Rose was sitting on the Gryffindor sofa with her head between her knees. She had just been given impossible news and thought she was going to faint. Not only about the fact that one of her best friends and her cousin had been training and feeding a mermaid after hours every single night, but how dangerous it was; also, that Max had stormed through the front door during forbidden hours to bring her the truth; needless to say, he was forgiven.

She listened as Al continued in his extremely long story, with assistance from Scorpius who was helping with the nastier parts that Al was intentionally leaving out. The sneaking from the broom shed, the stealing food, the feeding a mermaid, and the teaching her English. How they hadn't been caught yet was beyond Rose. She had been right in thinking them to be clever boys.

All of Professor Dalbert's warning against conversing with merpeople was swimming through her head. His warnings about their aggressive nature, about their manipulative ways to get what they want, about the chief and his possession of his people, and about their pride causing them to kill humans who have provoked them. The number of times they could have died was phenomenal. She decided to mention this at last.

"Boys," she started, sitting us purposefully and realizing that her throat was horse. "You could have been killed. Several times and nobody would know."

Max was leaning against the crimson tapestry beside the stairwell. He had been staring at his feet through the whole story, listening with his arms crossed. He nodded slightly in agreement after Rose's statement.

"Actually," Scorpius started slowly with a wary look at Al who was shaking his head a fraction in warning. "No more secrets, Al. Olivia knows."

"Olivia Merik!" Rose asked furiously. She liked Olivia well enough but was appalled that they would tell Oliva before they would tell her. "Why would you tell her? If it got to her brothers, they can't keep a secret any more than they can hold water in their hands! It would've traveled through school faster than if Filtch died!"

"We didn't tell her," said Al. "She has your habit of waltzing into boy's dormitories whenever she wants without knocking. She caught us teaching Stella how to say my name correctly."

"And she was okay?"

"Well, it took Scorpius freezing her and two hours of boring conversations and questions to keep her from running out," Al continued. "But she's been a big help! Covered for us when we're late for classes and saved our butts a handful of times."

"Why are you three wet?" Rose asked.

Scorpius and Al glanced at Max for a moment. Max thought before looking up to smile. "She tried to hug me, got me soaked…"

"What's this all for?" Rose asked slowly. "What happens after you teach her English and what not?"

There was another silence that was so long it became awkward. Scorpius bowed his head, and Al took it upon himself to break the silence.

"No more secrets?" said Al.

"Please, Al. It's the only way to fix this," Rose pleaded, leaning forward toward the two Slytherin boys who were sitting on the coffee table with their heads down. Scorpius started popping his knuckles as he always did during tests or when he was uncomfortable.

"We trying something that has never been attempted by a wizard before. And… and we know what James and Tyler are hiding too."

Was this Christmas early? Or was Rose really about to put her conscious to rest after months?

"It's… I'm… We haven't yet- still trying. It's crazy-" Al was stumbling over his words.

Scorpius leaned forward and took one of Max quills from the couch and wrote a single word over one of Rose's voided Charms papers. Without a word, he handed it to Rose and bowed his head again. Rose read the word on the paper.

'Sugamina'

Her brain whirled again as she tried to riddle out the word that had been driving her insane.

"Use a mirror," Scorpius mumbled.

Rose gripped the paper and decided to play their game. She stood to her feet and took two strides before Scorpius caught her arm.

"What you're about to read – you can't stop us," he was more severe than Rose had ever heard him before. "You can't stop us. We don't want you to try, and we don't want you to be another bump in the road. We need you to trust us on this."

Rose stood in silence as Max watched the scene with his head down. She didn't know what to say. What could be on this slip of paper that was so bad? She had already made up her mind about helping them with Stella. If that was what he was talking about her stopping, he had nothing to worry about. But the way he spoke… it wasn't just Stella.

"I trust you," she lied.

Scorpius released her arm, and she continued to the mirrored candle plate atop the mantle. Rose shoved the melted candle stub away and lifted the paper to the plate. The word, the scrambled bit of nonsense, Sugamina, stared back at her in perfect understanding.

Sugamina was reflected backward to spell quite simply, Animagus.

Rose spun around on her toes with the paper in her fist. An Animagus, a nearly impossible bit of magic which allows a witch or wizard to become an animal at will. But Al wouldn't do that! Nor would Scorpius! The goody-two-shoes Slytherin boys who obey the rules and respect their teachers? They wouldn't try such a piece of magic so complex that often leaves the attempter in half animal form... forever! A bit of magic so dangerous that can kill! A bit of magic that takes years to achieve and which is illegal without being registered with a permit and papers! Surely, they wouldn't!

