Rose had never really gotten on well with most Slytherins. However, as the weekend wore on, it seemed to her that there were a lot more unfriendly stares and mutters that followed her whenever she was out of the Gryffindor Common Room, and by the time she reaching History of Magic on Monday afternoon, she was fairly certain that she wasn't just being paranoid. Her confidence in this assessment was strengthened by the cool way one of the Slytherin girls she'd never had a conflict with before thanked her when Rose held the door to the classroom open for her, and she slid into the seat next to Albus feeling thoroughly irritated. Even Noah was sitting on the other side of the room, though he did manage a friendly nod in her direction.

Hey," she hissed to Scorpius, who was sitting on Al's other side.

He glanced over at her, his eyebrows raised inquisitively.

"Is there any reason everyone in your house is looking at me like I killed their kitten?"

Upon hearing this, Albus abandoned his doodles and turned his head toward Scorpius to hear his answer.

Scorpius rubbed his forehead, looking slightly uncomfortable, but was given a reprieve by Binns floating into the room through the chalkboard. "After class," he said softly.

She had the distinct feeling that he was buying time; it wasn't as though he ever paid attention in History of Magic, or like Binns would notice either way.

Sure enough, he and Albus spent most of the lesson playing hangman. As Rose struggled to follow the drone Professor Binns never seemed to deviate from, she resolved that neither of them was going to see her notes. If they failed their O.W.L.s, it was their own damned fault.

When class had ended and everyone else had filed out, both she and Albus turned expectantly to Scorpius.

"Well?" Rose asked. "Is it just because of you?" The idea that what was starting to feel like every Slytherin in the school but Scorpius was so resentful of their relationship all of a sudden felt outlandish, but she couldn't think of any other explanation.

He shook his head. "No, most people don't care - or they've said 'good one' or something like that. It's because of the Quidditch match."

Rose could see her confusion reflected in her cousin's face as they started toward the door. "Why should that matter?" Albus asked. "We're not even playing Slytherin."

"Well, no, you're not," Scorpius said slowly, "but there are still some hard feelings about the Cup last year, and most of them are really hoping to see Gryffindor flattened by Hufflepuff."

"Thanks for the support," Rose snapped. She was already feeling more than a little irritated with him for avoiding the subject long enough to come up with a good cover story if he wanted to.

He rolled his eyes and, as usual, refused to rise to the bait. "Rose, I didn't say I was hoping that. I said that most people in my house are. Though," he added, thinking about it, "I totally would be too if I wasn't sneaking off to kiss you all over the place."

"But why?" Albus asked.

Scorpius bit his lip as they started slowly down the corridor. "Albus, you know Kitty Roshan, right?"

"Of course," Albus said. "I make a point of knowing the people my cousins date."

"Right." Scorpius looked vaguely amused. Rose suspected that it was because of the similarity of Al's response to her own the night before when the two of them had been enjoying cups of hot cocoa in the kitchen, though the context had been a bit different. "Well, Kitty was…" He stopped, frowning, and then started again. "It's fair to say that Gryffindors worship your brother, right?"

Rose and Albus looked at each other, and after a moment, Albus reluctantly turned back to Scorpius. "I don't know if I'd say worship, exactly," he said, "but yes." It was a bit of an oversimplification - there were plenty of Gryffindors who didn't like James - but winning the Quidditch Cup did tend to make you popular around your house.

"Well, Kitty was kind of that for Slytherins," Scorpius said. "And it rankled that she didn't win the Cup as her last hoorah because you-" He glanced over at Rose. "- scored right before Noah caught the snitch." His voice was starting to get heated; he clearly was not quite over this. "We would have won the Cup if we'd tied the match, and he didn't even know you'd scored until he looked at the scoreboard. It was seconds before he caught the snitch. If that. We should have had the Cup."

"Oh, yeah. You're not bitter at all, are you?" asked Albus. Whatever his usual approach to interhouse friendships, he had no room for that tolerance when the Quidditch Cup was at stake.

"Yes, I'm a little bitter," Scorpius admitted after a moment. "I'm tired of Gryffindor winning the Cup, and I wish Kitty had won it in her last year."

"Yeah, well, we won fairly," Albus snapped. Rose was quite enjoying being able to sit back and let Albus fight the battle for her; it was nice not to be the bad guy for once.

"You also won narrowly," Scorpius pointed out. "There are still a lot of hard feelings about that. Without Kitty, we know we can't win the Cup, but most of them are hoping that you don't, either."

Rose and Albus were quiet for a moment, and then she said flatly, "That's stupid."

"It is," Albus agreed immediately. "We were outplaying you. We were 150 points ahead when Noah and Lily saw the snitch. We have a great team, not just a couple great players—"

"I know," Scorpius cut in.

