Rose remembered all too well what Scorpius had said about her eavesdropping. She knew that he would be exceedingly unhappy if he knew that she was there if she didn't speak up right now. The thought of his face if he found out made her seriously consider stepping out from behind the bookshelves, quickly, before he could answer Noah's question.

However, she wasn't entirely sure that she could have moved even if she'd wanted to. Her feet felt fixed to the spot.

"I know," she heard Scorpius say. "I know."

If she was going to say something to announce her presence, she knew she needed to say it now.

She didn't.

Noah sounded much less amused than he usually did when he was talking about Scorpius's feelings about Rose. "Scorpius, what is wrong with you?"

"Well, I didn't say it," Scorpius muttered defensively, and she wrinkled her nose, wishing that they would stop being so vague. She already knew that she was going to feel exceedingly guilty about this later, and she wanted the guilt to at least be worth her while.

"Did you mean it?" Noah asked. She wasn't always good at reading between the lines, and while she felt like she probably should have at least some inkling of what they were talking about, she didn't have a clue. She couldn't even think of a time recently where it had seemed like Scorpius was going to say something and didn't at the last minute, though Merlin knew that she wouldn't have necessarily noticed, anyway.

Scorpius cleared his throat. After a moment, he muttered something that she couldn't quite catch. She leaned in closer to the bookshelf and rose up on her tiptoes, though she doubted that either adjustment would help her hearing. She wished that she had an extendable ear with her, but she didn't have the nerve to summon one - it was too risky, and at any rate, it probably wouldn't even get there in time.

There was a long silence. Just as she was starting to get antsy, Noah spoke again. "Scorpius," he said in a voice that was far too calm to be natural, "you've been going out with her - or whatever you want to call it - for, what, a month? How can you love her?"

Rose's stomach leapt into her throat, and she felt her legs start to weaken. She allowed herself to sink down to the floor, afraid that if she didn't sit down immediately, her legs would give out, anyway.

She was so distracted by this revelation that she missed the next minute of conversation, and she refocused just as Scorpius said, "Look, I know it was stupid."

"No," she whispered sarcastically. "You think?" Now she knew exactly when he'd almost said it: it must have been by the lake. She was very glad he hadn't; at least now she could process it without having to talk to him, too, because at the moment, she had absolutely no idea how she felt about the revelation.

Noah muttered something. She couldn't hear the words, but his tone made his general sentiment clear: he thought that his cousin was an idiot.

"It just kind of felt right, you know?" Scorpius said. He sounded a little desperate, and she realised with a start just how unfortunate it was for him that he was going out with one of the two girls he couldn't possibly speak completely openly about with Albus. Rose was coming to understand the friendship the three boys shared a little better, and it was clear that Noah tended to be a little more blunt and a little less sympathetic.

Noah declined to answer the question directly. "You've spent four years antagonizing her, Scorpius. Really?"

"I like her now, though. She's funny and she does have a sweet side-"

Noah muttered something that Rose couldn't quite hear.

"Oh, shut up."

Noah's good humour finally seemed to be returning. "I've noticed. And by the way, I told you all of that last year, and the year before. You didn't believe me."

After a moment, Scorpius changed the subject; apparently, there was only so much talking about his feelings that he could take. Rose knew that she needed to get up and leave the area immediately, in case one of them got up to get a book, but she couldn't bring herself to rise.

"What are you doing?" she heard someone ask softly, and her head snapped up. A tall, thin boy was standing at the end of the aisle. At the sight of her face, he approached her quickly and noiselessly. "Are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down.

Rose glanced at the bookshelf separating her from Scorpius and Noah. Louis followed her gaze, and after a moment, he sighed.

"Who were you eavesdropping on?" he asked patiently, and she was startled out of her discomfort and awkwardness enough to let out an undignified snort. Sometimes her cousins knew her far too well.

"Scorpius Malfoy and Noah Nott," she whispered after a minute.

He rocked back on his heels. "Well, then. You're eavesdropping on your boyfriend and his cousin, who happens to be a prefect. That's not the best plan you've ever come up with, Rose. Do you even have the cloak with you?" She shook her head. "Of course you don't. Rosie, when you eavesdrop, you need to have an escape plan. Haven't you learned that by now?"