"But-" she croaked. What could she say? "You're becoming animagi? But this illegal! You can be sent to Azkaban!"

"That's not the secret…" Al mumbled.

There can't possibly be something worse, more serious. Please, Merlin let them be playing a cruel joke on me! Rose thought.

"There is a reason it's spelled backward, Rose. It's backward because we're doing a reverse Animagus."

"Reverse?" Rose asked perplexed. "But you're not-" she froze as her hands slowly reached her mouth. "You're not…"

"That's what she wants!" Al tried frantically. "She doesn't like it down there! She's treated wrongly! She wants to be a part of us!"

Rose sat back down, speechless. Max, however, was just getting started. "You're trying to turn her into a human?" he shouted.

Scorpius tried to shush Max in case the sleeping Gryffindors wake up to find two Slytherins in their house.

"Don't you shush me!" Max called. He had peeled himself from the wall and was standing above them. "What happened to not trying to change who she is to fit your standards? This is the one thing you could do that would change her completely!"

"But this is what she wants?" Al fought.

"She's a child! She doesn't know what she wants yet!"

"But," Scorpius interjected. "If she's an Animagus, she can switch back and forth between mermaid and human!"

"What then? What happens if you somehow succeed in this process? She's not a wizard! She can't attend Hogwarts!"

"She'll still live in the lake," said Al. "She'll be a human so that she can further understand our ways. She's fascinated by everything human. She'll be able to speak proper English, she can dance, and sing, and she wants to learn to play wizards chess. She intends to be an Astronomer, she has big dream, and she wants a job, wizard or not."

Max sat on the couch beside Rose. He was at a loss of what to say. His argument seemed so justified that he didn't understand why Scorbus was still fighting for their opinion.

"It's not against the law, Max," Rose spoke at last. This impossible situation was intriguing, to say the least. She was confused about how to feel. She could almost literally hear her mom inside of her fussing about the lunacy of this idea and books and laws and rules were flying by her brain, reminding her how dangerous this was and how much could go wrong, including jail time. Her father inside of her was bouncing with the tease of adventure. If they were to succeed, they would make history though not recorded in books. They would be the first ever to achieve reverse Animagus. Her Gryffindor lion in her soul was roaring. This would take courage; this would take daring, nerve, boldness, and brains. This was an opportunity of a lifetime to understand more about the art of Transfiguration than any school age student would. Minerva McGonagall had never even dared try, maybe because she thought it was too absurd. Absurdity…? Intriguing.

"Rose…? ROSE!"

Rose snapped out of her thought to see Max staring incredulously at her.

"You're smiling… Why are you smiling?"

Sha hadn't noticed the grin now apparent across her face. "I'm smiling because it's impossible," she whispered. "I'm smiling because we're going to achieve the impossible."

Albus and Scorpius grinned broader than ever, knowing their argument to be won. Max was staring dumbstruck at the lot of them, but mostly at Rose.

"You're mad," he whispered. "The lot of you! What happens if this goes wrong? If you doom Stella to a life as a freak half human? What if she loses her ability to breathe under water but is still a mermaid? What if the chief finds out? He'll kill you! He'll report an attack on his Stella and you two, no, we all would go to Azkaban… That's what you guys meant outside the hospital, isn't it?" The boys looked confused for a moment. "The day Rose and I were both hospitalized, I overheard you guys talking about the beast. You said you two would go to Azkaban for kidnap and experimentation. You know the danger, don't even act like you don't!"

"Max," Rose tried, standing to her feet at last. "We would make history! We would take Transfiguration further than it has ever been before!"

Max shook his head slowly. "Why must you three be so selfish? It's all about you, isn't it? Rose wants to make history; Al wants a girlfriend, Scorpius wants to be accepted, don't you? What about Stella? What's best for her?"

"You act as though you know!" Al burst. "You've only just met her! You know nothing about her! She's our friend! We would do anything for her! You don't understand how she feels. She's left out, alone, shunned. She's the least favorite because she's different! She is abused, and she's scared. She feels as though she can only be who she is while with us! You don't understand!"

Max scowled slightly and seemed to be trying to keep his calm. "You think I don't understand abuse?" he muttered.

Al's face turned white suddenly as he realized his mistake.

"I didn't mean that!" he said quickly. "I didn't mean you don't understand!"

