A week into seventh year and already Rose was panicking. There was just so much to do. First, she had to organize the prefect's schedules, then figure out when Hogsmeade weekends should be, and keep up on her own work. Scorpius was trying to organize Quidditch practices and help her plan the patrol schedule around Quidditch.

"Quidditch should be planned around patrols." Rose muttered. Scorpius just rolled his eyes at her like he had been doing for the last half hour.

"Alright let's work this Hogsmeade situation out. The second weekend in October is a good time to have it - not to early, but not too late. Then let's have one the third weekend in November and the last weekend before Christmas." Scorpius scribbled things down on a parchment.

Rose made a face. "Well, since you've got that all figured out…"

He ignored her. "But what I can't figure out is how we're going to do Valentine's Day. It's not on the weekend this year, it's on a Monday." Scorpius bit his lip. Rose blinked a few times. Scorpius had very nice lips.

"Just do it the weekend before." Rose shrugged. Now Scorpius made a face.

"That's not how it's supposed to be."

Rose laughed. "Who cares?"

"How about this? Instead of going into Hogsmeade Saturday and Sunday, we do Sunday and Monday, after classes?" He suggested and Rose leaned her cheek on her palm.

"I suppose that works."

Scorpius began writing and Rose sighed. It was so nice to have a private common room. It wasn't that she didn't miss all her friends, but sometimes it was nice to be able to sit in front of the fire without having to worry who was going to cause a loud commotion.

And she secretly prefered the silver and gold to the red and gold. I'm a horrible Gryffindor. Rose decided.

"And let's do one at the end of March and middle of April."

"Okay, but what about exams?" Rose asked.

Scorpius bit his lip. Rose really wished he would stop doing that. "I say we do one at the end of April and beginning of May. That way people can stay focused on the weeks before exams and get all of the excitement out." Scorpius nodded to himself and then looked to Rose for confirmation.

"That sounds good. But two in April, is that a bit much?"

"How about the middle of March, beginning and end of April? That spreads it out a bit more."

Rose nodded in agreement.

"Now about prefect duties…"

Rose took a deep breath and steeled herself for a boring next few hours.

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"Well, this is fun." Albus said sarcastically and quickly received a glare from the librarian.

Atria and Amanda glared at him.

"It's homework, it's not meant to be fun." Amanda whispered and went back writing her Ancient Runes essay. Atria glanced at Al quickly and then followed Amanda's example.

"Well, it's hard with Rosie not here to help." Albus said a minute later.

Is he incapable of being quiet? Atria wondered and smiled a bit.

"She had Head Duties." Amanda hissed impatiently, despite herself.

"I know." Al muttered miserably and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head. Atria caught a glimpse of his stomach when he did that. She took a deep breath and then really tried to focus on her essay.

The teachers are trying to drive us mad. Merlin, it's only the first week of school and…

Her thought process pretty much stopped when she felt a foot slide up and down her calf. She glanced at Al, but he was innocently looking at a DADA textbook. Maybe it was a mistake or her imagination?

She felt his foot nudged her's and this time when she looked he was trying to conceal a grin. She kicked his foot and gave him a cold look. He simply smiled at her. And the pattern continued for another few minutes until Amanda stood up.

"I'm going back to the dorm. I'll see you later." She said in an unusual lackluster tone. Atria frowned at her retreating figure and wondered why Amanda had been to blue recently.

But she quickly forgot about Amanda when she turned threateningly to Albus.

"What the bloody hell was that?" She whispered furiously.

He blinked innocently. "What?"

"You know what!" Atria hissed quietly.

Albus leaned over the table and Atria pulled back a bit. "I was proving a point."

Atria scoffed. "What point?"

"That you want me."

Atria barked out a laugh and then quieted down. "By annoying me?"

"You're not annoyed." He said casually and then pinned her with a disarming stare. "Your cheeks are very red." He pointed out.

"That happens when I'm angry." She snapped.

"It happens when you're passionate." He contradicted her. Atria opened her mouth but Al kept talking, "And passion isn't just hate it's also-"

"I get it." She growled and got a look from Madam Fussypants. She lowered her voice. "Why do you feel the need to prove that I'm passionate?"

"I feel the need to prove that you like me because you've been avoiding me all week." He corrected.

Atria huffed. "And you had to do it in the library while Amanda was right there? I mean, what if she had seen you?"

