Rose was on her way to Ancient Runes later that day when she heard a familiar voice. She peered around the corner and saw Albus and Scorpius walking toward her. She hurried past the roped off section of swamp in the corridor and ducked behind a portrait to the secret passage concealed by it, crossing her fingers that they'd stop near it.

They did. Her grandmother had always said that eavesdroppers never heard anything they wanted to hear, but she didn't care what she heard, so surely that wouldn't hold true. She was dying of curiosity about Scorpius thought of his hair, and judging from his agitated tone, he was definitely talking about it.

"Look, I know you said she was with you the whole morning," Scorpius was saying, "but seriously, do you really believe that she didn't have anything to do with it?"

Albus sighed. "Honestly? No. I don't really believe that. But she was with me, so unless someone admits it, she has what she loves to call 'plausible deniability.' And you don't know that it was her."

"Oh, please. She's pretty much the only one in this school I can think of who has a serious grudge against me - her, your brother, and your cousin, anyway. Of course it was her."

Albus sighed. "You really don't like her, do you?"

"Not at all," Scorpius admitted after a moment. "Sorry."

"Why? She's one of my favorite people in the world —not that that's a reason for you to like her, I suppose, but she's a very nice person, really."

There was a moment of silence, and Scorpius said, "Look. You're one of my best friends. I don't want to offend you."

"But?"

"But, well…" he paused again. "Look, some of your family are perfectly nice, but…"

"What?" Rose heard a thud as Albus's bag hit the ground. "Just spit it out. There's no one around."

Scorpius sighed. "Look, it's just… honestly? Her, your brother, Roxanne - they're arrogant, self-satisfied prats."

"I know it looks that way, but—"

Scorpius cut him off. "Did you want me to answer?"

Albus checked himself. "Go ahead. Am I allowed to disagree afterward?"

"Sure." Scorpius sighed again, started to say something, paused, and started again. Rose could practically feel the awkwardness of the situation oozing through the tapestry. "Damn, Al. I know they're family, I know you have to love them, but your brother? Roxanne? Rose? They all strut around this school like they own it - along with Tyler Jordan, I guess, but I never have to see him, so I don't particularly care. They seem to think that being smart and good at sports makes them God's gift to the school. To the world."

"Rose isn't really part of that group, though." Rose rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure who Albus thought he was fooling with that. Of course she was. "She's on the team with them and all, sure, but…"

"Oh, don't give me that," snapped Scorpius. "She might be one of your best friends, but she spends a hell of a lot of time with them, too. Are you really telling me that she doesn't?"

Al sighed. "No, I'm not."

"Who's her favorite cousin, apart from you?" Scorpius pressed.

"James," Albus admitted after a moment of hesitation.

"And it's not just Quidditch. She seems to be with them whenever you're off with your friends who she doesn't approve of, which is everyone who's not in Gryffindor—"

Rose scowled as Albus interrupted. "That's not really fair. She's got a lot of friends in Hufflepuff, too." Scorpius gave a disgusted snort, and Albus stopped himself again. "Go on," he said, clearly resigned to hearing Scorpius out.

"Look. I don't like them. I just don't. They're all great Quidditch players. Okay, we get that. They've been on the team for years. In that time, we've all kind of noticed that they're good players." Scorpius's voice was rising again. "That doesn't mean they have to swagger all over the school like they own it."

He must have looked at Albus, because her cousin sighed and said, "Keep going."

"They're all…" he made a disgusted noise. "Well, for all the pranks they pull, and despite all the Quidditch practices they have, they're all still at the top of their classes, and none of them have easy courseloads. How many N.E.W.T.s are they each taking? Six? Seven?"

"Rose isn't taking any, yet," Albus said. Rose felt that as a defense, this was lacking, especially since Scorpius was definitely overestimating all of their abilities except maybe Roxanne's.

"Yeah, well, she'll get all O's on her O.W.L.s, and next year she'll be doing the same thing." She could hear Scorpius slide down against the wall, and heard Albus sit next to him. She looked at her watch. Class started in a few minutes, and there was no way she was going to make it on time unless she left right now.

She didn't move. This was far too interesting.

"I don't know. I don't like any of them. Maybe the fact that I actually have to see her more often and deal with her beating me in almost every subject makes me like her even less. She's awful, though." Albus didn't say anything. She was starting to get distinctly annoyed with his lack of defense when she heard Scorpius say, "You can stop shutting up, now."

"Are you sure that's it?"

Scorpius sighed again, and she could hear him shift a little. "No. I'm sure that's not it. It's just harder to put the rest of it into words."

