A/N: I've been getting a lot of complaints about Albus' "relationship" with Persephone. Hopefully this chapter will take care of that. Thanks for all of the reviews.

I'd like to take this time to answer a few questions from Hazie-boo-girl.

Lily crying issue: Lily and Ginny are two different individuals. Just because Ginny isn't the crying type doesn't necessarily mean that she has never cried. Lily wasn't raised with six brothers, given Albus and James' characters they aren't overbearing older brothers that would require Lily to grow a thick skin. With regard to the character I've created I feel that Lily would cry when she thought Scorpius might break up with her or when she found out his parents were trying to replace him. She's more emotional than her mother.

Adding other characters: I feel like it's too late in the story to add other characters. When I began writing I wanted to write about the children of the Trio, that's what I've done and will continue to do.

The Malfoys: Scorpius' drama with his parents will be resolved, just give me time!

Thanks for your review and I hope to hear from you again!

Chapter Twenty Eight

Her, Her and Me

Albus Potter was sitting in his bedroom, confused. What just happened to him made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

He'd Apparated to Diagon Alley early that morning to get his school supplies before the rush at the end of summer. The streets had been all but empty when out of Flourish and Blotts came Anora Thomas. With her creamy mocha skin, dark blue eyes and plump lips; she was a vision in her flowing white skirt and matching top. Albus and Anora had always got on well, mostly out of circumstance. She was the other Gryffindor Prefect in his year so they'd gone on nightly patrols together for years.

For the most part they'd been friends and nothing more. Of course, Albus had wasted years on that damned Daisy so even if Anora had flirted with him at any point over the years, he probably wouldn't have noticed. But he certainly noticed now. She'd spent the day floating by his side, offering to help him buy new robes and find the proper school supplies. It was obvious (even to Albus) that she was flirting like crazy with him. And so, he flirted like crazy right back.

Anora was absolutely nothing like Persephone. She was deep, Albus found that he could actually stand to talk to her in more than monosyllabic utterances. In that same vein, she was smart. She took her grades seriously, while knowing that her grades weren't the most important things in the world. She was also kind. Over that afternoon, she'd spoken to him at length about what had happened between him and Daisy. She didn't shy away from the part he'd played in that disaster and Albus found that he quite liked that.

They'd had a smashing good time and Albus found himself fighting the impulse to ask her out. Even though he and Persephone were far from perfect, he would never humiliate her the way that Daisy had humiliated him. If he wanted to be with someone else (and he did) he would break up with her. But that was part of the problem.

Another part was what happened when Albus walking towards the Three Broomsticks to Floo home. Anora had, of course, gone with him to see him off and use the Floo herself. At some point as they were walking down the street she'd moved slightly behind him. At some other point she said that she tripped. She said that the only way for her to keep from falling was to grab onto something. She said the only thing for her grab a hold of was Albus' bum. She said it was an accident and that was what confused him.

Anora didn't seem the type to "accidentally" (on purpose) grab a bloke's bum. It made him wonder just how much Persephone was blabbing about their relationship in the girl's dorm. Had he become some sort of… shag legion to the girls of Gryffindor tower? He knew he didn't disappoint Persephone in their intimate relationship. She never complained and often encouraged him loudly. Plus if he wasn't providing what she required, Albus was certain that she'd find someone else to take care of it.

(Truth be told Albus wasn't sure how much he'd care if Persephone left him for another bloke. It would be sort of embarrassing catching them snogging or shagging, but Albus had never really cared enough about Persephone to be jealous. Or at least that's what he thought. He would find out the truth soon enough.)

The truth of the matter was that Albus needed someone to talk to. An outside opinion would help him gain perspective on the entire situation. The Persephone issue, Anora "accidentally" grabbing his bum and how in the hell he was supposed to deal with both. The only person he wanted to talk to was Scorpius, but lately his best mate had been surgically attached to his sister which meant that by the end of the day everyone would know that Anora had grabbed his bum. Grand Molly would have their wedding planned by the end of the week.

On the bright side his family would definitely approve of her.

