As they neared the castle after class, they could hear more explosions. A particularly deafening one came just after they'd gotten inside.
Once Albus was sure they could here again, he jerked his head toward the corridor. "Come on, let's find a classroom and see what they're up to." Rose looked at Scorpius, who was standing on Albus's other side. He saw where her gaze was directed and scowled. "Rose, he's my friend, and I say he can come."
She decided that getting into an argument about it in the hallway was not going to change the outcome anyway, so she turned without challenging her cousin. Instead, she stretched her arms over her head and glanced out one of the tall windows. "Today's such a good day, don't you think?"
"Maybe your cousin should send a package to her every day," she heard Scorpius mutter to Albus.
"Remember that part where it's probably better for all of us if you don't see this side of her very often?" Albus also kept his voice low, but Rose, who was listening carefully, caught it anyway.
"Yeah. I do." They caught up with her as she started humming an old Weird Sisters song.
Her cousin nudged her. "Are you sure no one spiked your drink or your food this morning?"
"What, am I not allowed to be in a good mood?"
"Rosie, you are always allowed to be in a good mood." He peeked into a classroom. "No one's in here right now."
Once the door was closed, Rose crossed her arms and looked at Scorpius. "Will he tell anyone?"
Scorpius's eyes flicked from her to Albus. "Al, what exactly are you getting me into? If you have to kill me if you tell me or something like that, please just don't tell me."
Al ignored him. "No, he won't." He looked at Scorpius. "Will you?"
"I don't know! I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Albus looked back at Rose. "No, he won't."
"Do I not get a say in what I will or won't do?" his friend demanded.
"You won't," Albus said. "Come on, Rose. It's lunch, and I'm sure they'll be taking advantage of it to put that stuff all over the place. I want to see where so I can laugh at people rather than fall into the trap myself."
"Fair enough." She watched as he pulled the book out of his bag and slid the parchment out from between its pages. After he'd laid it on a table, Rose pulled out her wand. "If you tell anyone about this, it's war," she told Scorpius.
"Look, I'll just leave. I don't need some deep dark Weasley secret to keep."
"It's actually a Potter secret," Albus said, only half-listening. "You're fine. Ignore Rose."
"If he tells someone and James kills you both, tell him it wasn't my idea before you croak." Scorpius was now eying the piece of parchment like he expected it to explode. Given the morning, Rose couldn't exactly blame him. She pointed her wand and whispered as she tapped it, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"What a surprise," Scorpius muttered, looking at the parchment. Lines began to appear on the paper, and his eyes went wide. "What the—"
Rose looked at Albus expectantly, and Albus sighed. "It's the Marauder's Map."
"What the hell is a Marauder's Map?"
"The," Rose corrected as she rummaged in her bag for a chocolate frog. "There's only one."
He rolled his eyes. "What's the Marauder's Map, then?"
"It's a Potter family secret," Albus repeated. "Go ahead," he told Rose. "You understand it better than me." She swallowed the head of her frog, and he grinned. "You keep eating that much chocolate, it's going to go straight to your hips."
"That's okay, they could use it. I'm too bony there, anyway."
Scorpius opened his mouth, paused, and repeated, "What is the Marauder's Map?"
Rose had a feeling that that was not what he had initially been planning to say, but she couldn't exactly call him on it with Albus sitting there. "It's a map of Hogwarts."
He frowned and leaned over to look at it closer. He had apparently been too surprised by the lines appearing on the yellowed parchment to process what those lines were. "Huh." His eyes widened, and he pointed to a classroom. "Is that…"
Rose leaned over. "Yes, that's us."
"What is this?" he asked again, sounding a little more awestruck than he had before.
"It's the Marauder's Map," Rose repeated. Albus cleared his throat. "Oh, fine, have it your way," she said. "It's a map of Hogwarts. It shows everyone and everything in the castle."
"Well, except for the Chamber of Secrets."
