A/N: As usual because of my hectic life, you had to wait for 2+ months even though I'm on my break right now. Sorry about that. Well, I still hope you enjoy the chapter ;] By the way, to LittleSuzieQ and yellow 14, your questions on why the Potter brothers didn't hear anything in the last chapter will be answered here.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JK Rowling.

Chapter 24

"I know something that you boys might think I know nothing about."

Albus and James looked up from their books to find their older cousin standing just in front of them, wearing a smirk on her face. Without waiting for their permission, the girl proceeded to take a seat on that very spot and rested her chin on her propped elbow. She stared at the Potter brothers as though asking them to respond to her sentence just now.

"Well?" Dominique prompted as time passed by without any of them conversing.

James looked away and scratched the back of his head even though it wasn't itchy at all. "Err, can you repeat what you said?"

She hung her head and sighed. She looked up. "I know something that you boys might think I know nothing about."

"And that is?" James looked confused as he tilted his head slightly.

Dominique smiled again and motioned them to come closer. Once they did, she leaned in and whispered, "Scorpius is our cousin's secret admirer."

Albus widened his eyes in shock, whereas the older brother just stared at her.

"How did you know?" asked Albus, earning him a hit from James as if telling him that he wasn't supposed to say anything. He looked at his brother, placing an angry look on his face. "What? She knew already. What's there to deny about?"

The older cousin laughed at the view in front of her. "Well, to answer your question: I had my ways."

James sighed. "How long?"

"For a while," she answered. She looked away for a moment before turning back to the two boys in front of her. "Well, since the first present actually."

Albus' eyes widened again. "That long? Was he that obvious?"

Dominique smiled softly. "Come on, everybody in school knows that he fancies her. He's the perfect candidate."

"Does that mean that everyone knows that he's the secret admirer?" he muttered, just in case someone decided to eavesdrop into their conversation.

"Not sure about that."

"Does Rose know?" It was James' turn to ask. He and Albus leaned even closer.

The only girl sighed deeply. "Well…"

James hung his head. "I told him to declare his feelings. But he's too scared." He placed his chin on top of his arms that were crossed on the table in between the cousins. "So what do you suggest we do about this?"

"Nothing, I guess." Before the two boys could reply, she added, "Just let them reveal their own secrets. We don't have to join in their so-called complicated love lives." She paused. "Well unless they do something about it before they turn old and grey. For now we'll just watch from the side."

The three of them started laughing at the last sentence. It felt nice talking and laughing about nothingness when all they could think about and do was to study. They all needed a break because they certainly deserved it.

"You know, I've always wanted to ask you two this question," Dominique started after they were sober. "Whose idea was it? The secret admirer."

Albus raised his hand. "But we all contributed some ideas for the presents."

"Oh, I would have thought that it was all Scorpius' ideas."

James seemed to remember something. "Before we continue to talk about this whole secret admirer matter, I have to make sure: this conversation never leaves the table, right? Because if Rose knows everything, it wouldn't be as much fun." As soon as he got a nod from her, he continued, "To be completely honest, he's really clueless when it comes to giving presents."

"Really?"

He nodded several times to make his point more obvious. "How many presents has Rose got from both him and the Secret Admirer?" He turned to look at his brother. "Five? Six?"

"Well, the normal and the everlasting roses." Albus started counting with his fingers. "That's two." He looked up as if the ceiling could somehow help him. "Err, the inscribed quill. That's three."

"Don't forget the stuffed cat that looks like Crookshanks," Dominique helped. "Four."

James tilted his head. "I'm sure we left something." He paused before waving off his hand, indicating that he couldn't remember any at the moment. "Anyway out of everything we've listed, he only thought of the stuffed cat. Others have been either Albus or my idea."

"Well, he sort of thought about the everlasting rose," Albus said. He turned to look at Dominique. "I'm sure you know what happened when we were talking about it back then, in this very spot. Scor said that you were nearby."

The girl smiled. "You three weren't exactly quiet discussing about it." Her eyes darted between Albus and James. "And you should feel lucky that Rose was still in the Great Hall. If she heard everything…" She shook her head with a frown, not liking the image at all.

