A/n: Let's get straight to reading!

Nell

'Nell, you are of age. Those petty squabbles should be behind you.' My mother berates me as we trudge through the snow in the back yard towards the gate. 'I mean, really? Hair pulling and hexing?'

We're on our way to the McLaggens for dinner. Our houses are separated only by a lane.

Yippee.

'Mum!' I cry, exasperated. She's talking about our disastrous shopping trip this morning. We're only four days into our holiday and already McLaggen and I have nearly killed each other. 'He was the one doing the hair pulling!'

'And then you hexed him and he hexed you back and honestly I've never been more embarrassed in my life. I'll never be able to show my face in Mme Malkin's again.'

'He turned me purple and gave me fur, mum. Aren't you the least bit worried about that?' I'd been a bright violet all afternoon.

She talks over me. 'No fighting tonight. It's not just Claire, Cormac and Klause at dinner – they've been invited Klause's cousin and her boyfriend and they want him to think they're normal.'

'Bara's coming?' I perk up immediately.

Bara Pips is my favorite person in the whole wide world, despite being related to my least favorite. She's older than me by a few years and has a way of thwarting McLaggen's every move. She doesn't agree with me that he's a prick, but sympathises with me nonetheless.

I skip on to the McLaggen's house happily.

Claire opens the door, kissing my mother's check and falling into the latest gossip. It's as if they're still teenaged girls with the way they chatter. Cormac is in the kitchen preparing dinner and he offers my father a whiskey. I get a butterbeer. McLaggen and I never get alcohol at these family dinners.

I leave the parents behind, moving into the dining room where McLaggen is setting the table with a scowl.

'You're pink again.' He comments.

'No thanks to you.' I sniff. 'You've stopped giggling.'

'Barra knew the counter curse.'

'Where is she?'

He hitches his thumb over his shoulder to the living room.

'Nell!' She cries when I enter, springing up from her spot on the loveseat where she'd been sitting with a man.

'Barra.' I smile as she ducks to hug me, her short brown hair tickling my face. She tugs me towards the man. 'This is Gary.' He's tall, muscular, and very attractive. He wraps his arm around her waist as he stands and pecks her on the cheek.

'It's nice to meet you, Nell.' He says, smiling charmingly. 'I'll go see if they need a hand with dinner. You two probably want some time to talk.'

She watches him leave, smiling and sighing.

'How long?' I ask.

'Six months, since the summer. I'm so happy, Nell.'

'I can see.'

'But what about you?' She asks, gripping my hand. 'Seventh year, playing quidditch – any boys to speak of?'

'You know I'll always have Mc – Klause.' I grin, watching him glare from the other room at the mention of his name. 'And he's got a friend who had been fairly attentive. We're meeting for coffee tomorrow.'

'You're going out with Arne tomorrow?' McLaggen enters the room.

'Yes, but you're not invited this time.'

'I wasn't really invited the first time either.' He winks. 'What about yesterday?'

'Yesterday?' I ask, confused.

He looks equally confused. 'What did you do yesterday?'

'Mum took me to her office for some interviews, then Ruth and I went for lunch. Why?'

'No reason.' He replies, turning back into the dining room.

Barra looks between us, opening her mouth to speak, wearing a quizzical expression. Gary interrupts, carrying a steaming bowl of vegetable.

'We're about to eat, love.'

We settle in at the table, McLaggen and I separated by both sets of parents and the happy couple. He's quiet and fidgety all night, and when I give him an opening for an insult he lets me down.

His strange attitude has me concerned – not for his wellbeing, to be sure, but for my own.

I narrow my eyes at him. He catches my gaze and immediately looks away.

He's up to something.

Rose

If the aunts and uncles can sense the tense atmosphere, they don't let on. There's Christmas music playing and there's always something baking and everyone is merry and bright.

I'm avoiding Al and his best mate.

Albus and Scorpius spend all of their time out or in their room.

Ida is stuck between angry and apologetic.

James and Lily are fighting. Constantly. And not talking to anyone.

'James!' Lily is yelling suddenly from the kitchen. 'If I want play quidditch next year I will! Mum said I could, and Freddy knows that he can't stop me.'

'Well, then I'm never going to graduate. Freddy will never be quidditch captain – sorry mate.'

Ida and I enter the kitchen to find my cousins there. Lily is standing with her arms crossed, glaring up at her brother and everyone else is watching.

'Rose, tell him that I can play quidditch.'

'You kids,' Grandma Molly says, entering behind us. She's been ignoring the fighting. 'All this talk of quidditch. It's not that cold out, you might play a quick match while I get some pasties ready… Ginny left her old balls here and I'm sure we have enough brooms.'

'I get Rose and Ida!' Lily cries, turning on her heel and barging up the stairs to her room.

It becomes a family affair. Dominique and Victoire both roll their eyes and join Grandma Molly in the kitchen while Teddy jumps to his feet, eager to play a match. James quickly rounds up Al and Malfoy from their room and drags Hugo, Fred, Louis and Uncle George to the yard, brooms and kits trailing behind them. Teddy is left pouting, forgotten. We get him.

So our team becomes Lily, Ida, Teddy and myself. Ginny finds out and joins in, plus Roxanne, then little Lucy (though Uncle Percy isn't too pleased about that; she's shorter than her broom).

Ginny goes to find her balls and meets us outside where everyone is mounting up.

'Rose, its cold.' Ida whines, pulling on her gloves and wrapping her scarf tight.

'I know.' I agrees, shuffling in the snow. 'I wasn't expecting to play this break. Usually our uncles and aunts play a match and we watch. But this is good. Hopefully Lily and James can work out their issues and their fighting will end.'