Scorpius stared at him. "That's an actual thing? I mean, it's real?"
"Yep. My dad told us about it last New Year's," Rose said. You could always manage to convince her father or her aunt to start telling interesting stories about their time at Hogwarts once they'd had enough to drink, and since it didn't happen very often, she, Hugo, and her cousins tried to take full advantage of it when it did. "Apparently it was built to house the basilisk your house founder left in the school."
Scorpius jerked his head around, as if expecting a basilisk to be lurking in the corner of the room. "A basilisk?"
"It's dead now," Albus said quickly. "My father killed it in his second year."
Scorpius's eyebrows looked as though they were in dangerous of disappearing into his hairline. "Your father killed a basilisk in his second year?" After a moment, he relaxed. "Very funny. You had me going for a minute."
"I'm not joking. My mother almost died."
"My mum got petrified," Rose offered. Her father had been very forthcoming indeed that New Year's, particularly when Rose's mother, aunt, and uncle left the room.
Scorpius stared at them. "You're serious."
"Yes," Albus agreed.
"So, wait a minute. There was a basilisk attaching people while our parents were here?"
Rose studied his face. It seemed to really be the first time he was hearing about it. "Yes," she said. "You didn't know that?"
Scorpius shook his head. "You've have definitely gotten more interesting stories about Hogwarts from your parents than I have from mine. The most exciting thing my father's told me is that he got mauled by a hippogriff because he was being an ass."
"That's what he said?" Rose asked skeptically.
"Yeah. It was part of his 'if you're going to take Care of Magical Creatures, pay attention in it' lecture." Scorpius managed a smile. "I get the feeling that most of his memorable times at Hogwarts don't exactly fill him with pride."
Albus looked at Rose. "Is the room of requirement on there? I never checked." It was a rather transparent attempt to make his friend feel less uncomfortable, but she went along with it.
"No." Albus didn't tend to use the map - or the cloak, for that matter - very often; as a student whose rule-breaking was typically limited to occasionally sneaking down to the kitchens at night and using skiving snackboxes, he didn't have much need for either of them.
Scorpius looked lost again. "What the hell is the room of requirement?"
"Well, it's also known as the come-and-go room." Rose knew she was being deliberately unhelpful, but she was getting a perverse sort of amusement out of it.
"That's helpful. Thanks, Red."
"It's a room that's… well, it's complicated. I'll show you some time," said Albus.
Scorpius did not look particularly mollified. "And your parents told you about that?"
"No," Rose said. "One of our cousins did." She certainly wasn't going to tell him any more than that. He could probably guess without too much effort that Fred was involved, but she doubted that he would ever guess that Victoire had found it first.
Victoire had been very good at covering her tracks.
Scorpius either sensed that she wasn't going to go into more detail or decided that he didn't care. "So, wait a minute," he said. "It shows everything?"
"Yes," Albus said.
"But what if someone was an animagus or something?" Scorpius asked, the wheels in his head turning.
Rose shook her head. "They still show up."
"What about the polyjuice potion?" She had the distinct impression that Scorpius was trying to find something that the map could not do.
"You still show up as yourself, not the person you turned into," she said.
"You're not going to tell me how you know that, are you," he said, not really making it a question.
There were funny stories behind her answers to both of his questions, but she would be damned if she was going to share either with him. "Nope."
She could see the wheels in Scorpius's head turning. "What about an invisibility cloak?" Albus glanced at Rose, who bit her lip. Scorpius saw the look. "What?"
"Don't ask," Albus said.
He looked like he wanted to, and he probably would have if Rose had said it, but since it was Albus, he let it go and glanced at the map again. "It seems damn useful."
"It is."
Rose leaned over to examine the map more carefully, feeling that they had wasted quite enough time on explaining it to Scorpius.
"That's a pretty necklace," he commented.
She looked up at him, and saw his gaze directed toward the pendant. She touched it. "Oh. Thanks. It was a gift."
