Rose would have jumped back, but she was so entangled with Scorpius that it took a moment to get loose. By that point, she'd fully processed who the voice belonged to, and she decided that staying between Roxanne and Scorpius would probably be a good idea. She didn't trust her cousin not to jinx him on principle.

Her eyes had begun to adjust to the light, and behind Roxanne's incredulous face, she saw James. He seemed caught between faint surprise and a smirk; Rose suspected that he'd been hoping to find her with Scorpius and embarrass the hell out of both of them, but that he'd been a little surprised by just how all over each other they'd been.

"Um." Her mind was blank; she had no idea what to tell them. There was absolutely no denying that she'd been making out with Scorpius Malfoy; her cousins had caught them kissing with her hand up his shirt. On the bright side, at least she'd been pushing him against the wall rather than the other way around - if he'd been the one closer to the entry, Roxanne would have almost certainly hexed first and asked questions later, and that might have made him less inclined to kiss her in the future.

"Rosie, Rosie, Rosie," came James's voice from behind Roxanne, who still seemed at a loss for words. "Really? I'm not sure which I'm more disappointed by, the secret passage or your choice of partner. I mean, Scorpius Malfoy? Really?"

His voice was too collected for him to plead ignorance - though Rose suspected he hadn't be planning to do so, anyway. Roxanne whirled around. "You knew!" she exclaimed.

The dark-haired boy shrugged. "Well, maybe a little. I didn't know that Rose was sneaking off to passageways to get quite this - er - intimate with him, though."

Rose glanced back at Scorpius. He was regarding her cousins warily; he clearly didn't trust them not to jinx him, yell at him, or both.

Or, worse yet, tell Albus.

Roxanne choked out a "Git" at James before turning back to Rose. "And speaking of gits-"

"He's not a git," Rose snapped before she really stopped to think about it.

"Oh, he's not?"

"I'm not?"

Roxanne's voice was laden with sarcasm and skepticism; Scorpius's sounded genuinely surprised and pleased.

"No." Rose decided to forge ahead. She'd already dug herself well into the hole. "Well, once in awhile, he can be, but he's really - sometimes he's funny."

"Is he also a good kisser? You seemed to really be enjoying yourself."

Rose wanted to smack James; he'd clearly planned this out, and from the twinkle in his eyes, she doubted he was anything close to done. "He's a great kisser. Now go away, please."

"So you can go back to kissing him? I don't think so. Come on, Rose, some standards, please." That was Roxanne again. Rose was more irritated with her right then than she ever remembered being before.

"I have standards," she said bristling. "I like him."

Scorpius slipped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him. "See, I knew you'd come around," he murmured in her ear. "I'm really very charming, once I stop being an arse because you're too pretty to ignore."

A giggle slipped out before she could stop it. "Oh, shut up."

Roxanne looked absolutely revolted, and at that point, even James looked a little disturbed. When Roxanne shot him an annoyed look, however, he held up his hands; apparently, he wasn't disturbed enough to back her up.

Not yet, anyway.

"Does Albus know?" she asked Rose. When Rose didn't say anything, her cousin beamed. "Oh, this is going to be a fun story to tell him. 'Hey Albie, guess who we saw snogging in a secret passage?'"

"That's not fair!" Rose exclaimed. "I'm going to tell him!"

"So am I," muttered Scorpius. "Preferably soon. Otherwise, he's going to kill me."

James made a face. "Come on, Rox. We can give them a couple days before we spill - I'd rather not have Albus in a temper at me because I'm the messenger if I can help it."

"Fine," she said. "But James, this is really weird, and kind of gross."

"I know." He eyed Scorpius, who still had an arm around Rose's waist. "I hadn't really realized how weird it is until right now."

"He's really, really good at kissing," Rose told them.

Her cousins surveyed Scorpius again, this time with some interest. "Well, I guess he'd have to be," Roxanne said finally. "For you to start snogging a Slytherin."

When Rose and Scorpius finally parted ways to head down to dinner, she didn't find Albus there. He wasn't in the Common Room when Rose got back, either, and she settled down to work with Damien and Colleen in front of the fireplace, feeling a knot in her stomach starting to grow. She had a bad feeling about this.

When he finally got back around eight, he stopped in front of Rose but didn't join her on the couch. "Can I have a word?" he asked stiffly. She put down her books and immediately followed him to the corner table, where he asked, "Do you mind talking about something?"

Rose examined her cousin. His bottom lip looked raw, and he hadn't stopped gnawing on it. "Can you clear that up a bit?"

He sighed. "Scorpius and I just had an interesting conversation."

Rose managed, with great difficulty, to stop herself from saying, "Well, isn't that just terrific." Instead, she gave what she hoped was a bland smile and simply said, "Oh?"

Albus was looking at her very closely. "Apparently, he's decided he fancies you."

"Has he?" she asked, trying to think quickly. It wasn't working; lying to Albus was generally too difficult to come up with something on the spot.

"Yes. He also said that you knew everything he was telling me," Albus gave her a pointed look.

