Friday afternoon found me packing a bag for the trip home, as I'd been putting it off. Lily was sitting on my bed, bouncing up and down and talking a mile a minute.

'And so he was like "You know, right?" and she was like "Know what?" and he was like "I don't not like you". Like, can you imagine?' She was speaking of one of her Muggle books, some sort of romancey friendshippy thing.

'No, Lily, I cannot imagine.' Mentally, I went over the stuff I needed; toothbrush, hairbrush, notebook, my comfiest jeans, my favourite sweater, my wPod. I think that's everything.

'….and little green Martians from Mars have invaded and now Hugo's table dancing with them and…'

I must have zoned out. Oops.

'Where else would Martians be from?' I asked sensibly.

'Touché. But still, I feel that you're not listening.' She pouted.

'Lily, of course I listen to you. I am just riveted; every word from your overly-glossed lips is solid gold in my ears.' I buttoned my bag closed and shouldered it. 'C'mon. We're due at McGonagall's office in ten minutes.'

She picked up her backpack and followed me, still pouting. Al, Sha, Hugo and Louis were waiting for us in the corridor with their own bags. We headed to McGonagall's together, Lily keeping up the incessant babble, now to Sha, thank Merlin.

'Okay, could you guys please, please, please, I'm begging you, be civil.' I'd already stressed this point all of Wednesday and Thursday, but I really wanted to drive it home. 'This is for Teddy. Be on your best behaviour, and he'll be on his, and it'll all be fine. And as for you, Lils,' I called over my shoulder. 'If you snog him, you will be in veritable worlds of trouble, little girl.' She pulled her innocent angel face.

'Who, me?'

'You can't pull that one on me. Just keep that tongue inside your

mouth, and it'll all be fine.' I took a deep breath. 'It'll all be fine.' I reassured myself.

'You, m'dear, are a basket case.' Al slung an arm around my shoulders.

'I just…I want everything to be all right. I don't want to bring down the wrath of our parents.'

Louis put his arm around my waist. 'Rose?'

'Yeah?'

'Take a big breath in.' I obeyed. We continued walking. About twenty second later, Lou peered at me. 'And then you let it out.'

I let out the air I'd been holding. Whoops.

At this point, we'd reached McGonagall's office. Lou, Al and I disentangled ourselves and we all filed inside, where Malfoy was already waiting, leaning against a wall with his backpack at his feet. I sidled over to him.

'You look slightly green.'

'Shut up.' He did look green, and his lips were pressed into a tight, white line. I could tell that he was actually afraid. Not just nervous, not just a little scared, but truly afraid. Weird.

'So I told my parents that a distant cousin of Teddy's that I know from school is staying with us. That's true. They'll be at work still when we get there, and then they'll be at stags and hens tonight. Tomorrow's the wedding, after which they'll be smashed. Any time in there, if they see you around, keep your head down and they'll just see the hair and think you're Louis.' I smiled reassuringly at him, and he shakily smiled back. Y'know, I could get used to a scared Malfoy. It makes him into a decent sort.

McGonagall swept in, and we all snapped to perfect posture, a reflex. She greeted us all with a brief 'Hello Weasley, Weasley, Weasley, Potter, Potter, Lovegood, Malfoy, Malfoy? What're you doing here, Mr Malfoy?'

I opened my mouth, and words came out. Strange. 'He's a distant cousin of Teddy's. He's coming to the wedding. Teddy said he sent you a letter.'

She blinked at me, then shuffled through her in-tray. Finding the letter, she settled for 'Hmph. Right then, Lovegood.' She offered Sha the Floo Powder. Sha took some, yelled 'The Banana House!' and disappeared. Al and Lily were next, then Louis and Hugo, both to my house because Louis didn't feel like dealing with pre-wedding hysterics quite yet. Then I sent Malfoy, telling him the address. He whooshed off, then it was my turn. I took a pinch of the sparkling powder, thanked McGonagall, then turned to go. She stopped me with a hand on my arm.

'Yes, Professor?' I asked.

'That was a good thing to do. Your parents and uncle would be proud.' I flushed with the praise.

'Family is important.' She nodded, and with that, I stepped into the flames.

I spun through confusing green fire, seeing other grates flash past, feeling a bit panicked. Travelling by Floo always scares me a bit, so when I fell out of my own fire, I felt relief, even though I was undeniably falling. I would have fallen on the floor, but Malfoy caught me round the waist and steadied me, letting go quickly. I flushed and smoothed my jumper, trying to hide my embarrassment. This being civil was going to take some work.

'C'mon, I'll show you where you're staying.' I led him up the stairs one floor, then to the end of the hall. Since Christmas, Mum had painted the hallway, and there was a new painting of Luna's on the wall. 'This is your room.' I said, gesturing to the door on the right. 'I'm across the hall and the bathroom is across the hall one door to the left. Hugo's next to you, and my parents are next to him. I've got first dibs on the shower.'

'Thank you, Weasl-wait. It won't work calling you Weasley this weekend, because there's too effing many of you. And you can't call me Malfoy, because everyone in your family will instinctively jinx me into jelly before I can say 'Junior'.'

'Right. Then, for this weekend, and this weekend only, I can be Rose. But Scorpius is too long to say.' I pretended to be struck by a sudden thought. 'I know! What about Scorpy?'