She smiled despite herself. "Sorry to disappoint."

He straightened up and offered her his hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet. "Okay." He reached back and pulled his wand out of his back pocket. "I'm going to help you out. Just this once." He tapped her head, and she immediately had the very uncomfortable sensation of ice-cold water running down the back of her neck. When she looked down, she found that she was essentially see-through.

Despite the difficulty she was having with processing what Scorpius was apparently feeling toward her, Rose couldn't help but appreciate the irony: she'd told him once that she'd eavesdropped on him using a Disillusionment Charm someone had cast on her, and here it was, coming true.

Her cousin jerked his head toward the door, and she followed him out. Once they'd gotten a safe distance from the library, he lifted the spell. The corridor was mercifully deserted, and she slumped against the wall. After a moment, she slid down it to sit on the floor.

Louis joined her. "So what happened?"

"I heard my boyfriend tell his cousin that he almost told me that he loves me," she said numbly.

To her surprise, Louis gave a snort of laughter. "Are you serious?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Merlin." He let his head rest on the wall behind them. "Teenagers."

"What, and you're not?"

"Well, I'm not fifteen." Louis shook his head. "What an idiot."

A sizable part of Rose agreed wholeheartedly with her cousin; she couldn't understand why Scorpius would ever consider telling her something that weighty when they'd barely been able to stand the other's presence until quite recently, whether or not he was feeling it. However, she also felt as though she really ought to be defending him - after all, she supposed that she really was basically his girlfriend, and wasn't that what girlfriends were supposed to do?

She compromised with a vague glower, and her cousin laughed out loud.

"Oh, stop, Rose," he told her. "I'm not trying to insult your boyfriend. It's just true."

She groaned and let her head drop onto her knees. "I know," she admitted into her trousers. "Ugh."

Louis patted her on the back. "Don't worry," he said cheerfully. "That's just how fifth years are. He'll - er - probably not actually get up the courage to say it for at least another month. Maybe two."

She turned her head toward him. "Not helping."

"I usually don't."

She sighed and pushed herself to her feet. "Thanks," she said as he followed suit. "Really. I think I'm going to head back to my Common Room."

He fell into step with her, and after a moment, he asked, "So are you going to tell Albus or James first?"

She put her hands behind her head and stretched as she considered the question. "I dunno. Maybe neither."

She could tell that he didn't really believe that she wouldn't tell them, and in all fairness, she wasn't entirely sure she could would be able to stop herself… but she did feel like the least she could do was at least tell Scorpius first.

"Good luck, at any rate," Louis said when they reached the fork that would take them each up to their respective towers. He gave her a hug that almost lifted her off her feet - Louis was much taller than she was - and added, "It'll be okay. I promise." She smiled faintly as he walked off.

When she returned to the Common Room, she avoided both of the Potter boys and joined Damien and Colleen at a table in one of the corners instead. Louis probably was right; she'd brave James's teasing and Albus's irritation for their advice, which she was feeling like she desperately needed.

However, she didn't think that she could deal with either one tonight, and she knew that they'd be able to tell that something was wrong. However, unlike Louis, they would almost certainly press her about it, and she didn't think that she could deal with that just yet.

Once she'd finished helping Colleen with their Herbology assignment, it was late enough for her to reasonably head upstairs. She was relieved to do so and avoid her cousins for the night.

It wasn't that she didn't trust them; she did. It was just that they'd want to know a lot more than Louis had, and at the moment, she was feeling so uneasy with the concept of Scorpius Malfoy loving her that she just wanted to forget it - or, barring that, push it as far out of her mind as possible. The very last thing she wanted was to spend time analyzing and dissecting it.

She also rather doubted that either Albus or James would fail to ask her the question that Louis had so tactfully avoided, and she didn't have an answer to it.

A/N: This is quite a short chapter, but it seemed like a reasonable ending point for a chapter. Thanks for reading, and as always, I love to hear what you guys think!

- Branwen