first year again, "Me! Me!"

"Piss off, Albie, you get a go every time you visit," James said, laughing good-naturedly. Albus scowled but nodded, so Alice went first.

"What took you two so long in the supermarket?" Al asked a mere second after James and Alice had started to fly down to the pitch on James' broom.

"Err –" I began.

"Nothing," Rose said quickly, looking at me and blushing, "We were just, um, arguing."

Al raised an eyebrow. "Okay…"

"About cake," I continued, and put on the trademarked Malfoy Smirk for good measure, "Red velvet's better than chocolate, right?"

It turned out that Al did, in fact, think that red velvet was better than chocolate (although he later told me that Rose and I were both idiots; carrot cake was apparently the best). Rose argued that his taste couldn't be trusted given that he liked Bounty chocolate, but from the way that she kept glancing over to me and going red every five minutes, I figured that she didn't really care all too much. In fact, I was pretty sure that Alice was right – Rose probably (hopefully) did fancy me back.

A/N: sorry about the wait! school has been very busy recently but we'll be on holiday for the next two weeks or so, so hopefully chapter 21 should be up soon :) only 6 chapters left - please leave a review because we love getting feedback! - Dee