Oh, bloody hell! He didn't even know what the bum grab meant. It might have been an accident, she might have just been being friendly all day, he might have been completely wrong about everything. Unfortunately he wouldn't know the truth of the matter until he discussed it with someone else. And if his whole family was going to find out he might as well invite James as well. Every once and a while James was a good brother, he might pull through for his younger brother like he did during the whole Daisy Doe debacle.

Albus tugged his wand out of his robes, gave it a slight flick and Disapparated. He reappeared outside of Scorpius' flat. He didn't want to walk in on whatever his best mate and his sister were doing. After many hard, loud knocks and a lengthy silence the door opened. Scorpius was only wearing a pair of trousers and his hair was a mess, there was lippy on his throat and Albus glanced away quickly when he noticed a few hickies dotting Scorpius' chest. Thankfully Lily was nowhere in sight.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"I need to talk to my best mate."

"Like now?"

"Yes, now."

Scorpius sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Could you give me… a half hour?"

"Totally, meet me James and Kira's flat." Albus Disapparated after Scorpius nodded.

Again he reappeared outside of the actual flat. Instead of knocking, the way that he had for Scorpius and Lily, he flicked his wand opening the door.

"Al?"

Albus finally looked into the flat thankfully realizing that both James and Kira were fully dress and not engaged in any intimate activities.

"I need to talk to you, James," he said, walking in and closing the door behind him.

"What's up?" Kira wacked him in the chest without looking up from her Quidditch magazine. "Whhhaaa?"

"You're the host," she said. "Offer him a seat and something to drink. It's called manners."

"Yes, but you're the lady of the… flat. Shouldn't you be the one to offer him those things?"

"I would, but I'd thought that you valued your testicles."

"I don't know what that has to do with anything, Kira."

"It has to do with the fact that if you ever insinuate that it is somehow my job to take care of the flat just because I happen to be female I'll curse off your testicles so that no matter of magical medicine can reattach them."

(While Kira and James were having this… ah… stimulating conversation, Albus had removed his cloak and shoes and has made his way to kitchen grabbing a bottle of butterbeer from the fridge. He was under no illusion that he would be served by either Kira or James and certainly wasn't stupid enough to think that if he was offered anything there wouldn't be some sort of prank waiting for him in his cup.)

"Well, I don't see what the big deal is," James said (stupidly), "Al's been here before. Plus he isn't an imbecile. He can find a chair on his own and drink. Look he's done it." James pointed at his brother, who made a show of not getting involved.

"The point is that to be polite you really ought to offer these things to your guests and not expect them to get it on their own."

"Well, I didn't see you pulling yourself away from your Quidditch magazine to offer my tosser brother a seat and bloody drink."

"That's it." Kira pulled out her wand. James scrambled off the couch.

"Oh, come on!" Albus yelled. "I don't bloody well care about manners and what's polite, besides I'd rather swallow my own head than accept a drink or seat from either of you, it'd probably be less painful and far less humiliating. And Kira if you curse off my brother's testicles how are you ever going to have his sticky, naughty children?"

Kira lowered her wand. "Well, you've certainly got a point."

His testicles out of danger, James threw himself back onto the couch. "So, what's up, little bro?"

"Something weird happened today and I need some advice. Since every once and awhile you actually are a good brother I figured you might be able to help me out. But just in case I asked Scorpius to meet me here. He'll be by with Lily in a few minutes."

"You asked Lily to come?" James asked.

"No, but she'll trail after him anyway."

"Hmm… So, what's the weird thing that happened?"

"I went to Diagon Alley today, to get my school supplies-" Albus began.

"Because even though you're not Head Boy you're still anal, go on," James commented.

"-when I ran into-"

The door opened before Albus could finish. Lily and Scorpius arrived hand in hand, the picture of tidiness. Albus glanced away quickly when he remembered the love bites that littered his bestmate's chest. It was even worse that Persephone had given him a few love bites and she gave them to him while they were shagging. He didn't want to think about Scorpius and his sister doing… that.

The couple curled onto the last remaining chair, an overstuffed arm chair next to the fireplace, Lily sitting on Scorpius' lap. Albus flicked his wand, summoning two bottles of butterbeer for Kira and James' new guests. He didn't want to endure the manners argument again.

"What's so important that you had to interrupt my snogging time with my boyfriend?" Lily asked.

