That night I was in my room chilling in my pyjamas lying on my bed. I was smiling up at the ceiling recalling the day I had. Pumpkin was next to me clueless and licking his paws. The house was silent apart from the slurping sound that Pumpkin was making that for the first time ever didn't gross me out. It was like being back at Hogwarts again.

Then I heard a faint murmur of voices from downstairs. I didn't pay it much attention until I heard footsteps rush up the stairs. I sat up just as a knock came at my door. A second later before I could call out the door was pushed open.

It was Lily. She was looking as happy as I had felt seconds ago.

"Hi," I started standoffishly. I knew what this visit meant and judging by the backpack, two handbags and binder she was carrying this was going to be an intense and long one.

Lily slid in through the door not opening it fully like she was trying to be secretive. She closed the door behind her softly before hurrying over to my bed and throwing herself down next to Pumpkin and I.

"Hello, Rose. Hello, Pumpkin." Lily greeted with a massive smile sounding too excited for nine o'clock at night.

Pumpkin lifted up his head for a quick second to look at Lily and receive a pat on the head from her before returning to the more serious business of licking his paws.

Lily started placing her bags on the floor next to my bed in a neat line while I quietly petted Pumpkin wondering what was the quickest way to get Lily off my case with Scorpius.

"I couldn't wait! I've been planning and gathering my things together ever since you left the shop to go on that date with Scorpius." She said in a perfectly normal volume of voice that made me what to clap my hands over her mouth.

"Lily!" I hissed. "Don't say that so loud. It isn't true. Everyone in the house will hear you."

But Lily was barely listening instead she jumped off her spot on my bed and headed over to my bookshelf.

"What's this? It isn't what I think it is?"

I jumped up after her knowing exactly what she was about to gush over.

"A framed photo of Scorp," Lily said in a quieter voice picking up the frame to get a closer look.

I suddenly grew embarrassed. I had almost forgotten about that photo. Abby had taken it in first year using her old fashioned muggle camera when Scorpius and I were in the Hospital Wing after duelling each other. The younger photographic Scorpius was sneering at us in the frame trying not to puke up slugs. Awww memories. It's strange, I wouldn't even dream of doing that now. If anyone did that to Scorpius now I would hex them with something more powerful than the slug-vomiting hex.

"Not the cutest photo of him in the world but still it's a photo of him," Lily said hesitantly putting it back on my bookshelf. It sat in front of a collection of the story books I used to read when I was younger on the middle shelf. "Okay, now let's get down to business."

I glanced at the cat clock on the wall above my desk. "It's ten past nine, isn't it a bit late to be getting down to business?" I said wanting to return to my happy dream state on my bed with Pumpkin.

"That's why it's a sleepover!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes, my dad said sure and your parents didn't really care," Lily grinned. "We get to stay up all night talk about Scorpius and eat sweets!"

"Talk about," I started lowering my voice again. "Scorpius? We can't do that here. If my parents hear it will start a war and be embarrassing. Besides, there's nothing to talk about. You're just letting your imagination run away with you. You're reading too much Witch Weekly."

Lily put her hands on her hips, "Firstly, Rose, you can never read enough Witch Weekly. Secondly, you're blind as a bat and as stupid as a doxie. Thirdly, I came prepared which means we're not sleeping over here."

"Do not say we're going to sleep in a tent in this weather." I moaned. "Or the attic."

Lily laughed, "No, we're going to… Grandma Molly's!"

"Lily, if she finds-"

"Rosie, use your brain. The Burrow is tall and has breathing room. Mom's room is as far away from Gran and Grandad as we can get while still staying in girl world." Lily said pulling on her backpack. "Grab what you need. We leave now because Merlin knows it will take until sunrise to crack open your heart."

"Did you tell mom and dad we were going to the Burrow?"

"Yes, they don't care and love it at the same time," Lily said as I grabbed my own bag hanging off my desk chair and stuffed it with clothes for tomorrow and cat treats.

"Bring those letters he's been sending you as well. We'll do some Auror testing on them."

"What letters?" I said dumbly. There was no way Lily could've known about them.

"He's been sending you letters, it would be a crime if he wasn't. How could he have known where you were otherwise? Scorp randomly being there is too much of a cheesy coincidence, even for me."

"Well, it is." I lied not wanting Lily to dissect his letters.

Lily sighed and marched over to my desk. Before I could process what in Merlin's name she was doing she opened my desk drawer. The pile of his letters, nearly overflowing out of the drawer, were there right before her eyes.

