"So have you got any ideas at all?" Albus said to Rose and I. I shrugged. I had no idea what to do, in all honesty. There was a lot riding on tonight – if it went according to plan... whatever the plan ended up being that is, then this war could be over. If not then, well, I could die, Rose could die, Albus could die, my father could make his immortality potion and well... more hell would break loose. No pressure.

"Not... really..." I admitted, biting my bottom lip and staring down at the floor. We all sat in the circle in the courtyard. It was quite cold outside today so I let Rose borrow my Slytherin scarf, which looked weird with her Gryffindor uniform. It reminded me of when she came to the common room over Christmas and we almost had our first kiss before Peeves showed up. Times were simpler then.

"Okay, let's break it down." Rose stated. "From what you're allowed to tell us, and from what we've picked up ourselves, they were trying to find out where the resurrection stone was and heard it was at Hogwarts, so they sent you here to get it and you have to take it to them when you get it, which you have-" She said.

"Yes, Rose, thanks for stating the obvious." Albus said. "We already know all that."

She ignored him. "Look, the chances are, your father is going be constantly surrounded by Death Eaters in case of any attacks, in order to protect himself. When you arrive it's more than likely that they'll get on with whatever it is they're planning as soon as you give them the stone, which means the chances are, all, if not most, of the Death Eaters will be there in one place."

I listened intently as she spoke and I smiled a little. Given the circumstances of it all, I was happy she was here helping.

"But what if they're not? And even if they are all there, what are we supposed to do? It's hard to hide an army of Aurors."

"What about the invisibility cloak?" I asked, shrugging.

"What? The two of us barely fit under it, you expect all of the Aurors to?"

I sighed. "Well I don't know!" I said, defeated.

"No, no, no" Rose said. "They can't all fit under it, but Al and I can."

"And?" Albus asked, confused.

"We'll stage an ambush." She started. "The Aurors can wait outside, they can hide while we all go in. Albus and I will be under the cloak right behind you. We'll scope it all out while you tell them you have the stone, but your vow is to take it to them not give it to them, so just kind of stall. Talk to your dad, try and convince him that what he's doing is wrong." Rose said. Albus and I just listened carefully. "When Albus and I have counted how many Aurors there are and just generally assessed the situation, we'll leave and tell the Aurors and we'll be back within a few minutes."

"That... actually isn't an awful plan." Albus said and I reached over and took Rose's hand, squeezing it.

"You'll only be alone for a couple of minutes, and after what you've been through and how brave you've been, you'll be fine." Rose said.

We spent the next few hours fleshing out the plan, making sure we had everything planned down to the letter.

Midnight came, and Albus and I snuck out of our dorm together, Albus gripping the invisibility cloak tight and me with the stone in my pocket.

"You okay?" I asked him in a whisper, to not wake up any portraits.

"Yep." Albus replied in the same whisper.

"You're the best friend I could ever ask for." I told him sincerely. "Not many people would risk their lives like this so much to help me."

"You're like a brother." He said, patting my shoulder, reassuringly. "Just promise me something..." He said and I nodded. "Stay alive."

I smiled weakly. It was the same thing I said to him when we ambushed the dark wizards the first time. "You too." I said and soon enough we were outside the Great Hall. Albus pushed the large door open and we walked in to see nearly twenty aurors gathered around, including Albus's father and Rose's father. Rose was stood beside her mother talking to her.

I walked over to her and put my arms around her waist from behind, putting my chin on her shoulder. "Hi..." I said quietly, sounding a little tired.

"Hi..." She said, turning around and putting her arms around my neck. I watched her mum walk away to leave us.

"I don't know if we're going to make it out of this. I know we've planned it all but it's still dangerous and one of us could get hurt and-"Rose cut me off with a kiss. I held her tightly, pressing our bodies together and picking her up slightly off the ground. I didn't care that we were surrounded by Aurors, and Rose's parents – right now, it was just the two of us.

"I love you too." She said with a tired smile. I intertwined our fingers and we walked over to the group of Aurors.

"Okay, Scorpius, this is down to you now." Harry said, then he shushed everyone. They all stared at me and Rose squeezed my hand. Albus walked over and stood beside me with his arms folded across his chest, the invisibility cloak draped over them.