"You think she's hot, don't you." Despite the wording, Rose could tell it wasn't really a question. She winced. The situation had suddenly and unexpectedly taken a turn for horribly awkward, and awkward situations made her feel embarrassed even if she was just observing them.

There was another pause, and Scorpius said, sounding strained, "Was it that obvious?"

"This summer? A bit, yes."

Rose felt her face getting warm. When her mother and father had gone to Brazil that summer, they'd left her and her brother with the Potters. James had been gone for most of the time she was there, so it was a relatively subdued stay, and she'd had a perfectly good time even with Scorpius visiting at the same time. For once they'd managed to mostly ignore each other - or, rather, she'd managed to ignore him. She had assumed he was likewise ignoring her, but apparently, that had not been the case. She squirmed uncomfortably; she hadn't anticipated the conversation taking this turn, though there was definitely no way she was leaving now.

"Why didn't you say something?"

Albus laughed. "Say what? 'Hey, Scorpius, I thought you hated Rose, but now you can't seem to concentrate on a word I say because you're too busy staring at her.' Would you have even admitted it?"

"Probably not," Scorpius admitted. "I wasn't that bad, was I?

"No, you weren't. I thought I was imagining it for the first few days."

"What convinced you that you weren't?"

"I kept having to repeat myself." Rose could tell that her cousin was barely containing his laughter.

"Sorry." To her surprise, Scorpius did actually sound sorry. She supposed she shouldn't be; at least as far as she'd observed, he wasn't a bad friend. Albus certainly seemed to like him, for reasons Rose was sure she would never understand.

"It was a little irritating," Albus said after a moment. "But I figured it was probably much worse for you than it was for me."

Scorpius groaned. "Yes. Yes it was. I was taking a lot of really cold showers, but they didn't actually help much." Albus cleared his throat, and Scorpius immediately switched gears - he seemed to realize that he'd come dangerously close to a very uncomfortable line. "I don't have any desire to be with her, you know," he said. "She opens her mouth and I want to punch her."

"Please don't," said Albus. "She is my favourite cousin. I'd have to punch you back."

"Honestly, that worries me less than what she'd do." Despite the discomfort she was feeling from the conversation as a whole at this point, Rose found herself smirking at that.

"With good reason. Can I say what I'm thinking now?" Al asked. Scorpius must have nodded, because he continued. "Look. I'm not touching any of your many issues with Rose with a ten foot pole."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scorpius snapped. "I don't have—"

"Oh, shut up," Albus said tiredly. "Yes, you do. I don't know why, but yes, you do." Rose was expecting Scorpius to fight back, and was rather surprised when he didn't say anything and let Albus continue. "Look, I'm not saying that what you're saying about them isn't true. I just think that you're seeing them in the worst possible light. I know my brother. He can be arrogant, yes, but he's also really a fundamentally good person. Mostly, he's just fooling around. Roxanne's kind of the same way. I don't think either of them takes very much very seriously."

He paused, and Scorpius prompted him. "And Rose?"

Albus sighed. "Rosie is… look, honestly? She can be pretty judgmental, and she's got a bit of a temper, and she can be a little arrogant and, okay, even vindictive sometimes, but she really is a fun person to be around." Rose was just starting to feel rather irritated at this lackluster defense when Albus added, "And she's a really good person. Like I said, she's one of my favorite people in the world."

Rose's irritation vanished, and she was possessed with the sudden urge to hug her cousin.

"I'll take your word for it," Scorpius said skeptically, and she could hear him get up. He laughed. "It's probably better for us all if I don't see that side of her. If it even exists."

Albus got up, too. "Yeah, well. I'm so tempted to skive off Divination, we're going to be late, anyway."

"Why did we let Noah convince us to take this stupid subject, again?" Scorpius asked, and she could hear them walking away. "We should go, though."

Albus gave a very unenthusiastic, "I guess," and their voices faded away.

Rose groaned. If they were going to be late, she definitely was. She ran to class, murmuring an apology when she walked in several minutes late. She pushed the conversation she'd heard out of her mind; she needed to concentrate on class.

—

A/N: Oh, Rose. Eavesdropping is tricky business, you know. Sometimes you get a little more than you bargained for.

In case any old readers just click straight to the new chapter: I've done some pretty significant editing of this story, but it's spread across all the chapters, not just the new ones - some of the new ones don't have much new content at all, in fact, though others do. It'll probably make more sense to go back and reread the whole thing than to click around to try to find the new stuff, though you can certainly do that, too. :P

I've moved this conversation to its own chapter, and I've love to know how readers think it comes off, if you have the chance to leave a review.

- Branwen