Disclaimer: Harry Potter's not mine. Although, I did have a dream where I met him. It was a good dream.

The Magic Word Is Sorry, Not Please
(Chapter Twenty Five- Hiding Everything)

Rose had thought it would be harder to find Louisa and get her own her own, but it wasn't. She was sat in the common room on her own when Rose had gone downstairs; it was perfect.

"Hey Lou." Rose said as casually as she could. She'd never been any good at lying when she wanted something though; the only person that couldn't see straight through her was her father.

"Hi..?" Louisa replied, raising her eyebrows suspiciously as Rose sat down next to her.

"How're you?" Rose asked, smiling in a way that she already knew was weird.

"I'm ok, what about you?"
"I'm alright. Where is everyone?"
"Quidditch practice. And Roxy and Craig are in our dorm so I'm avoiding it. And Louis was here, but he went up to sort some chess thing."
"Oh right." Rose replied, not really listening. All she heard was that there was no one around; she could talk to Lou easily.
Louisa nodded, and looked at Rose in a weird way. "What do you want, Rose?" she asked cautiously.

Rose sighed, not able to keep up the weird pretence any more. "Right, remember last night?"
"Yeah." Louisa replied, putting her book down. "What about it?"
"Well do you remember the game?"
"I never? Yeah I remember that too. "
"Right, well I just... I need your help."
Then Louisa, as Rose had expected, turned into the caring head-girl type. "Why what's wrong?"

"I..." It was a weird subject to bring up. It was getting easier with Scorp, but to bring it up with the head girl, her cousin's girlfriend... She considered standing and leaving straight away, but she reminded herself that Louisa was her friend, and she needed the help. "Remember what everyone ended up talking about?"
"Er... Oh, you mean-"
"Yeah." Louisa looked at her warily, leaning away from her. "I can't talk to anyone else-" Rose began to beg.
"What about Roxy? Dom?" She asked hopefully.

"They're my family. They'd freak out and tell James and he can't ever know."

"Why?"
Rose shrugged, assuming it was obvious and Louisa was just playing stupid. "He has enough trouble with Scorp. It'd just make everything more complicated."
"Well everything gets more complicated when you add sex to it." Rose nodded, wondering if she had in fact come to the wrong person; Louisa hadn't even done it, how would she be any help? But now Rose had started, she was kind of stuck with her. "Haven't you thought about talking to your Mum or-"
"She'd tell Dad." Rose shook her head. "And that'd be even worse than James."
"James wouldn't be that bad-"
"Who're you kidding? He-he'd kill him. Look, are you helping me or not because I really need you."
Louisa nodded. Rose knew she would agree eventually; she was too helpful for her own good.

"Thank you." Rose sighed gratefully. "Look, you can't tell anyone. Not even, well especially not James. Or Dom or-"
"Yeah I get it. Don't tell anyone."
"Basically, yeah."

"Right. So what do you need me to do?"

Rose sighed, not sure exactly how to start. Whilst thinking, she heard the portrait hole flying open and the noise of people coming through it.

"Rose!" She turned around to see Fred, and hoped and prayed that he wouldn't come and sit down when she had finally got Louisa to help her. "I need to apologise to you about yesterday."

"It's ok." Rose mumbled, looking at Louisa who was watching her sympathetically.

"Right. We left James behind so when he gets up here, tell him we're having the chess tournament upstairs in Al's room. He should already know but just remind him Lou, yeah? Oh, and Anna told me to tell you that she and Dom are in the library, and they want your help later."
Louisa nodded vaguely, her eyes still on Rose. "No problem." The rest of them had just gone straight upstairs, and Fred followed them. The noise of their footsteps echoed into the common room; it was like a centaur stampede.

