Hi everyone! Surprise! I never really thought I was going to continue this series, but I had an idea today and I thought it could be fun so here goes. This won't be a full book, probably seven chapters, and I'll try to post at least weekly. Anyway, if you're just finding this it's the eighth in a series that starts with Rose Weasley and the New Order, they're all on my profile so check them out! Anyway, thanks for reading, and please review, I love hearing from you! And Happy Birthday Harry Potter! -Collin

CHAPTER 1- THE MINISTRY GALA

The Ministry gala had never been Rose's favorite place, but this year was especially nerve-wracking. It wasn't only that she was about to quit her job- with Lucy coming back to London, the Modernists would need her full-time, and the International Office of Law was dead-end anyway- but the ring she was wearing on a chain around her neck only amplified her anxiety about what her parents were going to say. It's not like it was a scandal- getting engaged at 23 after five years to the love of her life wasn't exactly radical- but Scorpius was still a Malfoy, and she knew the announcement would finally convince her father that she was actually, genuinely serious.

"You look beautiful," Scorpius said to her, kissing her hand as the Ministry driver slowed to a stop in front of the red carpet. Rose felt a rush of relief that he was there; he could always tell when she was anxious. Their minds might not have been connected anymore, but they were still so close that sometimes she couldn't believe it.

"Thanks," she said, trying to calm her breathing. "Ready?"

He smirked and tried again to smooth the blond locks he'd been trying to gel down, very much against their nature. "Ready."

The two stepped out of the car and were immediately met with a cacophony of giant camera flashes from the wizarding press, and the wave of microphones from the Muggles; one thing that hadn't been good about exposure, twice the paparazzi. As soon as they'd gotten the pictures of her and Scorpius getting out of the car, though, they retreated back to the center of the carpet. Rose frowned- there weren't many Ministry officials more famous than them- until she saw who it was. Ah. Uncle Harry.

He and Aunt Ginny were standing in front of the reporters, smiling easily- they were much more used to all this. It didn't surprise Rose that they were so focused on him tonight, either, as the gala had managed to fall on his birthday this year. At the moment, she was grateful for it, though, as it took at least some of the attention off her.

"Rose!" She'd thought it was a reporter at first, but she knew that voice. When she turned around, sure enough, she saw that Harry and Ginny had moved along into the ballroom and coming up the carpet was James, in a tailored Muggle suit contrasting his father's black dress robes, Alice close behind. The cameras flashed again as she hugged her cousin and watched, amused, as he and Scorpius solemnly shook hands. "Alright, Malfoy?" he added, still not sounding fully comfortable.

"Hi, James," Scorpius said, laughing a little, and as he and Alice greeted each other, James turned back to Rose.

"Have you seen Lucy yet?"

"What? No," Rose said, feeling a little jumpy; Lucy was the reason she was about to leave the Ministry, after all, and she knew it was only James but they were technically at work. "I, er, I heard her flight got in last night but I'm not seeing her until Monday."

"Well, we met for a pint before this," James said. Rose tried not to feel a twinge of jealousy at that. "Well, I drank, she didn't, obviously. She's going to have the baby any day now."

"Right, right," Rose said. She didn't like the idea of any of them having children, it felt far too grown-up. They all started to move down the carpet as she asked, "Is the father with her?"

"Yeah. He's a Muggle, you know, and American. Name's Jackson something. I dunno, he was a bit dull. Just kept looking all moon-eyed at the magic in the Cauldron and all that."

Rose couldn't help herself laughing at that. Lucy with a Muggle wasn't exactly hard to imagine, but it was odd to think of her being with anyone who could be described as 'dull'.

"Well, how've you been though?" she asked, very much wanting to change the subject, as the cameras flashed at all four of them. "You're coming back to the Aurors, aren't you?"

""S why I'm here, yeah," James said. "Finished up the season with the Arrows, but I'm done with Quidditch. You can only take a beating from your baby sister so many times."

"We saw that game," Scorpius said, not without sympathy. "The Harpies had you guys from the start. Lily was brilliant."

"Yeah, well," James muttered. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something, Rosie."

They had entered the gala now, a huge ballroom in Whitehall draped in deep purples and floating globes of light, with hundreds of Ministry officials already eating, drinking and dancing inside. The four of them made their way to an empty table and sat down, and James took a moment and cleared his throat before he spoke again. "I, er, well, me and Lily have been talking about- it's been more than five years now, since- Godric's Hollow and we were trying to think of a way to, you know… remember Al."

Rose felt the pain from years ago starting to bubble up again and forced herself to stay put together as she said, "Alright."

"So, we were thinking- we want to start a foundation. Like, for blood equality and all that. In Al's name."

"That's- great, James," Rose said, "but you know you need a lot of money for that."

"We've already got a grant," he said quickly, and coughed as he said, "So er, are you in? You can just be on the board if you like, you don't need to get really involved if you don't want to."

"I'd… love to, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have," Rose said. "My schedule's about to-" Damn. She'd already said too much. James frowned.

"Why?"

Rose looked to Scorpius for help, who was cringing in solidarity but was otherwise rather useless. She looked back at James. "Er… you talked to Lucy, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

At least Lucy didn't tell anyone. Rose sighed. "Er, I'm going to be helping Lucy. With the Modernists."