"Lily, no," I said jumping in front of her before she could pick them up or read the elegance Roses written on the envelopes.

"Rose," Lily said sounding too calm. "You'll need these later take them with you. As much as I would love to read them I won't if you don't want me too. Just take them for yourself."

I glanced down at his letters and back at Lily.

"Fine," I gave in not wanting to fight with her or talk about the letters anymore. I grabbed my bag and shoved the letters right to the bottom of it under my robes.

I swung my cloak over my shoulders while Lily stood beside me looking like she was having the night of her life with an excited beam across her face. I grabbed the rest of Pumpkin's stuff and pulled my own bag onto my shoulders. I took an irritated Pumpkin in my arms because I needed some company that knew Scorpius and I weren't… anything big.

Pumpkin hung like a sack of potatoes in my arms as he expertly pulled a 'don't touch me' grumpy look. Lily hummed as she climbed down the stairs.

"Good night, Uncle Ron." She beamed when she hopped down the last step and approached my half dozing dad on the sofa in the living room.

"Same to you, Lily." He didn't open his eyes. "Have fun, Rosie."

Mom appeared in the doorway behind us, "Goodbye, girls. Owl if you need anything. And, Rose, don't come back so late this time."

I gave her a sheepish smile. She was referring to earlier that day when I had returned from my Diagon Alley getaway with Scorpius. I had completely missed Hugo and dad leaving mom on the verge of going down to Diagon Alley herself and looking for me.

"Yes, mom, sorry about that again. I'll see you tomorrow." I said moving towards Lily who was already in the fireplace with a hunk of floo powder in her fist.

Lily gave everyone one last grin, stuffed in the fireplace with a pile of her luggage. It would've been comical if I hadn't known all those bags were intended for boy talk about Scorpius.

"THE BURROW!" she yelled at the top of her lungs and threw the floo powder down. In a flash of green flames and ashes, she was gone.

The volcano in my stomach returned from earlier in the form of butterflies as I approached the fireplace. I held my breath. I wasn't nervous or worried about the floo traveling it was more of what we were going to do after the floo travel. I should've fought harder to get Lily off my case and not have given in. I felt weak, part of me (very small) wanted to do this. I never got to talk about Scorpius with anyone and usually, I wanted to talk about him all the time. Thinking about him never got boring. Somehow there was always something entertaining to think about him even if I had thought the thought a hundred times before. Maybe I could steer Lily away from the subject but that could be next to impossible. Or I could just talk about him and get him out of my system, I hated to admit it but sometimes I felt like I thought about him too much.

I stepped into the fireplace and held Pumpkin firmly to my chest He was already wiggling. He knew what was about to happen and he hated getting his fur singed. Before I could think any more or the voices in my head could get louder. I gave myself no choice. I shouted out 'THE BURROW' and before it could fully bounce back to my ears as an echo I let the floo powder fall from my hand.

A hot flash and several twisting feelings later I was tumbling out of the Burrow chimney. Ash was all around me and the smell of burnt cat fur wafted into my nose. I bumped into one of Lily's bags when I fell out. Pumpkin jumped free from my arms and trotted off to some corner to explore.

"Hello, Rose!" Grandma Molly called out from the kitchen she was cooking something, her wand was out and moving like a composer's baton over the ingredients in front of her.

"Hi, Grandma Molly," I called back.

I felt better in the warm sitting room. The house smelled comfortingly like freshly baked cakes once I got the burning cat hair smell out of my airways.

"Thanks for letting us come over," Lily called to her while helping me stand up straight.

"Anytime, this house does get lonely with only Grandad out in the shed til all hours." Grandma Molly sighed. "Don't touch anything that looks like it has something to do with the wedding."

"Yes." We both answered before Lily starting pulling me out of the sitting room.

"Gran, we're going to go upstairs and do our homework now. We have so much to do." Lily announced.

"Come down if you need anything."

"Homework?" I asked once we were on the first landing.

"Yes, that's what it is," Lily said. "Work you do at home. Which is exactly what we're doing. This piece of homework is more important than anything old Binns could assign us."

Lily jogged up the next set of stairs her bags rattled as she went. I trailed behind her taking my time.

"This is going to be even more fun than the dress fitting. By the way, when you were on your date with Scorpius you missed some mean cupcakes and salad at Puffins."