"From who?"
"My cousin." She looked back at the map to discourage further questions.
After a moment, Scorpius pointed to the dungeon. Rose followed his finger and saw a dot labeled Roxanne Weasley wandering around the Potions classroom. "What do you want to bet it's fireworks?" Albus asked.
"Nothing," Rose replied. "I try not to make bets I know I'm going to lose."
"She's putting fireworks in Dorny's classroom?" Scorpius asked, looking surprised. "I thought she liked Potions."
"She does," Albus said. "But she also likes being destructive." He pointed to a dot labeled James Potter. "There's my brother. Oh, I hope that whatever he's done, it gets us out of Charms. Then if we use a snackbox to get out of History of Magic, we've got most of our afternoon free."
Rose pointed to the kitchens. "Three guesses what Hugo and Lily are doing."
Albus laughed, but Scorpius just shook his head. "What?"
"Let's put it this way," Albus said. "Don't eat anything at dinner. Definitely don't have any dessert. Should we warn anyone?" he asked Rose.
"Are you kidding me? Hell, no." She tapped her wand to the parchment. "Mischief managed."
When she straightened up, she saw Scorpius's gaze flick upward.
Albus grabbed his bag. "I'm going to run up to my dormitory to get my books. I'll meet you at Charms - if we have it, anyway." Scorpius left with him.
Rose had just carefully folded the map and put it away when Scorpius walked back in. "Yes?" she asked. Then she saw the wand in his hand and went for hers, which was still lying on the desk.
He pointed his wand at her before she had the chance to speak. "Expelliarmus!"
Nothing happened. Rose felt a smirk spread across her lips.
"Yeah," Scorpius said. "I thought so. Real cute. It seemed weird that I somehow managed to miss you on your way to Arithmancy. By 'cousin,' I'm assuming you meant 'Fred.'"
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Yeah. It did." He boosted himself up to sit on one of the desks. "You know, just because you're in a good mood today doesn't mean I'm not going to make you pay for this." He brushed his still-red hair out of his face. "One way or another."
"Bring it. I don't ever have to take this off."
"Don't worry," he said. "The sorting hat seriously considered putting me in Ravenclaw. I'll find a way."
"The sorting hat didn't consider putting me in anything but Gryffindor," she said proudly.
"Yeah. Well. What a surprise."
"So, tell me." She smiled her very sweetest smile. "Were you really just noticing my necklace, or were you staring down my shirt?"
"You know, Red, the world doesn't actually revolve around you." The red tinge to his cheeks belied his brush-off, and she smiled smugly.
"Do you think that my hips are just fine the way they are?" she taunted.
He pushed himself off the desk. "You know, Red, I was just starting to forget why I hated you quite so much. Thanks for bringing it all back."
"Well, that's better for all of us, isn't it?" His cheeks got redder.
He walked toward her, and when they were practically nose-to-nose, he said, "Look. You should get this straight. As you so cleverly deduced by hiding behind portraits and eavesdropping, yeah, unfortunately, I think you're hot. Don't worry - I'm getting over it quickly. At this point, I'd rather kiss the giant squid," he spat.
"Really?" she asked, licking her lips.
His eyes flicked down to them for a second before going back up to her eyes, and he drew back. "God, you are such a tease. Yeah. Really."
"Poor baby," she said. "Go cry to Albus. And while you're at it, explain to him why you're looking down my shirt to begin with."
He looked as though he'd been forced to swallow stinksap. When she reached the door and glanced back at him, his wand was raised again. "Stupefy!"
She looked back at him and smirked.
He sneered back. "Just checking. Watch your back. I owe you for this ridiculous hair."
A/N: Oh, Rose. (And oh, Scorpius. Who do you think you're fooling? None of us.) I'd love to hear what you think of the chapter, if you have the chance to review. Either way, thank you so much for reading!
- Branwen