"Right." Louisa said, turning back to Rose. "So you and Scorpius are thinking of-?"
"Yeah."
"So you've talked about it, properly?"
Rose nodded. "That's why I'm here. We tried to think of people we could go to and, well Al's Scorp's best friend so that kind of cuts him off, and everyone in our year would just spread it around and then my family are everywhere and-"

"Yeah. Well it's good that you've talked about it and know what you want." Louisa said awkwardly. Rose nodded equally as uncomfortably. "Look, you know all about protection and everything don't you?"
"Yeah. Vaguely, I just don't know where to get it from. I looked through the school rules and only seventh years are allowed to ask at the Hospital Wing, so that's no good unless-"

"Unless you send a seventh year down there for you." Louisa now seemed to completely understand what Rose wanted her to do, and she sighed.
Rose nodded, looking at her hopefully. "Basically."
Louisa sighed tiredly. "I... They're going to think that me and James are-"
"It's all anonymous anyway. They're not allowed to say anything because you're Of Age." Rose was practically pleading now, and she knew it. She also knew, though, that Louisa couldn't not- help. It wasn't taking advantage; it was being smart with your resources, she thought.

"Right. But if I go down there for you then-"
The portrait hole slammed shut again; both girls turned to watch as Jake Thomas came running through the common room and straight up the stairs. Rose didn't really have time to think about the weirdness of that, since she was so close to convincing Louisa to help her.

"Lou, please?"
"You can't ever tell James. He'd kill me." She sighed, looking resigned.
Rose shook her head furiously. "Of course not."
"I mean it, you can't ever tell him. Not even in like twenty years when he's happily married and-"
"Who're you kidding, he's going to marry you!" Rose replied. Louisa looked at her for a second, then nodded dumbly.

"Maybe. But listen, I don't know how long it will take so you have to promise you and Scorpius won't do anything until then."
Rose shook her head again. "We're not stupid."
"I know you're not, I just don't want you to get carried away or-"

Then, once again, the portrait hole slammed shut and a blur of sobbing ginger hair practically flew up the stairs. Rose looked at Louisa worriedly, and mentally decided to go and check on her cousin when this was over.
"So you'll sort it for us?"
"Yeah. But only if you're sure. I mean, he's not pressuring you into anything or-"
"No. No, he's not. He'd never do that."

Louisa nodded. "Ok then. Well just give me a little while and then..." she stopped talking as the portrait hole slammed shut yet again.

They turned to see James at their side, shuffling on his feet.

"James, are you ok?" Louisa asked him, placing her hand on his arm.

James nodded weirdly, staring down at her hand. "Yeah. I mean, no. I mean... where's Louis?"
"Louis? He's up in Al's room. Some Chess Tournament you're meant to know about?"

"Oh, yeah, that." James blinked a few times, and then looked down at Rose. "What are you two talking about anyway?"
"Oh. Nothing, just Ancient Runes." Rose lied quickly.

"Cool." James replied, clearly not having listened to a word they said. "I'm going up to Al's."

He then left almost as quickly as he had arrived, clenching his fists weirdly.

Rose looked at Louisa nervously. "Thank you."

"It's ok." Louisa nodded. "It's going to be hard to lie to him though."

"I'm sorry." She felt guilty; the last thing she wanted was to ruin the relationship that James had waited for since fourth year.

"I said it's ok." She shrugged a little, then stood up. "I'm going down to see Anna and Dom."
Rose nodded. "Ok. Maybe I should go and see Lily?"

Louisa told her that was a good idea, then left.

Rose stood in the common room for a second and prayed that everything would work out, and that the sinking feeling in her stomach was wrong; no one would find out.

...

Fred walked towards the common room with one arm around Anna, and with Hugo, Al and Scorpius by his side. He loved walking in a group; he felt so powerful.

That was, until Anna stopped mid-walk and pulled Fred back so he almost fell over.

He looked at her, annoyed as she'd ruined his powerful moment.

"Sorry, I forgot I was going to go to the library. Me and Dom figured we'd do our essays while you guys do your weird chess thing."
Fred looked down at her, and tried to think of an insult that slightly matched calling The Chess Tournament weird.

"You're a geek." It was weak, and she knew it.

"Oh baby, you fail." She then stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek before heading off in the opposite direction. Seconds later, she turned and yelled down the corridor. "If you see Louisa, tell her we'll kill her if she doesn't help us!"

Fred laughed, and then watched as she walked away. He always watched when she walked away.

After he realised he was wasting his time doing this again he turned and carried on walking.

"So, who's your money on for the chess game?" Al asked Fred as they went up the stairs, smiling at him smartly as if he knew where Fred had just been looking.