"It wasn't a date," I said exasperatedly following her down a hall covered ceiling to floor in Weasley family pictures. "I don't care about salad it isn't a meal."

"Salad is cute. But between you and me I was just eating the sauce cause that was killer." Lily said stopping at a door. "We're here!"

I didn't response even though a hundred sarcastic remarks came into my mind.

Lily opened the door to Aunt Ginny's old room. It still looked like a teenage girl's bedroom. There were posters of hot quidditch players on the walls, various disorganized books on the bookshelf and boxes of sweets lying around. Lily switched on the light, the curtains were pulled and the yellow and green flowery wallpaper was peeling.

Lily put her bags in an orderly line on the floor like she had done in my room while I plonked myself down on a patchwork quilt on the bed hugging my cloak closer to me.

Lily moved over to the desk at the opposite wall and moved the quills, ink pots and loose parchment off to one side.

Lily then sat up on top of the desk and used the desk chair as a footstool.

"Right," She clapped her hands. "You don't have to pretend anymore. No one can hear us, no one's around."

"Pretend?"

"For Merlin sake, it's so obvious, Rose," Lily said. "It's making my heart hurt that you can't see it or won't admit it."

I sat as far away as I could back up against the wall. I didn't say anything.

"You like him," Lily said without a shadow of a doubt in her voice. "He likes you. I think I'll go even further and say he loves you."

"Lily-"

"Rose, think about it for one second with an open mind. He looks at you like you're the only person in the world. And he doesn't stop staring at you. It's written all over his face and it's written all over yours. You do exactly the same to him."

I squirmed uncomfortably.

Lily hopped down from her seat on the desk.

"I'll show you." She unzipped one of her bags and pulled out a stack of Witch Weeklys.

She sat down next to me and started sorting through them. A couple of seconds later she had the one she was looking for in her hands.

"This is a quiz that will tell all."

"Lily, I don't really want to do this," I said squirming some more. I started to feel somehow different and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not.

She flipped through the pages until coming to a stop near the back. Questions in black spiral print against a hot pink background lined the page. The title was written in huge letters at the top of the page 'LOVE OR LIKE'. Then taking up half the page was a picture of a girl (with way too good skin) biting her quill in some kind of a daydream state.

"That is so you." Lily pointed at the photo before I could protest she started, "Okay, question one: How hot is your man? A) Angel-like, B) Okay, or C) can be compared to a troll."

I stared blankly at Lily unsure of what to say.

Lily prompted me, "Be honest, A, B or C?"

"What do you think?"

"It's not about me, Rose. So A) Angel like-"

"A," I said quickly taking in a deep gulp of air. Where had that come from? I wouldn't call Scorpius angel-like, he didn't look at all boy band like but he was above okay. When I thought about it, he was definitely good-looking. Better looking than any of the other boys at Hogwarts. Strange that the girls weren't all over him.

Lily smiled knowingly and slowly circled the answer with a pink fluffy quill in delight.

"How much do you know about him? A) I know his favourite colour, B) I know his past times, or C) I know his name and what he looks like."

"I know all of those things," I inputted annoyed and seriously questioning the power of the test. "His favourite colour is blue."

"A again." Lily continued on beaming before I could say anything else. "Does your man get you? A) Like a best friend, B) Like a teacher, or C) like a friendly person should."

I frowned, "A."

"How often does your man smile at you? A) Nearly every second, B) If something funny comes up, or C) Once every full moon."

"A."

"How close are you two physically? A) Can't keep our hands off, B) Accidental, or C) Touching equals ew."

"A."

"The last one, Rose, can you see him in your future as more than a friend, as in boyfriend, etc? A) Yes, B) Maybe, or C) No."

I didn't answer straight away instead something unexpected happened that made my heart skip a beat. It clicked! Everything that I had been feeling, all the weird and the unexplained clicked together in that second. I liked Scorpius. I liked-liked Scorpius.

An emotion that was similar to excitement rushed through me and twisted my stomach. I wanted to be with him more than I already was. I wanted him to like me just the same.

I let out an involuntary groan and threw myself into a lying position on the bed. Why, Merlin? Why must you ruin my friendship? Why must you completely shatter my sanity?

"A." I muttered.

Lily patted me on the shoulder in a reassuring sort of way and threw herself down next to me. I could see the magazine's answers at the bottom part of the page. A, which I answered for everything, was covered with red hearts and kisses. Whereas the B answer box was purple and C was chilly, an almost white, blue.