Albus opened his mouth, no doubt to argue but then hesitated. "Is that it? You're ashamed of me?"

Atria's eyes widened and her eye's softened. Damnit, here he was making it hard for her to hate him. It was easy when he was being a prat and doing stupid things like playing footsie, but now?

"Of course not." She exclaimed.

"THAT'S IT!" Madam Fussypants screeched. "Out! The both of you!" She ran Al and Atria right out of library. "You're banned for a week!" Atria heard her shout as they were scrambling out of the library.

Once they had made it safely to a completely different corridor, Albus stopped and took a few deep breaths. They both looked at each other and managed to keep a straight face for about a second. Then they burst out laughing.

Are you ashamed of me? Atria sobered when she recalled his question. They were leaning side by side against the stone wall of the corridor, only a foot between them.

"I'm not ashamed of you." She repeated and then added, "Don't be stupid."

He looked sideways at her. "Then what is it? We kissed and we flirted and in Romania-"

"I on was a pain killing potion." She said automatically.

He brushed that off, "We still kissed. And you liked it."

"We live together. At home." She argued.

"But we won't next year. We will have never been together while living together." He argued. That made Atria pause. That's true. And it also made her incredibly sad.

"This our last year together. After this we might never see each other again." She whispered. "Rose and Scor will be off at the Ministry doing important things and you'll be designing famous buildings, Amanda will be a Quidditch manager or something" He looked surprised that she remembered that, "and I'll be… somewhere else." She finished. Azkaban? Witch Heaven? There was this feeling in her stomach that that was where everything was headed. That after this year, everything would be out and she would be arrested or dead.

"We'll still see each other." He leaned closer to her. Al slowly laced their hands together. "I want to see you."

"Me too." Atria admitted and then shook her head. "But imagine how weird it would be for our friends. We would be the odd couple making them feel awkward."

"Who cares? If we're happy they'll be happy. My parents love you…"

"That's another thing. What if we broke up? There are so many reasons-"

"You've me two reasons and one of them was stupid."

She closed her eyes. "It's not just that. There are things that you don't know, and I can't tell you." She felt his nose press to her cheek and it calmed her.

"I don't need to know everything about you." He whispered and his nose nuzzled her face. His hand came up to cradle her face."Maybe someday you'll be able to tell me. Let's not worry about that." He leaned over and kissed her.

Her mouth parted slightly and she kissed him back. He moved to that he was leaning into her, pressing her against the wall.

Al's other hand came up to tangle in her hair, while tipping her face back further. He deepened the kiss and swept his tongue over Atria's bottom lip. She groaned into his mouth and pushed against him, trying to get closer, her arms coming around his neck.

Atria absolutely loved his hair. It was so soft and sure, most of the time it was a mess, but it was artfully disastrous. She pulled on the shaggy strands and the hand that cupped her cheek moved down to her waist, dragging her closer.

After a few moments he pulled away and blinked hazily a few times. He leaned his forehead against hers, turning and kissing her cheek, then nuzzling her neck.

"Is that a yes?" He breathed heavily.

Atria swallowed and pulled back so she could look him in the eyes. "Alright."

He pulled back in surprise. "Really?"

She laughed at his tone. "Yes, of course."

He dropped another kiss to her lips. "Should we wait to tell everyone?"

Atria bit her lip. She wanted to scream hell yes! She was not looking forward to admitting after all these years that Albus wasn't as horrible as she previously imagined. "I think we can wait a little while. Not forever, but just until things settle down."

Albus nodded thoughtfully. He didn't look particularly upset.

"Can I ask you something?" Atria whispered. Albus pulled away and put some distance between them, in case someone decided to walk down this barren corridor at eight o'clock at night.

"Sure."

"Why were you so mean to me that first day? The first time we met you looked disgusted with me and I could never figure out why. I always assumed it was because you were a jerk, but there must have been some reason."

"Do you remember a few years back you yelled at me because you said that I was just jealous because you were so much better than me? And that my own family liked you more than me?" He didn't say it spitefully, but Atria still cringed.

"Yes, I'm really sorry about that. I was just lashing out."

Albus shrugged. "You were right. I was jealous of you. I was already the middle child, doomed to be left behind and then suddenly I wasn't the only middle child. You were a metamorphmagus and I just assumed that you would take my spot in the family."