"I'm being daring, and going for James." Fred replied, jokingly.

They laughed in reply, and then they all agreed that their only chance of winning would be betting on Hugo. Which would be stupid, because then they'd all owe each other money and it'd cancel out.

Despite being relatively stupid, Hugo was disturbingly amazing at chess. For this, Fred blamed his Uncle Ron. It was all inherited, and unfair; someone shouldn't be able to win a game because of their genes, or at least that was what he claimed every time he lost to his cousin that was three years younger than him.
Hugo first beat him when he was seven, and Fred was ten. Seven! It was one of those Weasley moments that he'd simply never forget. It had happened every year since; last year Hugo even beat his own father. It was the stuff of legends; Fred had even let it slip in the common room and it had been a headline in the Daily Prophet. "Ron Weasley beaten at chess by his own son!" The article went into ridiculous detail about how the person who had "saved the world" by playing chess had been beaten by his own offspring. It really wound up Ron, which pleased the family greatly.

When they reached the common room, after talking about Hugo's weird talent, Fred saw Rose and Louisa weirdly engrossed in conversation. He considered not interrupting but then changed his mind; he had to apologise to her, seeing as he had done that with Scorpius.

"Rose. I need to apologise to you about yesterday."
Rose shrugged. "It's ok."

She didn't really say it like she meant it, and Fred sure didn't feel forgiven, but he nodded uncertainly and said "right" before turning to Louisa. "We left James behind so when he gets up here, tell him we're having The Chess Tournament upstairs in Al's room. He should already know but just remind him Lou, yeah?" she nodded, and Fred was about to go to Al's room before he remembered, "Oh, and Anna told me to tell you that she and Dom are in the library, and they want your help later." Of course, he worded it nicely compared to Anna's death threat from earlier.

She replied "No problem" and Fred followed the rest of the boys up the stairs to Al's room, where Louis had been given the job of setting up chess tables.

The Weasley/Potter chess tournament was a big deal now, somehow; it had been so for years. Teddy would always come over to play, and Uncle Charlie would even try and visit. Even Uncle Percy would come over, despite being weird; his daughters didn't even go to Hogwarts for Merlin's sake.

This year though, the tournament seemed somehow more important. It was like being at home again.

"Hey, you haven't seen Jake have you?" Louis asked Fred, as if the conversation had already been taking place before Fred had come inside.

"I thought he was with us but... obviously not." Al shrugged.

"Weird." Louis shrugged.

That was weird, Fred agreed; Jake was normally around, the same way Scorpius was. They were Honorary Weasleys.

While Fred thought this, he turned and saw Scorpius sitting on his bed with books out.

"You not playing, Scorpius?" Fred asked him.

The blonde boy shook his head in reply. "No, I'm fine. It's a family thing so-"
"You can play. I guess you're a Weasley, in law."

Al groaned. "Eugh, don't put ideas in his head! My best friend marrying my cousin-"
"Oi! Your Dad married my Dad's sister, so you're really not allowed to be weird about cousins." Hugo replied.
"That's true. Yuck, that'd be like Scorpius marrying Lily-"
"Why am I suddenly marrying everyone?" Scorpius asked, getting up and walking towards where the chess boards were set up.

"Well, you're going to marry Rose aren't you?" Fred asked, mock seriously. One of the best things about Scorpius was how nervous he was now whenever Fred pretended to be serious.

"Oh, er-"
"He's just kidding! You don't have to marry her-"
"Although, if you break her heart we'll kill you."

Fred smiled to himself. Louis and Hugo could practically recite James and Fred's speech; they were learning.

Scorpius just stuttered for a second, before Al began to laugh at him.

"Right, guessing we have to wait for James, right?" Al asked, when he'd stopped snickering.
"Yep." Fred replied, sitting in one of the seats Louis had stolen from the common room somehow.
They went quiet for a second, before Al spoke again. "I've never thought of Mum and Dad as him marrying his best friend's sister. That's pretty weird isn't it?"
"Yeah. My poor father!" Hugo replied. "Although, he married his best friend. That isn't exactly normal-"
"My Dad got a veela girl, I think he wins out of best wife!"

