Thanks for the reviews on this, and Kyla thanks for your review on Empty as well, I'm sorry I made you cry.

I just wanna mention Harry Potter: The Next Generation, which is a Harry Potter fanfiction website, that's dedicated to the next generation but not limited to fics about them. It's pretty new, so they're still building up membership, but it's worth checking out. Link is on my profile page.

Anyway, back to the story.

Chapter 2

It was probably the most awkward thing Albus had ever been a part of. Why it had ever seemed to good idea to do his homework with both Rose and Scorpius, he may never decide. He'd learned, over the years, that the best way to remain best mates with both of them was to keep them apart. And yet, he'd gone crazy an hour ago, and arranged to meet them both in the library together to do their potions homework.

Now, his sanity had returned, and he was regretting his bright idea.

Neither had been very happy to see the other. Scorpius, who had arrived at the library before Rose, had stopped talking instantly when she'd approached them, throwing Al a wounded, betrayed look, before withdrawing into himself. Rose had froze, then, after shooting a look of disgust at Scorpius, had turned to Albus and hissed "why is he here?", just loudly enough for Scorpius to hear.

Obviously, in his madness, he'd neglected to mention to either that the other would be there.

And so now, the three of them sat in silence. He was the only one who made any attempts at conversation, early on, but had soon given up. The only time any of them spoke was when they had a question, with Rose determinedly asking Al, and only Al, and Scorpius whispering queries or answers to Albus, his voice too low for Rose to hear.

The only time Rose or Scorpius looked at each other was when Albus asked a question. Scorpius would look up with something resembling fear, while Rose would meet his gaze challengingly, as though daring him to answer.

Albus had soon learned to direct his questions at one or the other.

"Done." He said finally. It wasn't his best work, and he should have written an actual conclusion, but he had to get out of there. And if that meant receiving a low homework mark, he'd gladly do so.

"Me too." Rose lied instantly. Al could see she'd stopped writing halfway through a word, and knew she'd finish her essay in the common room.

"Scorp?" Albus asked, glancing over at his friend. Scorpius looked up, flicked a nervous glance at Rose, then looked back at Albus.

"Nearly."

"I'll wait for you." Al replied, after checking his watch.

"And I'll wait for you, Al." Rose replied sweetly, even though he could tell by the way her mouth tensed that she didn't want to. Torn between his two best friends, Albus had a quick debate with himself.

"No. It's OK." He said finally. "You go on to the tower. I...have to look for a book anyway." He hated lying to her, and he knew he did it badly, but she seemed to decide that pretending to believe him and going would leave her with more dignity.

"OK. I'll see you in the common room." She said, in the same way his aunt Hermione did when she was mad. I'll see you upstairs. I'll talk to you in a minute.

He fought a weary sigh, knowing he'd face a lecture when he got to the tower.

Neither boy spoke until a full minute after the library door had closed behind Rose. Then Scorpius turned to Al, with a betrayed look on his face.

"Why did you bring her here? She hates me." Albus decided not to comment on the fact that his friend had a whiny edge to his voice. Scorpius was used to, at home, getting everything he wanted, as soon as he wanted it, and while Hogwarts had bluntened the spoilt edge to the boy, it sometimes emerged.

"She doesn't hate you." Albus lied.

"Does." Scorpius muttered, turning back to his essay. "She'll never trust me -"

"There's a difference between not liking someone and not trusting them." Albus interrupted.

"Yeah, there is. But Rose doesn't like or trust me. Why did you make us sit here together?"

"I didn't think." Albus sighed. "You asked if we could do the homework together, and we arranged this. She asked if we could do the homework together, and I...didn't think." He repeated.

"Obviously." Scorpius muttered, still writing his essay.

"Sorry."

"Doesn't matter." Scorpius replied, but by the icy edge to his voice, Al knew he wasn't forgiven.

"I'm just sick," Albus said quietly, his temper mounting, "of having to arrange my life around you two, keeping you apart, and never mentioning you to each other. I'm tired of having to choose between you two."

Scorpius didn't reply, but looked at him guiltily before rolling up his essay and packing up his things. In silence, they left the library, offering each other a curt goodbye as they went their separate ways.

When Al reached the common room, it was empty except for Rose, who jumped to her feet immediately.

"Why on earth did you bring him along? You know I don't like him, why you insist on hanging around with him -"

"Give it a rest, will you?" Albus snapped, his simmering anger boiling instantly. "I've just been through this with Scorpius. Why should I have to choose between you? Why should I have to work around you?" He was shouting, but he didn't notice. "You know, I get that you don't like each other, or trust each other, but would it kill you to be civil to each other once in a while? For me?"

He didn't wait for an answer - not that she had one - and didn't notice the shocked look on her face as he stormed past her and up to his dormitory.

Rose watched him go, then sat slowly back down in her chair, feeling uncharacteristically guilty. Not that she was wrong, she assured herself. She was never wrong. But maybe she hadn't been fair to Albus.

Maybe it was time she grew up a little bit, and agree to be civil to Malfoy?

With a long sigh, she looked at the stairs her cousin had disappeared up.

"The things you do for family."

----

Albus and Scorpius didn't speak for their first lesson the next morning. Their second, they didn't have together. But by break time, they'd each forgiven each other, and everything was normal between them.

Maybe it was because they'd been mates for so long, maybe it was because neither had any other friends to turn to - Al would never tell Rose that he'd fallen out with Scorpius, she'd probably die from gloating - but they rarely fought. And when they did, all would be forgiven and forgotten easily.

Scorpius assumed Rose and Albus were fine, too. As far as he knew, they'd hadn't argued, and while he resented that a little - why was he the only one who Al got mad at, when Rose was the cause of it all? - he knew that, for Al, family was important.

He assumed that everything would go back to how it had been, with Scorpius' contact with Rose going back to a minimum. So as he left the great hall after dinner that night, and heard someone call "Malfoy", he was surprised to turn round and see Rose hurrying towards him.

She noticed the way he tensed the second he saw her, as though braced for a hit. And it wasn't just surprise in his eyes, either.

If Rose didn't know any better, she might have said Scorpius was scared of her.

"We need to talk." She told him flatly.