She ran her fingers through her hair and met his gaze. As soon as she had, she wished she hadn't - meeting her cousin's green eyes often left her with an uncomfortable feeling that he could read her like a book. "Okay, yes, I do."

"Look," Albus said, sighing again, "I just… look, I know you don't like him. I don't expect you to. But from what he said, it seems to me like you've been… encouraging him, and I think you've been doing it on purpose." She looked down, feeling guilty. She didn't see how she could have told him before now, but it rankled that Scorpius had managed it first.

Albus had stopped talking, and she looked back up. He looked very conflicted. "Spit it out," she told him, feeling horribly vulnerable. This was exactly why she hadn't talked to him about it. Albus might not be judgmental in general, but he could definitely make you feel ashamed of yourself.

Even when you hadn't really done anything wrong.

Well. Maybe her definition of 'anything wrong' wasn't really the same as Al's. She was sure that he would regard plenty of things about her conduct over the past few weeks as 'wrong.' Today hadn't been quite as bad, but she suspected that Albus wouldn't approve of her snogging his best friend again without telling him, either.

"Rose, you're my cousin and I love you. I do."

He stopped, and she unclenched her jaw long enough to say, "But?" This was even more uncomfortable than she'd thought it would be.

"But I think it's a really rubbish thing to do to play with someone's feelings like that when you don't like them," he said in a rush.

"What exactly did Scorpius tell you?" she asked. There was something about this conversation that just wasn't making sense.

"He said that he'd told you he likes you and that you've kissed a couple times. And I'm sure he was overstating things a bit because he wants you to like him, but you've still been…"

"He wasn't overstating things," Rose interrupted him. "We've kissed. Like, really kissed."

Albus stared at her for a moment. "Well, that makes everything else I was planning to say pointless." He took a deep breath and asked, "Okay, wait. Do you like him?"

She groaned. She knew this conversation had to happen, but she very much wished it didn't. "I hate you, Albus. Go away."

His eyes got wider. "You do. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You're his friend," she pointed out. She kept her eyes fixed on the table, which muffled her voice slightly.

He clearly wasn't listening. "How did you know he was feeling like this?"

"He's been weird lately. His reaction when he heard that Alex had asked me out was really strange. And… other things," she said vaguely, hoping that he wouldn't press but knowing that he probably would.

"Like what?" he demanded. "I mean, yes, I noticed his reaction, which was why I stopped the conversation and why I wasn't completely shocked today when he told me that he fancied you, but what 'other things' are you talking about?"

She didn't know if she wanted to get into this with him, but she was afraid she'd backed herself into a corner. "He kept blushing when I asked whether he found me attractive." Albus's face was stony, so Rose hurried to add, "And he kissed me in the Hospital Wing."

Her cousin blinked a few times. "Well, that's a lot to absorb. I'll get to the Hospital Wing thing, but stop trying to distract me. Why were you asking him that?"

"So, when you were talking to each other, in the corridor that one day… and he was saying he thought I was arrogant…"

"Go on," Albus said, after she'd trailed off. "I'd really love to hear how you eavesdropped on my private conversation with my friend. I take it he knows, because he doesn't assume that you respect me?"

She didn't even feel like she'd done anything really bad by eavesdropping, and she was still feeling terrible about herself. "I was just curious," she said, trying not to whine. "Because he was so nasty to me, and you guys started talking right there, and…" She stopped, feeling that she was probably not helping her case.

Rose would have felt better if Albus had started screaming. Instead, he sat back, crossed his arms, and said calmly, "Well, on one hand, I'm a little surprised that he's apparently gotten more interested in you knowing that, but on the other, I'm really starting to think that the two of you deserve each other. So, back to the Hospital Wing. He kissed you after he put you in there?"

"I - er - yes. On the cheek."

"And that's what he meant by kissing?"

"Well, no. Yesterday morning and this afternoon… well, they weren't just kisses on the cheek."

Rose was afraid that he would get annoyed again, but he didn't. Instead, he shook his head and leaned forward. "Then what were they? All he said was that you'd kissed by the lake yesterday and after class today."

"Well, today we were at it for about twenty minutes in one of the passages."

He goggled at her. "Holy hell. So where does that leave you?"

"He's your friend, why don't you ask him?" Albus looked stung, and she forced herself to calm down. "I'm sorry. Look, are you really that annoyed?"

Albus sighed. "I don't know. That you've been lying to me about why you've been so distracted and that he's apparently a lot more interested in you than he ever told me is definitely annoying me, yeah. I'm honest with you guys. Why can't you be honest with me?"

Rose hated Al's guilt trips. He was so good at them. "Because you have a talent for making me feel awful about myself even when I haven't done anything wrong."

"Then why doesn't it ever stop you from doing it again?" he asked. She didn't answer, and he shook his head. "No, I guess I'm not that annoyed. Or, I am, but I'll get over it."

"Look, I'm not just playing with his feelings or trying to make him feel bad. Okay?" He nodded. They spent the next hour in awkward silence before they both decided to call it an early night.

A/N: Well, this is fun.

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you can take a moment to leave a review. Either way, thank you for reading!

- Branwen