Thanks for still reading you guys, glad you're still liking these, I hope anyways. Here's the next chapter.

I wanted to write something with a bit more emotion to it, so this is the prompt I chose. Plus, I'm not really feeling a fic outside of Hogwarts at the moment, and this one let me set it easily at Hogwarts. Hope you like it. :D

Prompted by mixed suggestions from Purple-Tube-Flowers and heather blaze, and something similar from I Can Hear the Sea:

A friend will never see you cry,

A best friend will hold you when you break down into tears.

Hogwarts terms always ended on the Friday - logical, I know, but you'd be surprised how many muggle schools I'd seen ending on a Tuesday or a Thursday, and once I swear the local muggle Secondary near where my parents lived ended its term on a Monday. Completely pointless.

Anyway, Hogwarts liked to be logical, so we always ended term on the Friday and got the Hogwarts Express home on the Saturday. The only exception was the last day of summer term, the last day of the year, where we'd end on Friday and get the train home on the Sunday.

You'd think we'd complain about having to stay at school an extra day, but actually, it gave most of us the time to pack (unless you were Rose or Louis, and happened to pack two weeks in advance), rather than the usual Saturday morning dash.

Nobody really packed on Friday night - that was the end of term party. Every year the Seventh Years would host it up at the Shrieking Shack. The teachers must know it happens - after all, most of them had attended Hogwarts themselves, and it was a long tradition - but they never mentioned it.

It was a part of Hogwarts tradition, and we liked tradition here.

So on Saturday night, I was actually all packed and ready to leave in the morning. I waltzed into the Gryffindor Common Room looking for Rose (read: looking for Rose so that I could brag about it).

Albus, Lily and Dominique were teasing a rather glum looking Hugo about his new haircut (which actually suited him really well, according to some fifth year girls I'd overheard gossiping).

He sat slumped on the rug near the fire, trying to read his book.

Dom and Lily were sitting on the sofa, Dom plaiting Lily's hair, whilst Al sat at the desk playing Chess with himself, but still managing to find concentration to multitask and tease his cousin at the same time.

I collapsed into the armchair, glancing around the rest of the Common Room briefly, then thought I'd save Hugo by interrupting the others.

"Has anybody seen Rose?"

Hugo gave me a grateful grin, then shook his head and returned back to his book which was obviously engrossing him because when I'd walked into him earlier outside the Great Hall he'd been twenty pages into it - he was now 710.

I allowed myself a moment to take that in - those two were insane at reading. I swear Rose could read, without skimming, a whole page in less than five seconds.

Which brought me back to…

"I saw her at lunch," Dom mumbled, hair clips in her mouth as she focused on Lily's hair. "She was going to talk to McGonagall."

"About the Head Girl thing?" I asked, suddenly remembering. In my trunk-packing haze today, I hadn't see my best friend, and I'd completely lost track of the time.

I checked my watch. It was 4.30pm - Rose should have been back by now, should have already sought me out to brag about her achievement.

But she hadn't.

Which only meant one thing.

"Oh yeah," Al spared me a glance, before spinning his chess board round and staring at it intensely again. "I forgot that was today."

"I just lost track of the time," I admitted, suddenly anxious. "Do you think she's okay?"

"Why wouldn't she be?" Lily asked as she looked up from her magazine.

The others, apart from Hugo, all looked up at me at once. I tried to make a signal with my eyes - because I thought it was just that darn obvious - but they weren't getting it.

Bloody genius', this family.

"Because," I started slowly, "she isn't here… she's probably hiding in her room… what does that tell you?"

"That she didn't get Head Girl?" Lily muttered offhandedly.

I gave her a perplexed look, which the others didn't seem to share. "Exactly!"

"No, we know that," Dom agreed, completely unfazed. In fact, none of them looked concerned. "We saw her a couple of hours ago when she came back - she said Holly got it."

I spluttered a couple of times, suddenly leaning forwards in my seat, "And you didn't tell me this? You didn't ask how she was? You didn't think she'd be upset?"

Dom rolled her eyes at me as Al said, "She seemed fine, Scor. Stop worrying."

"Yeah, you're worse than Hugo," Lily commented.

Hugo didn't spare us a glance. He probably hadn't even heard his name being mentioned. Best to just leave him when he got like this, and tell him what he missed a few days later when he resurfaced from his book.

"So… what? She just looked fine to you lot, so you left her?"

Al glared at me, a little annoyed now. "We asked her if she was okay, she said yes, then she said she was going to go finish packing and have a lie down."

I swore under my breath as I stood up abruptly. The nature of my reaction finally fazed them.

"What?" Dom asked, hair clips still in her mouth as she half focused on Lily's hair still.

"You guys don't know her like I do," I told them sincerely. "Rose is not okay with this."

"She didn't even look upset," Dom protested. "Honestly, Scorpius, I think you're overreacting. Remember last year when she lost out on that Shield for School Liaison Student? She wanted it just as much as this, but she didn't care that she didn't get it. That's just Rose - she takes things as they come and doesn't fret over them."