"Congratulations, it's LOVE!" Lily let out a sigh of passion while I let out a sigh of disbelief. "The hardest step is over. Now you must go out and proclaim your love for your man. Let your fairytale dreams come true."

"The hardest step?" I snapped wanting to throw the magazine across the room and then a ramble rushed to my lips, the product of the sudden new emotions. "He probably doesn't like me back. The hardest step would be telling him. Which I can't because this is too embarrassing. How would I even tell him?"

"Rose," Lily shut me up with confidence and sass. "The hardest step in the Scorpius and Rose relationship is over. Trust me he likes you. He's just like you, either he's as blind as a bat or lacking the proper words and means to proclaim his love. Right now he's probably sitting in his mansion, thinking about you and how to go about telling you. But you have to be the leader in this. A teenage boy is hopeless when it comes to being romantic and clever. That's why I'm helping you like the good cousin I am."

"I can't believe it." I sat up suddenly. I got up off the bed and walked just to check my brain and legs still worked. I headed to the window and pushed back the curtains. The information felt heavy and fresh in my mind but somehow not unwelcome. Like it was waiting to be discovered. I sat down again this time on the windowsill and stared out into the starry clear night. I thought maybe Scorpius was doing the same thing and thinking about me.

"I know it's like Christmas already," Lily grinned.

"You think he likes me?"

"Yes! How much more proof do you need?" Lily said moving over to her pile of Witch Weeklys and sorting to through them again.

"Why do I like him?" I mumbled unable to shake the overwhelmed feeling. I was starting to think it was never going to leave me. "I shouldn't like him…"

"But you do," Lily concluded.

At that moment a knock came at the door. I didn't jump at the sound or care at that moment if whoever it was had overheard.

Grandma Molly walked in followed by a floating tray carrying tea and piles of freshly made biscuits. I perked up a bit at the smell but for once stuffing my face wasn't at the top of my list of priorities.

There was one more surprise that I wouldn't have expected in a million years. With each second that passed, the more I wanted to giggle and yell about him around the house. I wanted to tell Lily, every one of my growing thoughts from the glimmer in his silver eyes to the loose knot he wore in his Slytherin tie.

It was starting to feel very dream-like and it was pulling me away from all my doubts and worries quickly. Grandma Molly, after having a short conversation, left. As Lily sat back down with a new copy of Witch Weekly I finally exploded.

"Merlin, I like him so much," I grinned out at the starry night. "He's just… perfect in every single way."

Lily smiled and sighed, "I made this happen. Now onto the next matter of business how shall we attack? Let's make it quick and memorable. You go up to him, wind blowing through your hair to the max and you will kiss him."

I blushed and shifted uncomfortably on the windowsill at the image that came into my mind.

"I don't know about that just yet," I stated. "I don't think I could do that. I don't think I could even do it properly."

Lily gave me a sympathetic look, "Poor overthinking, Rosie, it'll work in the moment."

"Lily, how would you know? You don't even have a boyfriend."

"Not at the moment, Rose. I'm waiting for Mr Right but I have proven I am an expert in this field. I read enough about kissing and seen enough kissing to know that this will work like a charm. Like a romantic muggle-thingy."

Then I thought of another obstacle standing in the way of Lily's kissing plan, "Lily, he's a freaking giant compared to me."

Lily always had a solution, "We could get a footstool."

"No, I am not spending the next year carrying around a footstool on the off chance I suddenly get the urge to spontaneously risk it all and kiss him."

"Yeah, you're right, a footstool doesn't say sex appeal does it?"

"Lily!"

"He'll eventually have to bend over. You'll drop your quill or something… maybe a decorative handkerchief I know a shop that makes them. He'll pick it up for you then you'll go in for the lip smack."

"Can you think of something less… hands on?"

"Flirting is a big one. " Lily said.

"How do you flirt?" I asked completely clueless.

"You're already doing it."

"What? Right now?"

"No, Rosie, Scorpie. Random touching, it's all flirting."

"When did you see that?"

"Rose, please, I'm more sneaky than you give me credit for," Lily said. "When you go back to school or if you go on another date you bring it up a level and see if he follows. He will."

Before I could say anything else she joined me by the window and started showing me even more Witch Weekly romance related articles.

I struggled to digest all of it. My thoughts kept bouncing from happy to the point of bursting to frustrated to the point of imagining jumping out the window.

What was I going to do when I saw him next? And what was I going to write to him?