A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and review the last chapter! I was really proud of it. The title is an allusion to the David Bowie song "Rocket Man." It's a great song, look it up it actually has something to do with the chapter below. Albus and Hugo certainly aren't the men they think they are at home! They're Rocket Men! Hope you guys like this one!

Chapter Twenty Three

Rocket Man

Persephone Lovelace bit her lip and smiled coyly at Albus from across the library. Two weeks ago the vain, shallow sixth year Gryffindor had approached him in the hallway during his Prefect rounds. She wasn't a Prefect and she certainly should have been in Gryffindor Tower, but after few minutes (of heated snogging) she managed to convince him to let her go without a detention.

Albus fully expected their interaction to end there.

They ran in totally different circles. He was barely considered cool and that was only because of his brother. But Persephone was cool in some indiscernible way. She did her homework, but never studied the way Albus did. She spent her free time talking with her friends, reading Witch Weekly and going to Quidditch games. None of it made her unique, none of it was particularly cool on its own and Albus was sure that if anyone else was doing it, it wouldn't be as cool.

But Persephone Lovelace had that air about her. That cool confidence that just had people flocking to her. All she had to do was flip her white blond hair over her shoulder, smile revealing her straight porcelain teeth and wink one of her hazel eyes and any bloke she wanted was at her beck and call. Albus knew because two weeks ago she'd done the same thing to him.

The next day as Albus walked down the hall for lunch, feeling slightly guilty that he'd let a girl out of a detention just because she snogged him, Persephone pulled him into a broom closet and let him know that she couldn't careless that she'd had to use her considerable snogging skills to get out of writing lines. Oh no Persephone wasn't upset at all. She'd kissed the breath out of him, pulled his robes off, hiked her leg over his hip and tangled her fingers in his hair. She pressed her slender body so close to Albus he'd had no choice but hold on for dear life and wonder when the ability to think coherently would return.

(Not until lunch was over and Persephone finally flounced out of the broom closet leaving Albus to put his robes back on and try to gain control over the desire running rampant through his system, apparently.)

Persephone wasn't a modest girl. She wasn't shy or reserved. She wasn't anything like Daisy. And as much as Albus thought he liked Daisy he knew he liked that Persephone was nothing like Daisy. But he honestly couldn't say that he liked Persephone. Sure she was nice enough that people didn't hate her, but over the last two weeks the only time they'd spoken all she wanted to do was gossip.

So when she winked at him from across the library and did that sexy as shit crook of her finger telling him 'get his cute ass over here' Albus knew she didn't want to talk to him. Which was good because he didn't want to talk to her either. What wasn't good, though was the knowing look on his brother's face. Like most Gryffindor girls at one time Persephone had "dated" James. (Kira was the only girl to ever realistically date James Sirius Potter. Most girls got asked out, snogged in some deplorably public place and then unceremoniously dropped as soon as the rumor she was pregnant with/married to/soul mate of James Sirius Potter faded.)

Albus refused to be ashamed of his… interaction with Persephone. All he wanted was a girl to snog in between studying and fortunately all Persephone wanted was a bloke to snog in between articles on how to charm her hair into new styles. It was the perfect arrangement for both of them because it meant that at most all they had to say to each other was "Hi" (which suited Albus because that was about all they had in common).

"Don't you dare judge me, James," Albus snapped, closing his books.

"I'm not judging you!" James said holding his hands up in mock innocence. "Who's judging you? Scorpius? Are you judging him?"

"Not verbally," Scorpius muttered. "Some of us have class."

"Class ended hours ago, Scorpius," James said.

"I wasn't talking about that kind of class."

"Then what- Bloody hell, Scorpius! We were talking about Albus and the girl eye shagging him from across the library. Persephone Lovelace, Albus? Really?"

"Like you have any right to talk," Albus growled. "You dated her-" James opened his mouth to respond "-and all of her friend."

"Bah!"

"I think the point James is trying to make is that you usually don't go for the kind of girl that Persephone is," Scorpius said.

"And what kind of girl is that?"

"The kind of girl that laughs when I start a rumor that I knocked her up," James said.

"So she has a sense of humor?" Albus gave a humorless laugh. "That makes her all kinds of wrong for me."

"She's just nothing like…" James began, but didn't finish.

"Nothing like… Daisy? Did you ever think that that might be why I like her so much?"

"You don't like her," James said.

"How do you know that?"

"Because no one likes Persephone Lovelace expect for people who are exactly like Persephone Lovelace, i.e. all of her vapid friends."