Fred laughed with his cousins, but was distracted. He didn't really like talking about how his parents got together; mainly since he didn't know. For years he'd thought it was just classic boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, and boy and girl then get married and have exceptionally cool twins as children. That was until two years ago, when Fred had found his Dad's pictures from the Yule Ball. At first he'd not thought much of them, he'd in fact thought it was quite cool that his Dad and his Mum went to the ball together. That was until he realised that it wasn't his Dad at the ball with his Mum, it was his Dad's dead twin brother. For weeks all he'd done was think about those haunting photographs, and after weeks of analysing he'd been forced to assume that his parents were only together out of grief, and not love like he'd always thought.

Of course, he hadn't told anyone. Not even Anna or James. Or Roxy. He knew that was bad; his sister probably deserved to know but she would just ask their father, and he hated talking about his twin. It'd just cause unnecessary heartache.

He was knocked out of these thoughts when James stormed inside, slamming the door behind him. Fred looked at him weirdly; he'd been fine when they'd left the Quidditch pitch. What could've possibly happened between here and there, he wondered?

"Louis." He said angrily.

Louis, clearly not seeing the warning signs that Fred could see, stood up opposite James and mimicked his weird shuffling feet. "James?" he replied in similar tone of voice.

James just glared and exhaled quickly.

"James, are you alright?" Fred dared to ask.

That was stupid.

"No. No, I'm not. Because, do you want to know what I've just seen? This guy's scumbag 'best friend' kissing my sister!"

Fred felt his jaw drop open, and Al's hand slipped off the chess table and knocked some pawns off as all the boys in the room looked at the oldest Potter in shock.

"What?" Louis asked simply, looking completely confused.

"Jake and Lily."

Louis laughed, before looking up, seeing James was serious and saying "No way…"

"Yes, Louis, yes way. Did you know?"
"Does he look like he knew?" Fred pointed out. Louis was confused by their grandmother's clock; right now he looked as if someone had just asked him to attempt a muggle Algebra exam.

"Well I don't know! Al knew about Rose and Scorpius and didn't tell us!"

James turned and glared at Al for a second, and then his eyes flicked to Scorpius and rested there. Clearly whatever James had seen of Jake and Lily had made him reconsider Rose and Scorpius as well.

Fred knew James far too well; he could practically see as his brain battled between completely giving into anger and wrecking the entire dorm or sitting down and calmly trying to work things out.

Louis shook his head. "No way. Jake'd never go for Lily! She's younger than him and-"
"And?"
"That's it. It's just wrong; he'd never-"

"Are you saying I'm lying?" James clenched his fists.

"Look, what did you see? Maybe you got it wrong or-?"
"Well, Albus, what I saw was him kissing our little sister. And then I was told that they were 'together'."
"And then?" Fred asked cautiously. He wondered for a second if he was going to have to cover up for some sort of murder.

"Then..." James sighed. "Then I pinned Jake to the wall, banned him from ever looking at Lily again and he ran off."
"And Lily?"
"Lily burst into tears, told me she hated me and went to her dorm."
The last sentence seemed to have knocked the anger out of James, and he sat down on the end of Scorpius' bed exhaustedly.

"Louis, couldn't you tell something was different? I mean, he didn't tell you or anything?"

Louis shook his head. "He didn't tell me, but he has been a bit weird lately."
"Weird how?" Fred asked cautiously.

"He's been..." Louis sighed, as if he didn't want to say the answer in his head. "He's been happier."

Fred closed his eyes; this was like Rose and Scorpius all over again. Except this time it was worse in some respects; sure, he didn't have a Death Eater father that had a rep for trying to kill Fred's entire family, but he was a year older.

"Huh." Hugo said quietly, as if he'd just thought of something.
"Huh what? You didn't know did you?" James asked, turning his head a little to make eye contact with Hugo.
"No. I didn't know."
"Then why did you make a noise?" Al asked.

Hugo bit his lip. "It's nothing. Or at least you won't want to hear it-"
"What is it?" Fred uncrossed his arms and leant forward.

"Just, what Louis said about Jake being happier..."

"Yeah?"
"Well, haven't you noticed Lily's been happier lately too?"