They were still talking about Scorpius and his secret when suddenly the door to the Common Room made a creaking sound, signalling someone was entering the room. The three of them turned their heads to find the subject of the conversation and his crush laughing about something. They immediately looked back and cowered so they wouldn't be seen.

"Okay, like you said," Dominique turned to look at James, "whatever we've talked about just now never leaves this table. So this is a secret between us three." She looked at Albus before looking back at the older brother. "And let's pretend we didn't hear them coming in. They look like they're still having fun on their little date." She giggled softly.

Being a mischievous boy that he was, James ignored the others' silent screams and slowly got to his knees to chance a look at the couple. Scorpius was now talking to her animatedly, whereas Rose looked down with a slight blush on her cheeks. James bit his lower lip to avoid laughing out loud and sat again.

"So, what are they doing?" Albus asked.

"They're just talking – well more like Scorpius was the only one talking, and Rose was blushing."

Albus and Dominique laughed quietly.

James turned to look at his cousin. "I think you'd better go back, Dom. You know, just in case one of them decides to come here."

The girl nodded. "Okay, I'll talk to you two soon." She slowly got up and once the coast was clear, she smiled at them before casually walking to where she was before. She had to resist the urge to look at the stairs where Scorpius and Rose were currently at because it was too tempting. In the end, she succeeded and finally arrived at her favourite place to study.

Meanwhile, the Potter brothers went back to their original seats on the sofa. James, being able to see what's going on, carefully looked to his right and saw the couple staring at each other. Rose was suddenly leaning in, causing James to widen his eyes. He immediately looked away.

"Why? What happened?" Albus asked, confused at his brother's weird behaviour.

James looked up. "We really have to be excellent actors." Without waiting for a response, he shook his head and picked up his book as a decoy. He suddenly heard some hasty footsteps nearing, so he whispered, "I think he's coming."

As if he could read minds, Scorpius indeed came and quickly went to take a seat beside Albus.

It was a few weeks after the date. As it was nearing the end of the year, they were all busy doing whatever homework the teachers had mercilessly given and studying for their upcoming exams simultaneously. That included the Secret Admirer whose mind was always on his studies, no matter how much he wanted to burn the books and throw away the ashes into the lake.

Suddenly there was a shout just nearby. Everyone in the Common Room looked up, some in shock and some in annoyance. It was James who later on proceeded to laugh like a maniac, causing the audience to shake their heads and go back to their own business. However, Albus and Scorpius kept looking at the older friend with worry etched on their faces.

"I think you should take a break for a few minutes," Albus suggested, patting his brother on the back.

"More like for a few hours," Scorpius mumbled. He then got the book off of his friend's hand before James started doing something stupid like throw it to the burning wood in the fireplace. "Go and take a walk or something."

James leaned his head back against the sofa. "I'd rather sleep because I'm scared that I might run into the Forbidden Forest and never come back." He paused. "No, actually that's a great idea. Then I wouldn't have to do the bloody exams. I should do that instead," he said as he made the move to stand up.

"You're mental," the younger brother made a comment and pulled his hand so he could take a seat again. "Just rest your eyes."

He sighed before doing as told and leaning his head back one more time. "I don't know why this bothers me a lot compared to last year."

"That means you're more hardworking now."

Albus, James and Scorpius looked up at the new voice. The newcomer just put a simple smile and walked off to another direction, seemingly looking for something as her head went from left to right continuously.

"Did you lose something, Rosie?" asked Albus, his eyes following wherever his cousin was going.

She then dropped to her knees to start crawling around, not really caring if people thought she was crazy. "My locket." She crawled back to where they were and hit James' leg. "Get up," she mumbled. "I have to find it or Mum's going to kill me."

James frowned in annoyance. "Now you're mental." He did as he was told and in the end he took a seat on the sofa. "I don't think she's that cruel."

Rose snorted. "Now we don't know that." She sighed and turned to lean back against the sofa. "Mum gave it to me for a birthday present."

"You tried your room?"