"Oh whatever." Albus dumped his supplies into his bag and pulled the strap over his shoulder.

"You'll regret this, Al," James said.

Albus leaned down on the table. "I dated the girl that I supposedly had a lot in common with and look where that got me. All Persephone wants is for me to snog her and grab her bum, both of which I can do."

"Look, Al."

"Why should I listen to you?" Albus asked. "Last I checked Kira wasn't speaking to you." James clenched his jaw.

"Fine," he snapped. "Don't listen to me. Listen to Scorpius, though. Lily couldn't be happier he's bound to be doing something right."

"All right, Scorpius. What exactly are you doing to my sister that's got her so happy?"

Scorpius' eyes bulged and he slowly began turning slightly purple.

"Okay," James said, slowly. "Never mind that."

"If you two are done judging me…" Albus walked towards Persephone whose sly grin got bigger with every step he took towards her.

"But we're not done!" James yelled at his brother's retreating back.

Albus ignored him and stopped next to Persephone's table. Her friends were all giggling, while she smiled up at him. "Hi," he said, holding his hand out.

"Hi," she said. She took his hand, slung her bag over her shoulder and followed him out of the library. They barely made it to the broom closet before she attacked him. With kisses. Persephone's too much of a loud mouth to have any secret plans (or secrets period) of hurting the bloke she's snogging.

Albus returned her kisses with enthusiasm, glad to have something else to do besides look at his forlorn brother and his sister slap happy boyfriend while they judged him for just having a good time.

It was the middle of the afternoon and Hugo Weasley was supposed to be in Charms. He wasn't in Charms. He was in his dorm, sitting on his bed with the curtains closed. His wand was clenched tightly in one hand while the other sifted through the loads of Muggle photographs he had of Ruby. Moving photos freaked her out, so for one of their anniversaries she'd gotten him a Muggle camera. It was a pretty fancy contraption, but he didn't really know how to do anything but take pictures with it. Ruby would do whatever was necessary to get the pictures off the camera and onto paper.

He brought his wand closer to eerily still picture, taking in Ruby's flowing blonde locks and cheeky smile. He remembered when this photograph had been taken. It was the day that his mother had found his cellular phone. They had been holed up in her room, snogging and taking pictures of each other. He was usually so anal about his cellular telephone that it never occurred to him that he might have left the impossibly small piece of plastic in his room.

He'd returned home that night to his Mum crying, his father turning a lovely shade of purple and his sister looking slightly panicked. His parents had ranted and raged and demanded to know exactly what he'd told Ruby about his parentage. In the end, after much discussion with Uncle Harry, but mostly because of Albus, Hugo was permitted to stay with Ruby. His parents even let him keep his cellular telephone, saying it would look too odd to the Muggles if he wasn't allowed that bit of technology while away at "some little known boarding school in Scotland" (which is what he told his parents he told Ruby).

It was bad enough that he'd spent that last few years lying through his teeth to his parents about his relationship with Ruby, now he was lying about what he'd told Ruby. Ever since that terrible day their relationship was under near constant supervision. It had gotten to the point where he'd hidden messages in his letters. They seemed innocent enough to the outside observer or his mother who was no doubt reading his letters. Nowadays he had to owl all his letters home (for inspection, not that his parents would ever admit they were reading his mail) and then his mother or father would slip the letters into Ruby's mailbox. Ruby would respond by mailing letters to his house and (after inspection) his mother or father would owl them to him.

He'd told his parents that in the past he'd had his owl drop his letters to Ruby in a Muggle postbox and pick up her response from the postbox near her house. It'd seemed plausible enough and they had bought it.

What really sucked about this situation was that Hugo had just figured out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He wanted to be an Auror just like his father. He felt guilty because he knew he'd get into the class and he knew that his father would help him get through it and he knew he'd be doing all of this while breaking the law. A law he was going to be learning to help uphold. It also sucked that now he'd have to fake telling Ruby the truth after he graduated. If they didn't time it just right and act it out convincingly they were screwed.

He doubted that his parents would drag him through the legal mud, but he would be up shit creek without a paddle. They'd probably Obliviate Ruby and make sure that Hugo never got to be an Auror since apparently he can't abide by the laws he's supposed to be enforcing.