"We were just getting to that when you lot walked in," Kira said. "Without knocking I might add."

"Al went to get his school supplies today like the good little boy that he is when something weird happened," James said.

"What?" Scorpius asked.

"I dunno."

Four head turned to Albus who (after years of dealing with the impossibly short attention span his friends gave him he had learned to just keep quiet until the conversation came back his way) was sipping his drink patiently waiting his turn.

"When I ran into Anora Thomas," Albus said, begin where he'd left off before Lily and Scorpius had arrived.

His announcement had mixed responses. James looked confused (apropos), Kira like she was trying to figure out what was coming next (also apropos), Scorpius like he understood where this was going and for some reason Lily had gone pale.

"We got our supplies together and I'll be damned if she didn't spend the whole day flirting with me-"

"What part of this is weird?" James

"That's brilliant, Al!" Lily

"It's Persephone, isn't it?" Scorpius

"She's why this is confusing you." Kira

"You know, Kira and I were going to take a grown up nap…" James

"You should dump Lovelace and date Anora." Lily

"I don't think that'll go well, love." Scorpius

"Thank you, Scorpius," Albus said. "Finally one of you gets it. But her flirting with me isn't what was weird."

"Did she kiss you?" Scorpius asked.

"No, I would've gotten that. She… 'tripped' and 'righted herself' by grabbing my bum."

"So, she accidentally grabbed your bum," Lily said.

"I've done that," Kira said.

"So have I."

"How do you accidentally grab a bloke's bum?" Scorpius asked.

"Just like Albus described," Lily said.

"You walk behind your chosen target," Kira began. "You trip-" air quotes "-and grab onto the bloke's bum to-" more air quotes "-stay upright."

"You've done that to me," James said, surprised.

"Many times."

"You'd done that before we got together."

"Yes."

"Merlin, I'm an idiot."

"Yeah, no one's surprised," Albus said. "Now the bum grabbing and flirting might not have been what I thought. Hell, she might've been being nice or she might have actually tripped. I have no way of knowing. So that's the weird thing. The problem, as Scorpius and Kira have already figured out is Persephone."

"Dump her," Lily said, with irrational strength.

Albus squinted at his sister, confused. "I would but I'm worried."

"Worried that if you tell her you don't want to date her anymore she'll say something along the lines of, 'we were dating?'" Scorpius suggested.

"Exactly," Albus muttered. "How do you drop a girl you're not even sure you're dating?"

"Two things big brother," Lily said. "First, you're over complicating this. Just tell her you don't want to shag her anymore. I'm sure she won't care. And second, did Anora say anything about being Head Girl?"

"Baby, what does that have to do with anything?" Scorpius asked.

"She didn't say anything," Albus said. "And considering how I've treated her I think she deserves better than being told I don't want to shag her anymore."

"Especially since it isn't true," James muttered.

"Oh, how do you know that?" Lily asked.

"No man wants to stop shagging the slutty girl who just wants to shag and not talk-"

"And yet again you are one hundred percent wrong," Scorpius said.

"Whaaa? He's my brother, how in the hell do you know?"

"Because Albus isn't shallow, he wants to date a girl he actually has something in common with and that's Anora, not Persephone."

"Scorpius is actually right, James," Albus said.

"Well, who cares who's right? The point is that Albus should live it up while he can," James said.

"James," Albus sighed.

"Look at the facts, twenty years from now Albus will be having sex with his wife and she will probably be asleep-"

"I don't know why I bother," Albus said, getting up.

"Oh, fuck, Al. You always take this shit too seriously. Every guy is an ass every once and awhile you are too. So buck up and tell that girl you don't want do whatever it is you've been doing to her for the past few months anymore. Get yourself out before you forget the charm and get her pregnant."

"Now that was the first good advice you've given me in months."

"Ha! And all I had to do was tell you that one day you'll be shagging a woman who is unconscious."

Albus rolled his eyes.

Yet again his older, slightly stupider but genuinely loving brother had pulled through for him. Perhaps it was in his nature to over think, to make things more complicated than they needed to be. Honestly if Persephone didn't think they were a couple, he doubted that she would care if he ended whatever it was they were doing.

It was time for the madness to end.