She narrowed her eyes at Scorpius who just asked the question. "Do you really need an answer for that? Of course I have." She sighed again. "I even tried the library."

"Tried Accio?"

It was her second time to snort that day. "I'm not a very good catcher so I don't want to take my chances of getting poked in the eye."

"I'll help you then," James offered as he took out his wand from the bag on the floor. But before he could cast the spell, his arm was grabbed by his cousin. He looked to his right. "What? Don't you want to find your locket?"

"But you're not exactly in your right state of mind at the moment."

He gasped dramatically. And for even an extra effect, he placed his hand in front of his chest. "I was trying to help and what I got is an insult?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. What if you poke your own eye?" She let go of her grab on his arm. "Or worse: what if you Accio someone else's locket? I don't want to see people flying around because of you."

Much to her irritation, the other three laughed like there's no tomorrow. She could just sigh and shake her head. But it seemed like they wouldn't stop any time soon. And so without her consent, her lips twitched upwards and she soon followed. Even when the whole attention was on them, they didn't care because they all deserved to have a relaxed moment where they just let go.

After another half hour of chatting, Rose continued to search for her missing locket downstairs in the Great Hall. She had to find it before the exams started because she didn't think she could handle the pressure of not thinking about the lost object when actually writing the exam answers.

Meanwhile the boys continued studying since rest was now over. Albus had his left elbow propped to place his chin on his hand, James now curled up on the sofa hoping to at least finish one chapter that day, and Scorpius lay down on the carpeted floor with a book above him (he needed to do some laundry anyway).

Only five minutes later, Scorpius put down his book on his right side and looked to his left to find himself face to face with a small item with a shape of a heart. He curiously picked it up and started to check it out just in case it had a name on it. There wasn't, so he opened the small latch to reveal two tiny pictures, one on each side. He widened his eyes and got up to a sitting position, surprising Albus who was apparently concentrating on doing one of his unlimited homework.

"Sorry," he mumbled as he got a whack from his friend. He grinned sheepishly and showed Albus what he just found. "I think this is what Rose was looking for."

Albus gasped. "It is," he replied. His eyes darted to the right to see a picture of Rose, her parents and brother. On the left was a picture of the complete Weasley grandchildren, plus the Potter siblings. He smiled as the people on the pictures were waving at him.

"What's that?" asked James, who looked immensely interested because he finally got distracted from studies. He slid down the sofa to take a seat on the floor before noticing what the item on Albus' hand was. "Hey, that's Rosie's locket. Where'd you find it?"

"Right next to me," Scorpius answered. "I'm surprised she didn't find it just now."

The oldest boy narrowed his eyes as he looked at the blond one. "Are you sure you didn't hide it so she wouldn't find it?"

He scowled. "And why would I do that?"

James shrugged off his shoulders. "Oh I don't know, maybe so you could give it to her later? So she would think that you're her hero or something?"

"What are you talking about?" Scorpius looked at him ridiculously. "You're not making any –"

"That's it!" Albus cut off the childish argument as he clapped his hands once. He turned his face to Scorpius. "Keep this locket and give it to her later with another gift."

Scorpius tilted his head. "I'm not sure I'm following you."

Albus leaned in closer so nobody could hear the conversation. "You haven't given her anything for a while. So why do you want to let this chance go to waste?" He nodded his head multiple times to make a point. "You can give her a pendant or a new chain."

James suddenly grinned and tousled his brother's hair. "Al! You're in a roll, aren't you?" Seeing the confusion plastered on the other's faces, he continued, "You're the one who gave the idea of giving her the Everlasting Rose and the inscribed quill. Where did you learn to be so romantic?"

Albus blushed and shoved his brother's body, only to earn himself a loud laugh. "Stop it. You're really weird today, James."

The boy who was cracking himself up was finally sober. "Okay fine, I'm sorry. Anyway, Albus is right. Scorpius should send her something if you still want to be her Secret Admirer."

Edit: 10.12.11

A/N: I decided to keep it to 25 chapters. Sorry for being indecisive. So yes, next chapter is the last chapter of this story. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review ;]

Til next time..