It had gone from an all around cruddy situation to a really, really, really crappy dangerous one. He'd gone from hiding his love for Ruby like the lost jewels of Atlantis to having watch every damn thing he said about her. It wasn't as bad as it was when his parents first found out. Back then it was almost like they were constantly trying to trick him, to catch him in a lie. Now that things were more relaxed he had to be more paranoid than ever. As soon as he let his guard down he would mess up and let something slip and everything he'd done, every lie he'd told would be for nothing. He'd lose what was left of his parents' trust and pretty much be screwed for life.

He honestly didn't know how he'd gotten himself into such a sucky situation.

Hugo looked down at the picture in his hand. Ruby, splayed out on her bed. Her white blonde hair fanned out around her delicately beautiful face. She was looking up at the camera with so much love in her eyes that Hugo's chest actually hurt.

That was how. That look on her face was how he'd willingly and knowingly gotten himself into this situation. He'd do anything for her. Even spend the rest of his life lying to his family to protect her. At the end of the day it was worth it. She was worth it.

Hugo sighed and pulled the picture to his chest, hugging it and wishing that he was hugging her instead.

Suddenly the curtains were pulled back, blinding Hugo for a moment. When the ability to see returned he noticed his cousin standing by the side of his bed wide eyed and pale.

"Al?" Hugo asked, startled by the older boy's appearance. "Are you all right?"

The more Hugo looked at Albus the clearer it became that his cousin was a lot of things but all right was not among them. Albus' cloths were a mess. His vest and tie were missing, his shirt half unbuttoned, his belt unbuckled and hanging limply around his hips and his fly was down. Albus' hair was even more of a mess then it usually was and his glasses were lopsided.

The term "well and thoroughly shagged" floated through Hugo's head as he took in his cousin.

"I think I just sex with Persephone Lovelace," Albus said, confirming what Hugo had assumed.

"H-?"

"I didn't plan on it!" Albus said, still wide eyed. "I didn't go into the broom closet hoping to shag her! That wasn't what was supposed to happen…"

"What was-?"

"She was supposed to snog me into a tizzy and then I'd skip Transfiguration to take care of it!" Albus ran his hand through his hair. "I don't even know how it happened."

"Did you use-?"

"The Charm?" Hugo nodded. "Yeah, she knew it. She also knew one to prevent… you know… diseases… How would she know that? Why would she know that?"

"Because she's Persephone-"

"Oh, don't you start in on her!" Albus yelled. "Persephone is a nice girl."

"Yeah, a nice girl who shagged you in a broom closet," Hugo pointed out. Albus sighed and sat on the edge of Hugo's bed, his back to his cousin.

"What am I going to do? I barely liked Persephone before she shagged me and I can tell you, Hugo, I don't like her anymore now. She's vain and shallow and all she likes talking about is gossip and Quidditch… but now I have to stay with her," Albus said, horrified.

"Why?"

"Because she shagged me, Hugo! I can't drop her right after she shagged me! My parents raised me to be respectful to girls and I've already screwed with Persephone enough. Letting her snog her way out of a detention and then two bloody weeks later shag me in broom closet. I yelled at James for shagging Kira in the upstairs linen closet last summer and now I've gone and done him one better! Or worse depending… A broom closet. A bloody fucking broom closet!"

"Al, you need to settle down," Hugo said.

"How can I settle down, Hugo?" Albus asked, turning on his cousin. "I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't just lose my virginity to lose it. I wanted to do it with someone important to me, someone I actually cared about and perhaps had something in common with. And what did I do? I followed a girl who is about a deep as a spill on the floor and ten times less interesting into a broom closet. She pushed me on the floor, pulled my clothes off and mounted me like broomstick. And not only did I rise to the occasion, I bloody well enjoyed myself! She's got her tongue in my mouth, her breasts in my hands and her… and all I can think about is how good it bloody feels. And then she pulls her knickers up, kisses me and trots off to class without a care in the world! Leaving me to right myself and figure out what the bloody hell I'm supposed to do now… Ohhh, I'm such a bloody tosser!" Albus moaned.

"Why?" Hugo asked.

"What d'you mean, why?"

"It sounds like she was, you know, the one in charge. It's not like you took advantage of her."

"But… what should I do now?"

"Enjoy the shit out of it while you can," Hugo suggested. Albus looked uncomfortable. "It's not like you can undo what's already been done."

"Have you and Ruby…?"

"No," Hugo said, uncomfortable and suddenly on edge. "Ruby's very… practical. She doesn't want to do anything and make a mistake before we're both of age with jobs."

"Smart girl."

Hugo looked down at the pictures all over his bed. "You have no idea."