"You'd have done the same thing," Albus added, talking over him. "Anyone would have done what Rose did, and she always tries to score when everyone's distracted by the snitch, your keeper should have been ready—"

"I know," Scorpius repeated. "I know. Kitty said the same thing about fifty times before the end of the year. It just didn't stick."

"Why not?"

Scorpius shifted his bag from one shoulder to the other and glanced around the corridor. There was no one in sight. "Some people think that Kitty couldn't be objective."

Rose and Albus exchanged an incredulous look. "Why wouldn't she be able to be objective?" Rose asked.

"Because so many people on your team are related to Dominique, and…" He trailed off.

Rose stared at him. "That's stupid," she said again. "They broke up last autumn, and what, was Kitty supposed to be trying to get her ex back by being nice to her cousins?"

"Apparently."

A silence followed while Rose and Albus digested what he'd said. "That is so typical," Rose muttered after a minute.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "What's so typical?"

She could tell she was treading into dangerous waters, but she found herself too irritated to care. Albus frowned, but didn't say anything, even though he had to know where this was heading. She took that as encouragement. "For Slytherins to react like that."

"Thanks," Scorpius said cooly. "If only we were more like Gryffindors. Being arrogant and judgmental and reckless is so much more attractive in a person. We're all very jealous, really."

Rose knew that if this conversation kept on in the direction it was going, it would just degrade into exactly the sort of encounters that had been typical of their relationship prior to this year, which she didn't really want. However, she couldn't help replying, "Apparently. Look who you've falling for."

His face flushed a little, but when he spoke, his voice was perfectly controlled. "Look who's talking." His eyes were still narrowed, and he had a rather nasty kind of smile on his face. "You talk up a storm about how Gryffindor is best house, and yet…" he trailed off, and she felt her temper really starting to rise.

Before she could respond, Albus cut in. "You both need to shut up." They looked at him, and he added, "Especially you, Scorpius."

Scorpius looked outraged. "You're taking her side?" In his irritation, he seemed to have completely forgotten that Albus had actually had a bigger hand in starting the argument than Rose had.

"Yes, I am," Albus said calmly. "She needs to stop before she says something she regrets, and she'll realize that once she calms down and you stop baiting her, but given how stupid that grudge is, it's fair that she be a little annoyed."

Rose had no interest in getting involved with this, so rather than engage, she took a few deep breaths, hoping to ease her temper a little.

"What a shock," Scorpius muttered. "Of course you'd side with her."

Albus was having none of it. "If your house won a Quidditch match last season by scoring just before someone caught the snitch, it'd have been a genius move. I'm saying that because I have a brain."

"I didn't say I thought they were being fair," his friend snapped. "But—"

"And, while we're on the topic," Albus added, his voice still calm, "I'll thank you to remember that I'm a Gryffindor, too, and I don't think that I'm particularly arrogant or judgmental." He grinned. "Maybe a little reckless, though." Scorpius opened his mouth, and Albus added, "I chose to be in my house, and I've never once regretted it."

Rose had known that, but she didn't think he'd ever told anyone outside of her, James, and his father. He certainly hadn't told Scorpius, who had been completely diverted from his anger and was staring at Albus like he'd grown a second head.

"You chose to be in Gryffindor?"

Her cousin was looking uncharacteristically smug. "Yes, I did."

"I always just assumed it stuck you there." Scorpius shook his head. "Why would you choose Gryffindor?" Rose glared at him. He ignored her.

"Because, shocking as it might be, I do value courage and nerve," Albus said, running his hand through his hair in exactly the same way his brother did. Rose had to work to hide a smile. "I just don't show it as much as some of my family does right now." He shook his head at his friend's dumbstruck expression. "I told you I wanted to be an Auror," he pointed out. "I don't see why it's so shocking that I'd value those traits."

"You don't have to be a Gryffindor to be an Auror," Scorpius said, who was still apparently very confused.

"No, you don't," Albus agreed. "But I wanted to be in Gryffindor. My brother was in Gryffindor, and so was Roxanne, and I knew that's where Rose would end up. And I value those traits. So I chose to be in Gryffindor."

"So you could have been in Slytherin?" She could see the wheels in Scorpius's head turning, and she couldn't help laughing aloud. Albus was so far from being a Slytherin it was comical to think that anything with any sense would have ever put him there.

"Did I say that?" Albus asked mildly. "The hat was between two different houses. I didn't say one of them was Slytherin."

"What was the other option, then?" his friend demanded. In Rose's opinion, Scorpius was being especially slow. There was only one other house Albus would have fit in.

Albus ran his hand through his hair again, and this time, Rose couldn't hide a smile. "Hufflepuff." He looked at Rose. "What?"