"Really? Because you said it twice." He looked at Rose who remained silent. "Why am I suddenly the logical one of the group? Me, the one who has had thirteen detentions. This is Rose's job."

"Are you going to try'n stop us?" Scorpius spoke.

There was a long silence as the three held their breath for their fate.

"No," Max whispered. "I care more about my friends than to do that."

"But you're not going to help us?" Rose asked.

Max stared right into her brown eyes. "I never said that… We're a package deal guys and like it or not if one of us has a quest, then it's all our quest. If one of us has a problem, then it is all our problem. If one of us is ransomed, then we all are ransomed. If one of us dooms himself to death, then the other will jump into death with him…"

Rose's eyes filled with joy in that moment where the long sense broken pact was being mended before her eyes. Albus and Scor stood to their feet at last, and Rose embraced them. She reached out and held Max's sleeve. This was his kind of hugging. The act of embracing as a sign of affection was foreign to him until he came to Hogwarts and met Rose. Rose sighed against Scorpius' robe. She had missed them so much. She had missed her cousins' embrace; she had missed his messy hair. She had missed Scorpius' sometimes overpowering and far to grown up cologne.

The pact broke, and Rose tried to conceal a tear of joy. Al and Scorpius looked around the room now.

"It's just as dad described," said Al. He threw himself into one of the cushy armchairs by the fire. "It's like I'm in a dream."

"It kind of hurts my eyes," said Scorpius, who was backing away from the realistic lion pacing back and forth in its canvas, staring at him with hungry eyes. "Everything's so red."

"Do you want a tour?" asked Rose, becoming excited.

"It's just one room," said Al, not think there to be much to show.

"Come on!" Rose exclaimed. "This is the sofa where Max usually sleeps and where I do my homework." She walked to the window. "This is where we sneak out to do Astronomy. This is the table where I always lose at chess. So how far have you guys gotten in the process of Sugamina?" she asked, still looking around to find things to show.

"We're doing okay," said Al. "I've been researching in Transfiguration books and Scorpius has been doing the breaking down and deciphering."

"That's the bathroom," said Rose, pointing. "What have you learned?"

"It's not impossible," said Scorpius, becoming distracted with the items on Hugo's muggle table. "We read about a wizard called Gramond the Geezer who accidentally turned his rabbit's ear into a human hand. So, you can turn animal parts into human parts; we're just trying a step further. Everything has to be done backward. Like holding a mandrake leave under your tongue for a month, it has to be held at the top of your tongue at a full moon from the end of a month to the beginning of the next."

"But isn't that the same as holding the leave from the beginning of a month to the need of the next?" Max asked.

"I know," said Scor. "The process is extensive, unforgiving, and ridiculous at times."

"That's kind of gross," said Rose, thinking about the mandrake leave. "They smell awful as it is, and how are you supposed to talk when you have-" Rose froze, finally realizing the answer to the recent questions. "Guys!" she exclaimed. "You said you knew James and Tyler's secret! I know!"

"They're trying to become Animagi," said Al obviously.

Rose frowned. "I wanted to say it… That's funny," she thought. "I'm not all that surprised."

"Why?" asked Al. "Because you'd expect something like this from James?"

"No, I think it's because it's an insignificant feat compared to his little brother trying to reverse a mermaid from a creature to a human."

"James can't find out," Al smiled. "If he finds that I beat him in wit, he'll be furious. He always feels as though he has to one-up me all the time."

"Max?" They heard a boy's voice say from the staircase. They turned quickly to find Hugo walking forward in his Star Wars pajamas, tasseled red curls, and rubbing his eye annoyedly. "Will you please keep it down? You know I'm a light sleeper, and all I can hear is-" he stopped when opening his eyes completely and seeing Albus and Scor staring guiltily at him after having just been caught. It took a moment before Hugo groaned. "Ugh, never mind." And he retreated up the staircase.

"Anyway," Rose started. "What's the first step?"

"Well," Albus replied. "The first step of reverse would be the last step of original, but we haven't gotten far enough to know what the final step in becoming an Animagus is."

"What if she becomes an animal of some sort?" asked Max. "Who says she'd become a human?"

"The magic of the Animagi process clings onto the closest species to you besides what you currently are," Scorpius started, looking excited. "Because humans are 100% human, Animagus magic attaches to your spirit animal. That's why your potronus usually ends up being your Animagus form. But Stella, she's part human; it's in her DNA. See, merpeople are curious creatures. Every couple hundred years, a merperson must mate with a human, wizard or not. They will have part human part merperson babies, and so begins the next generation. That's why merpeople look half human half fish. If merpeople never mated with humans, they would end up continuing to devolve into fish, into beasts who don't have a developed brain. Stella has human DNA, therefore, Animagus magic – animagic – will attach to that bit and she will become human."