Atria's heart broke a little. "I'm so sorry. I never meant for you to feel that way."

"Yea, and then you were the best at everything and it all snowballed. I picked apart everything you did and found something wrong with it." He admitted.

"I did the same. I can't even remember why I didn't like you, I just convinced myself that I had to hate you."

"I know. That's why you want to keep us a secret, and why you fought it for so long." He smirked down at her. "You're so proud."

"I'm working on it." She whispered as he leaned in.

"I know." He muttered against her lips.

Hours later Atria would look back and realize how stupid it was that they were snogging in the middle of a corridor where anyone could have walked by. But as she went to bed, she didn't really care if anyone found out. In that moment she had been perfectly happy.

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Atria was waiting on the bridge for Albus. For their third date, Albus decided that he wanted to go to the bridge. Attie wasn't sure what he was planning with this but she trusted him. Sort of. She was actually very nervous because the other two dates they had planned together, but Al said that he wasn't a very good boyfriend if he didn't plan at least one.

And now he was late.

A few minutes later he came running from the castle and met her on the bridge. She wasn't sure if he should be running on this creaky old thing.

"Sorry, the house elves plied me with food. I couldn't escape." He set down the picnic basket he had been holding and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. Atria smiled up at him.

"No problem. I've only been waiting for a few minutes."

"Good."

She waited for him to tell her where they were going. Instead he sat down right there, and proceeded to take food out of the basket, along with… rocks?

"Rocks?" Atria gave him a questioning look.

"Haven't you ever wondered how far it is to the bottom of this canyon?" Albus asked excitedly as he handed her a rock.

Atria stared at him. "I'm never letting you plan a date again."

He looked at her in shock and she burst out laughing. "Why?"

She snorted, and not a disbelieving snort, more like I'm laughing so hard and I just snorted unattractively. "We're going to throw rocks to the bottom of this canyon just to see how long it takes for them to reach the bottom?" She breathed heavily trying to get her laughter under control.

"While eating strawberries!" Albus argued indignantly, like this was the most romantic thing ever.

Now, Atria simply started crying she was laughing so hard.

"You're being very mean." Albus said dryly. She took some deep breathes.

"I'm sorry, it's just really funny."

Albus leaned back on his hands and shook his head.

"Did you mention strawberries?" Atria smiled coyly at him and knelt down, leaning back on her leg and began to dig through the basket.

"Yes, I know bananas are your favorite fruit but there's only so much I can handle." He said sarcastically and Attie shot him a dirty look.

They stayed like that for hours. Eating and talking and just living. At one point, Atria found herself leaning against Albus, carving their initials into one of the rocks with the knife he had brought for the apples.

Atria rolled her eyes when he suggested that she let him do that.

"I'm fine. I happen to be very good with knives." She told him, but he still leaned away from her when she began etching again. He leaned back on his hands, with his legs outstretched in front of the two of them.

She was tucked into his side with her legs pulled under her.

"So are you going to keep this rock?"

"No, I'm going to throw it into the giant hole in the ground." She said. He looked sideways at her, as if to judge if she was serious. Which she totally was.

"You're so weird."

"And yet you like me. I think that says more about you than it does me." She told him without looking up from her task.

Albus laughed and she felt his body shake. "True enough. So there's a Hogsmeade weekend in a few weeks…"

Atria looked up at him. "Do you think it's a good idea to go together?"

"I think we were friends before we started dating. It's not like people aren't used to seeing us together."

"But we were always with our friends. It's never just been the two of us." Atria pointed out.

"Who cares? We can pretend to go as friends. No one will know."

How could she say no to that face? His eyes pleaded with her and she had to admit that she wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him. It would have been nice to go out on a normal date with him, without having to hide from their friends.

Atria knew that made her a hypocrite because she was the one who wanted to keep their relationship a secret.

She looked down at the stone and then smiled at Albus. "Finished."

"Throw it into the abyss."

Atria laughed. "You make it sound so dramatic."

But she listened anyways and tossed it over the bridge. She didn't hear any echo.

"We should go before someone starts missing us." Albus stood up and picked up the picnic basket. "I'm supposed to meet Scor tonight so he can review my potions essay."

"I'm going down to visit with Hagrid."

Al pressed a kiss to her lips, then pulled back and walked away slowly.

I feel like I'm at the beginning of the end which makes me really sad! Please review and let me know what you think! - Alex