She shook her head. "You're doing that thing with your hair that James always does."

He started. "Am I?" he asked in surprise. "I never do that."

"You do it sometimes," Rose said. "Just not very often."

"I do?"

"Yes," Scorpius agreed distractedly. "You do. Not very often, but you do. I notice it, because it always throws me."

Albus blinked a few times, clearly disconcerted. "I didn't know that." He shook himself, and brought the conversation back to its original topic. "You have to admit that their reasoning is really stupid."

"I know," Scorpius said tiredly. Al's revelation seemed to have dampened his irritation dramatically. "Albus, Rose, I do know. You asked me why. That's why. Kitty was worshipped by almost everyone in my house. They're just…" He trailed off and shrugged. "Look, I didn't say I felt like that."

"Do you?" Albus asked suspiciously.

Scorpius shook his head. "Not really. I hated the Gryffindor Quidditch team for my own reasons."

"You just used past tense," Rose pointed out.

"Intentionally," he said dryly. "Believe it or not, I'm feeling much more favorably disposed to your team now that everyone I disliked on it has stopped being quite so unfriendly toward me."

"I told you."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "I think that you all might have redeeming characteristics. My previous opinion is still largely intact."

"I'd better have redeeming characteristics." Rose nudged him, and he smiled faintly. "Come on. I have to get the Common Room to get a little work done before dinner, and right after dinner I have practice."

"You think you might find it in you to root for Gryffindor, Scorpius?" Albus teased as the three made their way toward the stairs.

"I actually told Rose the other day - I think I am rooting for Gryffindor." When Albus looked taken aback, he shrugged. "I don't especially care about anyone on the Hufflepuff team, and it seems unsporting to root against Gryffindor when they're making an effort to, you know, be friendly. Even if James's idea of 'friendly' is green hair."

When she and Albus reached the turn that would take them to the staircase to Gryffindor tower, they both turned.

"Are you both irritated with me?" Scorpius asked, leaning against the railing. "Because that would be stupid."

Albus shook his head, and they both looked at Rose. "A little," she admitted. "But I'll get over it by the time practice is done."

He sighed and turned away. "I'll see you, then."

Albus was quiet as they climbed the stairs. Once they'd climbed through the portrait hole to their common room, however, Albus said, "His face was priceless."

Rose giggled. "Yes. It was."

"What was priceless?" a familiar voice called. Rose and Albus looked toward it, and saw James and Marion sitting at a nearby table. They joined them.

"Have you both been getting excessive nastiness from Slytherins lately?" Albus asked them.

James grinned and leaned back in his chair. "I don't know what excessive means. I think most Slytherins consider me their least favorite person in the school."

Marion smirked. "That's true enough." She frowned for a minute, and then said, "Though yes, come to think of it. I remember thinking that it was a little strange, since we're not playing them, but I assume they're still bitter about the Cup last year."

"They are," Albus said. "Apparently, they think we won unfairly and that Kitty told them to lay off was because she was pining after Dominique."

James and Marion both stared at him for a moment, and then James said, "That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Whose face was priceless?"

"Scorpius. I told him I chose to be in Gryffindor."

His brother smirked. "I'm sure he loved that."

Marion, on the other hand, looked surprised. "Did you?"

"Yes," Albus said. "I could have been a Hufflepuff."

The front legs of his chair thudded onto the ground, and James reached across the table to ruffle his brother's hair. "He knew that Gryffindor was where all the best people were."

Albus rolled his eyes. "Yes, James. That was exactly it."

"We all know you want to be just like me."

Marion nudged him. "James, one of you is already more than the world can take."

He grinned. "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"I think I meant it as one," she said, smiling back.

Rose and Albus exchanged a look, but neither of them felt daring enough to actually ask the two sixth years about the status of their relationship (or lack thereof).

Rose and Albus exchanged a look, but neither of them felt daring enough to actually say something. Instead, they both began to work on their History of Magic assignment that was due the next morning.

James ended up calling practice off early that evening. Ostensibly it was out of the goodness of his heart because they'd been practising so much lately, but given how quickly both he and Marion disappeared once they got back to the castle, she had her doubts.

Rather than dwell on it, however, Rose headed to the library to retrieve a book before returning to the Gryffindor Common Room. She'd bother James about it later, when he was in a much better mood.

She'd just retrieved the book when she heard Noah's voice. She was about to stick her head out from behind the bookshelf when she processed what he'd just said: "Wait, you almost said what to Rose Weasley?"

A/N: Scorpius needs to stop talking to Noah about important things in the library. (In his defense, there are a couple Slytherin yearmates I think he'd actually like to have eavesdrop on this sort of thing than Rose, but still. Come on, Scorpius.)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, and thanks so much for reading!

- Branwen