"You guys really looked into it," said Rose, impressed with how quickly he was able to spit out an answer.

"We want to get this right," said Scor. "We don't want to hurt her."

Rose thought for a moment. "So, that's you and Scor, me and Max, and Olivia. That's all right? Nobody else knows?"

Al looked guilty for a moment. "Watson may have an idea," he said. "I let something slip during practice. I had forgotten that he was sitting behind us with a broken rib and not in the air. But he had stayed quiet do far."

"We don't have to worry about Watson," said Max. "He's a good guy, and I don't think he'll rat you guys out. But, I believe that it would be a smart idea for you two to head back to your common room now before you're caught here or missed there."

"How are we supposed to get back to our common room from up here without getting caught?" Al asked.

Rose was disappointed that their tour was cut short but was forced to think of a way that the boys wouldn't get into trouble. She suddenly remembered a solution that would also be a perfect tour end.

"They can use the secret passageway!" she blurted out excitedly.

"I hope you're talking about some means of transportation from the girl's dorms or another passage I don't know about," said Max. "Because they're not taking-"

"The mantel tunnel!" she grinned.

"Rosie, you know we can't get in. We're not having another Moonacher incident with Scorbus," Max rolled his eyes.

"What did you just call us?" Al laughed.

"Yeah Rosebud," said Scorpius who hadn't noticed his name mash. "It's dangerous."

"And they can't navigate the tunnels," said Max.

"Actually, we can," said Scor. "Al and I have explored those tunnels weeks ago…"

Rose felt a tiny spark of hurt again that she had missed such an event because of the stupid rift. She shook her shoulders to extinguish the spark; not again. She was not starting anything again; the embers were dying, and she loved it.

"Well," she thought. "I don't see another way." She didn't try hard to find another either. "Can't I at least show you guys how it works? If we just stay away from the booby trap."

Max looked very hesitant. Last year, he had been shot in the face with a potion called Moonacher which was put as a boobytrap over the secret entrance in the stone behind the tapestry of a roaring lion above the mantelpiece to keep students out. Max had turned blue and would have very well either fallen into an enchanted sleep or died if it weren't for his extraordinary healing powers. The memory of the fear and sickness was obviously still substantial in his memory made apparent by the face he was giving Rose, a face of caution.

"It's alright," said Al coolly. "We know the answer to the riddle. You told us the question last year, remember? Eldric Kemps's middle name is Goofbi. Go on and open it!" Al rubbed his hands together as his mother's side showed rather heavily tonight it seemed. Rose loved when his mom came out to play.

Max frowned, but reluctantly slid a redwood cushioned chair before the mantel. He stood and pulled away the tapestry to reveal nothing but a mundane stone wall.

"You do realize that the question could have been changed?" Max warned.

"Oh, come on," Al grinned. "Aren't you a Gryffindor?"

"I'm not worried about myself right now," Max scowled. He grimaced before punching a small stone on the bottom right-hand corner causing a nail to clink forth from nowhere. He took hold of the pin but stopped. "And you're sure his middle name is Goofbi?"

"We've looked it up, come on!" Al cried. Scorpius stood aside worriedly.

"Al," Scorpius said cautiously. "I don't think-"

"Open it already!" Al barked.

Max quickly pushed the nail back into the stone and waited. Like nails on a chalkboard, words were being carved into the rock.

'What is Eldric Kemp's middle name?' they read.

"I knew it!" Al said triumphantly. This was a mistake. The words he uttered wasn't the answer.

A foul smelling blue liquid shot forth from the stone wall blasting Al in the face.

Rose's cousin fell backward onto the shag rug and tried desperately to wipe the poison from his eyes. Rose's throat swelled. Was this her fault? She rushed to his side immediately, but Max was already helping him to his feet.

Al spit directly onto the floor.

"Goofbi! Goofbi, Goofbi, Goofbi!" Rose turned to see Scorpius repeating the correct answer to their question. The stone slid aside, and Scorpius practically dove into the tunnel.

"Where are you going?" Rose barked. He wasn't going to bed now, surely.

"Al has the antidote!" he called back in a worried tone that echoed thickly through the passage.

"Oh Al, I'm so sorry!" she cried over her cousin again.