'Don't even think about it. Lets just use a normal name, I dunno, Jude. Does that work? When you want my attention, you can just sing!'

'Jude works. It doesn't really suit, but it works. Have a good time settling in.' I turned round and opened my bedroom door.

Technically, I had two bedroom doors; one in the hallway and one at the top of the staircase, in the attic, where my room actually was. I'd moved there in second year, because I liked the view from the window up there, and my parents didn't mind, because then they had a guest room. So now, I have a bright, airy room at the top of a staircase, which I very much enjoy.

Right then, however, I was looking forwards to enjoying a shower.

When I was scrubbed clean of fireplace ash, I left the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Malfoy was sitting on his bed, reading a book, and raised his eyebrows at me. I could tell he was biting back a remark and I was glad for it. I blushed and hurried behind my door. I headed to my room, dressed in a long blue shirt, black leggings and thick wool socks in the same blue as my shirt. I descended my stairs and slid down the main stairs, then skidded into the kitchen, which is really what these socks are best for.

I was met by a rather amusing sight; Malfoy (henceforth occasionally known as "Jude") was standing in front of the microwave with an intensely puzzled expression, squinting at the writing on the buttons.

'Scorpius, what're you doing?'

'Well, Rose, I'm trying to figure out what exactly this is. And I thought we agreed on Jude.'

'Jude is only in company. And that's a microwave. We learned about them in Muggle Studies. It's an electronic box that heats up food. It's here for when Hugo and I are home and aren't allowed to use magic.'

'Gotcha. A microwave. All right. And Rose?'

'Yes?'

'Will your parents murder me if they discover me?'

I laughed. 'My mum, no. She's all about the magical co-operation. My dad, maybe. So maybe you'd best just steer clear of him.' Changing, the subject, I added, 'Stir-fry for dinner? What d'you think?'

'Sure?' he said tentatively.

'Right then. Can your tallness get the wok down?' I pointed my finger vaguely in the direction of the top of a cupboard.

'What's a wok?'

I pulled my head out of the fridge, where I'd been digging for veggies. 'It's that big metal bowl thing.' He took it down and put it on the counter gently. 'It's not very breakable.'

I grabbed carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, bell peppers and fresh noodles, and plunked the whole mess on the counter. I got out a cutting board and knife, then turned on the wok.

'Can you start cutting veggies?' I shifted things around in the freezer until I found a chicken breast. I put it on a plate and bunged it into the microwave to thaw, then turned to Scorpius. He was standing there looking at the mess of vegetation in front of him. 'Oh, for the love of Merlin. You can't tell me you've never even cut up veggies before.'

'I haven't.'

'You're about as useless as they come, you know that, don't you?' I took out a handful of mushrooms.

'I thought we were on truce.'

'We are. It's the truth, not a mocking lie.' He started to protest, but I stopped him. 'Don't even. Look here, these mushrooms you just cut in half lengthwise.' I supervised as he cut them, then pushed them off to the side. 'The pepper, you take the top off of like this, then cut out the insides and cut it into strips.' I left him to it as I checked the wok. It was still only medium temperature, and for stir-fry, it has to be hot. 'I'll be back in a minute, I'm just running upstairs for my wPod.' I said, and did.

I was only gone a minute, but when I came back into the kitchen, Scorpius was holding his left hand in a tea towel, which was already soaked in blood.

'Idiot!' I scrabbled in the magical remedies cupboard for a bottle of dittany.

'It's not that bad.' I located the bottle.

'Quit being macho and show it here.' Unlike many girls, I am not squeamish in the least. He held out the hand. I carefully peeled the towel away, revealing a cut straight across his palm, from the base of his index finger diagonally to the wristbone on the other side. 'Idiot.' I said again, and he made no move to deny it. I unstoppered the dittany with my teeth and held his left wrist so that he would flinch when I poured it on. I did pour it, and he tried to flinch, but I held his wrist there, cleaning and healing the entire cut, leaving only a thin scar.

'Thanks.'

'You're an idiot. And you need to quit hurting yourself. I'm tired of fixing it.' I looked up at him, and realized that we were standing very close. I stepped back, dropping his arm like a hot brick.

He washed the blood off his arm in the sink. 'You know, I'm sticking to this truce very carefully, whereas you're breaking it left and right.'

'That's because you give me so many chances to.' I went to check the chicken and realized that there was blood on my hands. I went to the sink to wash it off, elbowing him out of the way.

'You've given me just as many. Wandering through the house in a towel? I could have made thousands of comments. But I didn't, because I'm such a fucking saint.'

'A right paragon.' I took the chicken, now thawed, out of the micro. He stared at it as I put it on a separate cutting board from the veg.

'That's wicked.'

'You know, it's just a microwave.' He went to go pick up the veg knife again, but I threw out a hand. 'Nuh-uh. You've wrecked it. You get to go sit on that stool until dinner's done.' He went, sullenly.

I finished dinner, then sent him upstairs to get Hugo and Louis. We actually had a good time, and we all got along. I relaxed a bit. After dinner, Hugo and Louis taught Scorpius how to do dishes, which I found hilarious. As the one who'd made dinner, I didn't have to help.

And then it was time to go see the family.