"Really? On top of your clerk job? That's a lot, Rosie, are you sure…" James trailed off and his eyes widened as he started to slowly smile. "Oh, I see. Going to become a full-time radical, then? Good on you."

"It's not like that!" she protested, but James wasn't finished.

"No, no, I just remember you telling me when I went to the Arrows- what was it exactly?- "The world needs us in government, James!" Glad to see you understand now, Rosie. Brilliant."

"Did I really say that?" she groaned. He nodded, still grinning ear to ear. "I was just annoyed because I didn't know anyone yet and I was going to have to eat alone- oh, shut up!"

"Congratulations, Rose, that sounds great," Alice interjected, with a pointed look at her boyfriend, who was still laughing.

"Thanks," she muttered. Scorpius had started to laugh too.

"What?" he whispered, when she shot him a similar warning look. "At least they don't know about the other thing."

"What other thing?" James asked, perking up yet again. He was relentless. Rose groaned.

"Nothing," she said, hoping her tone would discourage him, but James only leaned in closer, and Alice looked curious too.

"No, seriously, what?"

"Hello, you lot!" Rose's eyes widened as she looked up and saw her father, nursing a large glass of firewhisky and wearing rather odd-looking brown dress robes. "How's everyone handling the night so far?"

"We just got here, Uncle Ron," James said. Despite Rose's indignant gesturing, he added, "Rose was actually just about to tell us something."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked, turning to her with interest. "Hi, sweetheart."

"Hi, Dad," Rose said. Mortified, she realized he was waiting to hear whatever she had been 'about to say'. "Er… I was just saying I'm not sure how long I'm going to stay at my job, that's all."

"I don't blame you," her dad said. "You can only be in this circus so long before it starts to get to you. I'm bloody thrilled your mum's term was up last year."

"Where is Mum, is she here?"

"She's here," Uncle Ron said, and with a rather long sip of firewhisky, added, "She's actually talking to your parents right now, er, Scorpius."

"Oh," he said, clearly a little unnerved. "I wasn't sure they'd be here."

"They're here for the endowment thanks, I expect," he said. "Or the Home. That's not why you're here?"

"No, sir, I'm just Rose's date," Scorpius said. "And with the Aurors, of course."

Her father barely suppressed a disgusted face at the word 'date'. "Right," he said. "Alright, well, we're at the main table if you want us. See you lot around." He wandered away and Rose breathed a sigh of relief.

"What was that?" James asked, even more incredulous than before. "What the hell is it, Rosie?"

She looked at Scorpius, who shrugged. "They're going to find out soon enough anyway," he said, and she took a deep breath and nodded.

"What?" James pressed.

Silently, Rose looked at him, smiled sheepishly, and slowly pulled up the chain round her neck until the ring came into view. James's smile froze, and Alice's excited smile was nothing like the look that ended up on her cousin's face before a loud bell drew the room's attention to the front.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming out tonight!" the new Minister's voice rang out across the ballroom, and Rose managed to tear her gaze away from James's then and turn toward him. She felt Scorpius squeeze her hand but it didn't do much to calm her nerves. She had no idea how James was ultimately going to react, but she was grateful for the distraction for now.

"This has been a great year for Wizarding Britain," Minister Eddwin Powell was saying. "We've had record low crime numbers, thanks to the brilliant work of Harry Potter and the rest of the Auror department." Polite applause echoed out over the room and Rose saw Uncle Harry wave graciously from the table of honor at the front of the room. "Additionally, we successfully began a campaign to bridge the divide between the Wizengamot and Muggle Parliament, and will be appointing an ambassador later this year. We've also managed to create very meaningful change with a number of federal grants to wizarding charity initiatives, like the Malfoy Home for Children in Wiltshire." More applause at this, while Scorpius started to shrink in his seat as the people around them turned to stare. "None of this would have been possible without all of you, so I'd like to thank each and every one of-"

And all the lights went out in the ballroom.

Rose felt her heart start to race, and she made eye contact with James as they both drew their wands. As more and more of the guests began casting Lumos, the room started to illuminate, and she could just make out the Minister again at the podium before a shock of blue spell light blasted him backwards and into the wall.

Screams erupted then, and guests were diving under the tables as Rose saw Aurors racing to protect the cabinet. She looked over at Scorpius as they crouched behind their table and said, "You have to go."

He shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere, I'm staying with you."

"You idiot," she hissed, "I can't be- hurt, you know that, neither of us can." No one but the few who'd been in the room when the Unspeakable had explained their situation knew that, and Rose wasn't quite sure why she'd kept it secret, but it made her feel inexplicably sad when she thought about it, and she didn't like to talk about it. Either way, Scorpius certainly knew, though he seemed not to care at all at the moment.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "I stay with you."

She sighed. "Fine, then we'll both go-" But as they stood up to run, the lights came back on, and just like that, it was over as quickly as it had begun.

"Bloody hell," James exclaimed as they all got up, shaken but otherwise unhurt. "What was that?"

"Hell if I know," Scorpius said. "I'm sure we'll hear about it at the briefing tomorrow-"

"Guys," Rose said, her voice hollow. "Look." She had looked back at the front of the ballroom, where most of the Ministry plum draping had been burned or cut down to the floor. But the largest section had been left up, and burned into it was a huge and angry-looking Dark Mark. And just underneath, also etched in scorch marks right above the podium, a message:

ALBUS POTTER LIVES.