"We're cool," he said weakly. "We're good. I have the antidote." He tried to sit up straight but toppled back over where Max had to catch him. Al looked confusedly at Max. "Did you feel this way last year?" he asked. "You weren't this weak, you couldn't have been."

"Healing powers, remember? My body was fighting it," Maddox replied, trying to set Al on the sofa but Albus was fighting to stand up.

"I have to get to the hospital wing," he mumbled. "That's where Scorpius will meet me."

"Okay," said Rose with a worried look at Max. "Come on." She took him under the arms and began toward the door.

"No, no, no," Al shoved her off. "You can't come."

"We can't let you go alone!" said Rose.

"If we're caught, all three of us will get in trouble."

"Not if we're helping you to the hospital wing," Rose argued.

"No, Rosie, what he's saying is that it would look suspicious if we're with him because that would mean that he wandered from his dormitory to come all the way to break into the Gryffindor common room to get us. Or what they'll likely think is that we were already wandering the castle together. But if Al goes by himself, it wouldn't look suspicious because teachers would assume that he came straight from Slytherin to the hospital wing," Max finished quickly.

"Actually, I just figured that you'd get in trouble also for being out of bed, but that was an excellent point, Max, we're going with that. Excuse me." Al was lead to the portrait hole and struggled to climb through, exhausted and weak.

Max and Rose watched him until he was out of sight to be sure that he didn't collapse on the way.

"Was that a Slytherin boy?" asked the fat lady who they had forgotten was watching too. Max absentmindedly covered the painting's mouth. The fat lady looked around his hand. "You do realize that doesn't affect me at all?"

The two pulled away from the portrait hole and shut the door. Rose sat cross-legged on the shag carpet with her red-haired head in her hands. "You can go ahead, I can take it," she mumbled.

Max sat quietly on the floor across from her. "Say what?"

"That you were right and I was wrong," she hurried. "That I should have listened. That you told me so."

"When have I ever shoved something; you have done back in your face? Why do you think I would be the kind of person to do that?" he asked quietly.

He was right of course, which only made her feel worse.

"But I don't understand," she blurted frantically. "You were fine! You were blasted last year and was still completely healthy! You slept through the night, and we had double potions and everything! You weren't sick until right before the Moonacher's enchanted sleep overtook you! Why is Al so weak right away?"

"Because he's more mortal than I am," Max replied. "This stupid stolen potion in my blood and bones is only growing stronger. I don't feel pain two minutes after I'm inflicted."

"This is my fault, isn't it?" she asked quietly.

"You want reassurance that it isn't," said Max, knowing her too well already. "It's nobody's fault really. You insisted, Al was eager, I opened the tunnel, Al muttered the wrong answer, and Scorpius…" he stopped to think of a way Scorpius could take any responsibility. "He didn't stop us. So really, if it's somewhat everybody's fault, then it really isn't anybody's fault. I'm sure you'll find a way to pin this on yourself, though, people normally do."

"He'll be fine…" Rose thought allowed.

"Of course, he will," said Max obviously. "This is Al we're talking about. He's put himself in death's way every night and morning to tame a mermaid, come on. He won't be brought down my Moonacher." There was a small silence as Rose felt truly terrible and more than half considered bursting from the portrait hole after her cousin.

The truth was, Al had been her best friend since birth. She was only a few months older than he was and they experienced their first everything together. From infancy, they had competed against each other at everything. So, when Rose first stood, Al, did too. When Al first spoke, Rose, did too. When Rose first learned to whistle… Al actually couldn't whistle which was something Rose teased him about. But somehow, despite being best friends since birth, they had replaced each other in only a year and a half. Max was Rose's best friend, Scorpius was Al's. And it was okay.

Rose suspected that if they had both been placed in Gryffindor, they would still be best friends. She probably never would have gotten to know Max, and Max would have died the previous year if it weren't for their pact.

Rose glanced around at the portrait hole. "Scor still has the mirror," said Max. "We can call him."

Rose had forgotten about the enchanted two-way hand mirrors that both she and Al owned. She hadn't used it to talk to the Slytherin boys all year. She had also forgotten that it was Scorpius who carried the second mirror around though it belonged to Al. Albus had a bad habit of breaking delicate items or losing them. Rose highly doubted that Scorpius still had it on his person. He wouldn't have carried such a heavy item around during their beef, but she didn't find why not to try.

In less than two minutes, Rose had snatched the hand mirror from her dorm and now sat back on the floor, though the sofas and chairs were unoccupied, and waited with the buzzing metal in her hand as the call was sent to Scorpius to answer.

