"So, what is it?" James asked half annoyed, half concerned. His brother usually wasn't so serious.

"I need the map."

"Al! It's my week! You know that! You'll have to wait until next week to sneak out."

"James, please!" Albus pleaded. "I only need it for a half an hour."

"Why?"

"Uhhhmmm. Its a secret."

James looked at Al with a scowl on his face. "Fine." He huffed. "If it's sooo important."

Albus nodded with a serious look on his face and James stomped up to his dorm to fetch the Marauder's map.

Roxie, another one of Albus' numerous cousins, wandered over and asked him why he was in the Gryffindor common room and not the dungeons.

"Secret mission."

"OOOO! I love those! Can I come?" She hopped from foot to foot excitedly.

"I dunno. You're only a third year, can you handle it?"

"YES!" She cried indignantly. "What's the mission?"

Albus smiled. "I'll tell you later."

Roxie pouted. "No fair."

Albus looked around to check for eavesdroppers and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Three minutes after I leave sneak out the portrait hole, if anyone asks say you're going down to the kitchens."

"Then what?"

"I'll be waiting behind that suit of armor with the red feather plume."

"The one that always sings Jingle Bells during Christmas?"

"Not so much singing as butchering." Albus' ears ached just thinking about it.

She nodded eagerly and went back to where Lily was sitting, chatting with a few other girls.

James clattered down the stairs and shoved the yellowing wrinkled piece of parchment in his hands.

"Where ever you're going bring me back some pudding."

Albus mumbled, "Aye-aye captain."

"I can't heeeear you!" James called back in his salty pirate accent.

"AYE-AYE CAPTAIN"

"Fare the well Corneal!"

Albus turned around and gave him a brisk salute before slamming the portrait door shut.

"What are you all looking at?" James called. The Gryffindors when back to whatever they were doing. The Potter boys were just too much sometimes.

As she promised Roxie slipped out after Albus under the guise that she was going to get something to eat. No one questioned it. Her appetite was as voracious as her Uncle Ron's.

"Well, what's it all about?" She asked excitedly.

"You put your right leg, in you put your right leg out, you put your ri-Ow! Fine!"

"Seriously Al? What the F-"

"OI!" Al cried covering her mouth.

"What?"

"First, never ever ask me what its all about or any variation of that. That will be your answer. Second, don't start cussing! Your mum will find out and then blame me or James or one of the other ones and then OUR mums'll get involved. I swear they're in cahoots!"

Roxie just wrinkled her nose at him. "Hurry uuuuup."

"Urg, fine. Rose and Scorpius are sneaking behind my back and I need them to not to. So I'm gonna sneak up on them." He smiled at her proud of himself.

She looked at him like he was an idiot. "Really? Our Rose? Our Rosie?" Roxie didn't know weather to laugh or cry. "Albus I thought you knew her better than that! I mean she's had a boyfriend once, and that was for like a month. And she would never do something like that because you would find out and it would cut into her studying time!"

"What? No. They are."

"No, they aren't"

"Yes, they are. Look at the map!"

"So they're in the library together. Wow, I doubt she's helping him with his marks. I mean he's such a good student." Roxie got her sarcasm from her mother. Her mother was very proud of it.

"No he's not. Oh...I see what you did there." Al has a habit of being gullible; he never knows when someone's being sarcastic. Though in this case Roxie was right, Scorpius was an excellent student, but also very good at pretending he wasn't. Also Albus wasn't allowed to tell anyone that his best friend was just as smart as Rose; Scorpius had a reputation to uphold. "But why wouldn't he ask me for help? I've got just as good of marks as Rose and I'm his best friend."

"Remember that incident with the first year?"

"Oh yeah." He had been meaning to ask that kid if the scars had healed well. Albus sighed. "Well there goes my night."

"Mmhmm." Roxie sighed too; disappointed her spy mission was suddenly unnecessary. "Want some pudding?"

"Hell yeah!"

They snuck off humming the Mission Impossible theme song because neither was willing to give up their dream of a secret mission that night. James didn't get his pudding, but Al did get a funny shaped rash on his bum a few days later. It looked suspiciously like a bowl of pudding.

Mean while back at the library Rose pulled herself away from Scorpius to take a much needed breath. Her lips weren't lonely for long and were soon occupied doing something that made her brain melt.

Catch the Spongebob reference? Trust me I have the song stuck in my head right now . I'm also not happy with the kiss scene. It needs work but that was the best I could do.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I blame lack of inspiration, homework, and One Piece. I swear the manga is a drug.

~Lavender