'Have you spoken to Scorpius yet?'

'He's persistent.' I sigh. 'I don't want to forgive him, but he's been nice enough so far.'

'Give him a chance.' She says, playing the apologetic. Yesterday she was raving about how much of a prat he was and now she's changed her tune. Again. 'It's Damon's fault.'

'It's no one's fault.' I say, rubbing my hands to get some warmth into them.

'Oi, the two of you – in the air!' Lily shouts from her perch. She's got the quaffle in hand and everyone is setting up.

Roxanne soars off to the lone two storey goal post on the left side, our keeper; and Ida reluctantly joins Lucy, helping her hold the beater bat that the young girl is trying to heft. Our chasers, Lily, Ginny and Teddy line up and Grandma Molly comes out to start us off.

'I'll have pasties ready in fifteen minutes, and tea.' She calls merrily. 'Let's have a nice game, now.

What she can't see from the ground though is the way James is glaring daggers.

He's always been a drama queen, but he's taking this ordeal rather far.

Lily does her best to show him up, rolling and dipping the way that Amelie taught her to, carrying the quaffle under her arm to where Al is guarding his goal post. She takes a shot but he deflects, passing to Louis, who very nearly drops it. He'd never enjoyed quidditch the way the other cousins do, but managed.

'Get going, Rose!' Lily cries as she whizzes past me.

I suppose I could be seeking.

I soar upwards, pulling my jacket closer to cover where the wind has managed to get in. I hadn't thought to bring my quidditch kit home, it's lucky that I have my broom. My mitts are knitted and slip along the wooden handle and my winter boots aren't doing a fantastic job of gripping the back.

'Sorry!' I cry out as I nearly fly into my brother. My handling is a little off.

'Are you alright, Rose?' Albus asks as I do a loop around his post.

'I'm just not in the game.' I reply, pausing for a moment at his side. It's not like my first match, where I was on cloud nine, high as the sky.

'I get it. This doesn't quite feel like the hols, you know?' He sighs. 'James is being a prat, you and Scorpius aren't getting along – and you were doing so well for a time at school – and Ida is still dating that ponce–'

'What?'

'What?'

We stare at each other.

'Out of the way!' Aunt Ginny comes screaming down the makeshift pitch, quaffle under her arm. A bludger tails her but Ida gets a swing in and it hits James instead.

I drop two feet and Albus attempts a save, but his mother slips the ball between his fingers and through the goal. Ginny pumps her fist victoriously and waves down at Uncle Harry, who has come to watch his wife beat his sons.

'Come on, Al!' Harry cups his hands, shouting up at him.

We continue our game, James's team trying to catch our single goal. We're well matched teams, and I know that it's going to come down to catching the snitch. One year, Aunt Angelina scored enough goals on my father that, though his team had the golden globe at the end, it was her team who won.

I spare a glance at Scorpius Malfoy soaring way above. He looks at ease on his broom, no slipping and sliding the way I do. I worry. I'd like to win this pointless match for Lily, if only so that she can rub it in her brother's face, but I'm not sure what my chances are. I've seen Scorpius play, he's very talented.

Teddy is wearing a gold watch and twice we chase after him, thinking we've spotted the snitch. The real snitch doesn't appear to be anywhere.

'I've had treats waiting for over half an hour – how long is this going to take?' Grandma Molly comes to stand with Uncle Harry, shawl wrapped around her shoulders and slippers on her feet. 'It's cold out, let's call it a draw.'

'Not happening, Nan.' James calls back.

'Yeah, someone's got to win this.' Lily agrees – it's the only thing they've agreed on since the beginning of their spat.

At some point Teddy gives in to the warm fire in the living room and Louis follows, then Lucy. With our team down one member to the other, James make a goal. It begins to grow dark and Grandma Molly returns to the house muttering about her thick-headed grandchildren.

I'm just about to give up when I spot a glint of gold at the base of Roxy's goal post. My stomach lurches and I swing my broom around, determined to end this, if only for the warmth and the pasties. Scorpius notices just a second after I do and speeds to my side. We knock arms, both reaching outwards, but his arm is longer and my fingers reach his wrist.

He's going to get there first.

It's out of the corner of my eye that I notice the slight way he pulls back, the momentary pause that gives me an inch of advantage – and suddenly I'm snatching up the snitch just a second before him.

I shoot into the sky, laughing and trying to keep my knit grip on the golden ball. I can feel it now: the rush of the match, the cold wind whipping through my hair, the rush of euphoria. Lily cheers, giving up on a play half-way through and dropping the quaffle to Uncle Harry before plowing into me.

'Thank you, Rosie!'

'No problem.' I grin as we drift to the ground. My mind is set on the kitchen for treats and the living room for the blaze.

James is waiting for us, arms crossed. 'Fine, Lil. I admit, you've got our natural Potter quidditch skills. But you need to promise me one thing – you'll only use it to help Gryffindor rule the pitch after I'm gone.'

She throws her arms around him, kissing him on both cheeks and giggling. 'Yes, brother dearest.'

We round up the other balls and trudge back into the house, one of our quarrels dealt with. And the other…

'Thanks.' I'm reluctant to say it, but when Scorpius is standing near me, reaching for his share of the treats, I whisper in his ear. 'I know you let me have the snitch.'

He shrugs. 'No problem. Lily needed that.'

'I needed it too.' I say, turning to where Ida is sprawled out on the sofa. I don't see his face, but I hope he's smiling. From the way my friend is grinning, I assume he's at least stopped glaring.

A/n: So, the James being a prat part is resolved (you know, as well as it can be and only for a short time), and things between Rose and Scorpius are looking up (but trust me, no where near good-as-new). And what's with Klause?