"I just want to thank you all for agreeing to this. I know it must be difficult putting your faith in me, especially given my father's involvement and... my own involuntary involvement." I began. "But we have the stone and we're taking it now so... yeah." I mentally slapped myself. "We're going to ambush them. We'll fly there, all of us, and you will all wait outside. Albus, Rose and I will go in, Rose and Albus under the invisibility cloak – they'll think I'm alone. Then Rose and Albus will go back and get you after a few minutes after they've had a chance to take in the situation, count how many Death Eaters there are, etcetera." I said.

I looked at them all staring at me and continued. "They'll get you and bring you in, that's when we'll ambush them. I'll distract them, stall them, so you guys can all get into position. No doubt I'll be taken down to their meeting room. There's a huge table in there but it's underground so you'll all have to be silent while you make your way there through the tunnels. There'll probably be a few Death Eaters on guard but you guys can easily deal with that." I explained. "From what I remember there's three different entrances to the meeting room, so if you spread out and make your way to every door it'll be better, we can't have all of you trying to cram through one door - they'll just kill you all one by one."

They all looked at me sceptically, which made me even more nervous.

"Scorpius knows what they're doing, he's the only one who really knows all their plans, so we need to trust him." Albus said confidently. "I trust him with my life, all of you should too."

"But obviously, we can't guarantee that this is going to work. Things might slip up, Draco might take Scorpius away alone or one of us might get hurt. So, if Albus and I don't come out to get you within ten minutes you make your own way in, you find us, and you do what you can."

I looked over the faces of all the Aurors. Some of them looked unconvinced and some of them were nodding along. Rose's mother looked nervous, I could see her squeezing her husband's hand and her knuckles were white.

Before I knew it, we were preparing our brooms and getting ready to leave. Rose's parents walked over to me while Rose was talking to Albus and they both tried to find the best way to fit under the invisibility cloak, even with the extension charm they had used before.

"Scorpius..." Rose's mother said as she approached me with Ron.

"Hermione..." I said. "Ron..."

"We um... We're proud that Rose chose you. We were unsure about you at first... given your father and everything, but you've proved that you're a good person and brave and we trust you with our daughter." She said.

"But please, tonight, keep her safe. You did everything you could to save her when she was taken, don't let her be taken from us again." Ron said and I nodded. They both hugged me.

"And assuming that this all goes to plan, we'd like to invite you to stay with us over the summer. Obviously you can't go back home, no matter what happens, and we want to look out for you."

"Wait, what?" Ron said and I chuckled a little. Hermione hit him in the arm. "I mean... sure. There's obviously going to be rules. No sleeping in the same bed... or the same room... and-"

"Ron, that's enough." Hermione said and we both laughed a little. It was nice to bring some humour to what would most definitely be a dark night.

"Thank you, both of you, I do really appreciate that. But first I'll contact my grandparents or my auntie and see if any of them would be willing to take me in or... I don't know, the house elves back home are pretty good company. I wouldn't want to intrude." I said politely.

"Just think about it." Hermione said and they both walked away.

I made my way over to Albus and Rose who were now just chatting.

"Do I want to know why you were just talking to my parents?" Rose asked as I put my arm around her.

"They were just asking me to look out for you, and asking if I wanted to stay at your house over the summer given everything that's happened." I said. Rose's eyes were wide. I laughed. "Don't worry, I didn't say yes or no, that's a thing for the two of us to talk about when all this is over." I said, kissing her cheek.

"Speaking of, we should be going soon." Albus said and I nodded.

I put my other arm around his shoulder and he and Rose put their arms round one another so we were now in a little circle. "I love you guys." I told them and we all leaned our foreheads against each other's.

"Back at you." Albus said and Rose smiled.

"I love you both too."

We each grabbed a broom and walked behind the Aurors into the courtyard. The three of us walked through the group of Aurors so we were at the front of the crowd. We stood tall in a line, put our brooms between our legs and looked at one another. I had Rose to my right and Albus to my left. Looking up to the dark night sky, I took a deep breath.

"Let's do this."