The mirror continued to buzz for three minutes longer. Rose looked at Max disappointedly. Scorpius didn't have it. She was just getting ready to suggest bed when the item stopped vibrating which only meant that it had been answered. Rose jumped in excitement and peered into the now nonreflecting face. Only black stretched across the face. She thought at first that the enchanted mirror had broken until Max silenced her almost spoken conclusions. She listened. A faint sound of heavy breathing was audible including the sound of scuffling.

"He must have accidentally swiped the screen," Max mouthed.

"Ow!" they heard a voice echoed. "Bloody house elves." It was Scorpius.

They listened from the inside of his pocket as Scorpius traveled the tunnels. "Where's my wand?" they heard him mutter as he stopped to lumos a light from his wand tip and continued. They could now see a faint blue light through the thin pocket and had a beautiful view of Scorpius' knee and hand swinging in a and out of frame as he crawled. "I think it's this way," he muttered to himself. Rose watched as her friend traveled and she wondered whether this was at all creepy of them to be watching unsuspectedly. They heard Scorpius curse quietly as something slammed loudly against the stone of the tunnel wall. "I always forget about the stupid slide." The picture shifted as they were now staring straight forward from Scor's pocket. He was on the first floor. Scorpius was breathing heavier as he stared around.

A loud hiss was heard from Scor's feet, and he glanced downward to discover Neil, another of Filtch's grandcats. The think curved its back and hissed again.

"Petrificus totalus!" Scorpius whispered, aiming his wand at the nuisance. Neil immediately became stiff and motionless, allowing Scor to grab it by its tail and toss it into the tunnel he had just emerged from. "Three down, six to go," Scor said in a pleased tone.

He bent low to the floor and slapped the stone twice. The echo carried through the first floor. Rose and Max stared at each other perplexedly as they waited also. Scorpius didn't move until two more loud echoing slaps reached his ears from a distant part of the castle.

"Gotcha," Scor whispered triumphantly before dashing toward the second sound.

Their picture swayed as Scor ran to find his friend on all fours just before the grand staircase.

"And you thought having codes wouldn't help," Scor said, lifting Al.

"How did Max do this, seriously!" Al breathed as he struggled to stand.

Max grinned for a moment. "You have super powers, remember? Don't go getting cocky," Rose whispered.

"Did you hear something?" Al asked suddenly.

Rose covered her mouth. "We'd better hurry; I think I heard voices."

They watched as Scorpius practically carried Al across the whole of the first floor until he could lay his friend on a white linen cot in the hospital wing. Scorpius slapped a bell beside Madam Pomfrey's office door. The bell swung back and forth, but no noise issued from the thing.

"You better take this fast," said Scorpius, handing Al something that Rose and Max could not see but would only assume was the antidote.

"Thanks," Al muttered before gagging loudly. "This stuff is revolting! Tastes like dead fish!"

"You've had a lot of experience with eating dead fish, have you?" Scorpius smirked.

Rose suddenly remembered something crucial and decided to make herself known. "Albus!" she called.

"Holy mother of Merlin!" they heard Scorpius shout in fear as he fell to the ground.

"In your pocket," she called.

Like slipping glasses over your nose, the world became clear as the mirror was lifted from Scor's pocket.

"Hey!" Scorpius called delightedly.

Rose was not delighted. "Al! Is that the same antidote we gave to Max? It's poison! You forgot to add the Rockshood, remember?"

"Calm down," Al assured her. "I went back and made a new batch."

"Why would you need to make a new batch?" Rose asked perplexed.

"I'm a potioneer," he rolled his eyes which had turned the bright blue of the Moonacher. "I have most of the essential antidotes in my dorm."

"Madam Pomfrey is coming," Scor hurried. "We have to go."

"I'm sorry Al!" Rose called quickly before Scor hung up.

"Hakuna Matata," Al smiled back.

"A Kuna- what?" Rose blinked.

"It's a motto," said Max. "See? Al will be all right."

"We're still sneaking out in the early hours of the morning to check on him," said Rose matter-a-factly.

"I figured we would," Max groaned, standing to his feet. He held out his hands to help her up. "This has been an interesting night."

Rose grinned from ear to ear remembering everything that they had learned, discovered, and broken in the short hour Slytherin visit. "It's done Max!" she grinned. "No more secrets!"

She hugged him around the middle which always took him by surprise though she did this often. His hugs were always awkward, unnatural.

"Thank you," she muttered into his shirt.

He roped his arms around her also. "Anytime," he smiled.