I rolled my eyes. "Merlin, you guys are more stupid than Hugo looks-"

"Hey!"

Okay, so he heard that.

"-She cried for about three hours straight when she lost that Shield. And she cares way more about getting Head Girl than that stupid award."

Lily put her magazine down and fixed me with a look which I like to call 'Ginny isn't amused'. "She doesn't cry, Scorpius. Stop overreacting."

I just rolled my eyes, and pretended to air-strangle the lot of them.

"You guys are so frustrating!" I growled, then spun on my heels and sprinted up the stairs to the girls dormitories.

Now, I don't like to brag, but I'm three times national champion at the 100 metres (we do play sports other than Quidditch at Hogwarts, you know), and I'm pretty tall, so I managed to take the stairs almost three at a time.

As soon as I reached the top and made a grab for the railing, the steps below me snapped downwards and morphed into one slide.

I allowed myself a sly grin at that.

Good try, McGonagall.

I hurried down the third corridor to my right and stopped at the second door on the left.

I knocked tentatively.

The sobbing I knew I could hear through the wooden door stopped abruptly. Then she was unable to hold it for too long, and a sharp, loud cry escaped.

I knocked again.

"Rosie?" I called gently, leaning my forehead on the door. "Rosie, it's me. Open the door."

A sound of sniffing, sobbing and what I assumed was an attempt at talking, reached me, but she didn't come and open the door.

It wasn't locked, but I wanted to give her the chance to open it herself. I wanted to help her, but if she wanted to be left alone, I wasn't going to interrupt her solitude.

"Rosie?" I called again. "It's Scorpy."

I winced at the nickname, but hey, I'd used it. So sue me, nobody was around for it to be embarrassing.

There was the sound of some shuffling, then a pause.

Then the door handle twisted and it creaked open an inch.

Rose was wearing a long shirt and leggings, her hair was tied back in a ponytail, but most of her bangs and short layers had escaped and were chaotic as they framed her face. Her eyes were red and puffy, and there was a line of mascara trailing from one eye, a line of tears from the other.

"Oh, Rose…" I sighed gently, stepping forward to hug her.

She wrapped her hands around my waist so tightly I didn't think I'd be able to breath if she held on for too long, but I didn't complain.

"You used the nickname," She mumbled into my chest, her face hidden away from mine.

I stroked her hair. "You're upset," I said simply.

"But you hate it when I call you that when I'm sad," She mumbled back.

I guided her into the room, trying not to trip over her feet, or my own, and sat us both down on the bed.

She looked at me with such a pitiful look that I thought I might start tearing up a little.

"No I don't," I smiled at her. "I don't mind. You can call me anything you like."

She gave me a half-hearted 'I don't believe you' look, but then bit her lip as another wave of emotion overtook her and she started crying again.

"Oh, shhh," I pulled her to me again and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, Rosie. You don't need Head Girl. Everybody knows just how amazing you are anyway. Who needs the title?"

"Holly Nunes does," She sobbed into my shoulder. I knew it was a mistake wearing a new shirt, but I didn't care right at that moment. She could cry into it as much as she liked.

"Well that's because she'd not as amazing as you are," I replied quickly. "She doesn't have the consistent grades, or the optimism, or the sense of humour that you have."

I felt my best friend bite her lip again, in an attempt to stop the tears. "You're… you're so nice to me."

Then she burst into another round of sobs.

"Rose," I stroked her hair again, trying not to smile at her craziness. "There's no need to cry over that, of course I'm nice to you - I'm your best friend."

"But… But I… I'm mean to you," She breathed.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm your best friend," I repeated. "You're allowed to be mean to me."

She pulled back enough to look at me, but kept her hands intertwined with mine. "Even when I call you Scorpy?"

I grinned. "Even then."

"Okay," She sighed. "You can call me Tinchy then."

I grinned again. "I was going to anyway, but thank you."

She pretended to smack me on the arm, but I caught the smile on her tear-stained face.

"So how about we go and TP Holly's dorm room?" I suggested.

She laughed, and I saw her wipe the tears from her eyes, conflicted with the two emotions. "As tempting as that seems…"

"Or we could go get some ice-cream and doughnuts from the kitchen?" I suggested.

"That's probably a better use of our time," She conceded. "I'm still Prefect after all - I don't want to lose all my credit."

"And you're the best Prefect," I reminded her as I grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. "Now come on, let's clean up your face first."

I pulled her into the bathroom across the hall and rinsed a flannel to run over her face. As I wiped the tears away, she pulled her hair out of its messy bun and brushed it through with a comb.

"There," I smiled at my best friend. "Just as beautiful as always. Who needs Head Girl status, eh?"

She gave me a humble, embarrassed smile at the compliment, then surprised me by leaning forward and placing a kiss on my cheek.

"What was that for?" I asked when she pulled away, trying to not grin like an idiot.

"Thank you," She told me sincerely.

"Anytime," I smiled, and pulled her towards the doughnuts that were calling us.

I hope you liked this. As always, I'd love a review? :D