This time when I fell out of the fireplace, it was Teddy who caught me. I threw my arms around his waist and hugged him tight.

I started jabbering about how he was getting married, and to Victoire, and how amazing it was, and how much I'd missed him, and how was he, and then Scorpius came through behind me. He coughed, and I let Teddy go.

'Teddy Lupin, this is Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius, Teddy.' Teddy held out his hand, and Scorpius shook it.

'Congratulations, erm, Teddy.' He looked so awkward that I had to smile.

Teddy thanked him, and they talked for a minute, until Louis took mercy on Malfoy and dragged him away to meet someone. I looked at Teddy, who was smiling at me.

'Thanks Teddy. It means a lot to him.'

'Any time. Family is family; Merlin knows I don't have much of it. Anyways, are you two together, or what?'

I laughed. 'Us? No way. We hate one another. We're just on truce for the weekend, and then we go back to hurling insults and hexing one another in the hallways.'

Teddy looked taken aback for a second, then he hugged me so hard I squeaked. 'You're a good person, Rosie-Pose.' I groaned.

'Still with the Rosie-Pose? I'm nearly seventeen, I'll have you know.'

'You'll still be Rosie-Pose when you're seventy. And I should really go greet my other guests.'

'Yeah, you should. One more thing, Teddy?'

'Yeah?'

'Please don't tell my parents?'

He laughed. 'Promise.'

I sighed with relief, and went to go see everyone else.

I hugged and kissed Victoire, and nearly tackled James in front of Fleur's Veela cousins, which he didn't thank me for. I just laughed and gave him a noogie. 'So, Jimbo, how're you?'

He grumbled and mussed his hair. 'Must you with the Jimbo, Rosie-Pose?'

'If you must with the Rosie-Pose.' My family has called me that for years, but they usually refrain while at Hogwarts. The older members of my family, not a chance. Teddy had started calling me that when I was a baby, and it had stuck.

'Whatever. So, Rosie-Pose, what's going on in your life?'

'Not much. School. Friends. Life. You?'

'I'm playing Quidditch for Ireland, didn't I tell you?'

'No, you didn't. How could you not have told me that?!'

A voice came from behind me. 'You know our Jimbo; he's a forgetful one, who never writes back.' I spun round.

'Indy!' I threw myself at her, hugging her tight, then held her at arms length for an inspection. She was tanned, even more so than usual, and her hair was shorter. She looked so happy.

'How's my Rosie-Pose? Is that Malfoy boy giving you trouble still?' She always refers to him like that, complete with underline. So does James, but Indy started it.

'Um, yeah, guys, about that Malfoy boy, as you so charmingly call him. He's kind of, um, here. And my parents can't know.'

James blinked at me. 'Can you repeat that?'

'No, you heard right. He's Teddy's second cousin or something, and he really wanted to meet Teddy, and I still hate him and everything, but we're on truce for the weekend, and he's staying at my place and my parents can't know, so you can't tell them or Dad'll kill him, you know what he's like.' They both nodded. 'And James, if you pick a fight with him, I'll kill you.'

'I won't if you don't want me to, Rosie. But, at least, can I prank him?' I shot him a look. 'Never mind.'

'That's right.' I took Indy's arm and we left James to his flirtations.

'So, how are you? How's the boyfriend? How's the Kombi?'

'I'm excellent, the boyfriend is excellent, the Kombi is named 'Aja'. Life is good, travelling is amazing. We've stopped for a while, and I'm teaching ballet to six-year-olds at a dance school. It's the most fun I've ever had, but I miss home sometimes. Mum, Dad, Saffron and Scarlet are around somewhere.' Six-year-old Saffron and three-year-old Scarlet are Indy's little sisters. The three of them look completely different, so it's a total mystery. Indy looks just like her mum: dark curly hair, light brown skin, same eye shape, but Indy's eyes are blue and her mum's are brown. Saffron has her mum's hair and eyes exactly, but she's fair-skinned like my Uncle Charlie, her dad. Scarlet has red hair and blue eyes, like a tiny replica of Lily. They're all drop-dead gorgeous, and it just isn't fair.

We wandered along, catching up, stopping every few steps to greet yet another family member, from little Scarlet to not-so-great-great aunt Muriel. The entire clan was gathered for a catch-up session, so that we didn't gab all the way through the wedding, presumably. Aunty Fleur was running around greeting people, arranging things, and occasionally bursting into tears and gabbling about how she couldn't believe they were getting married so soon, as if after six years of dating, three of those living together, it was such a shock. Especially since everyone had been waiting for it practically since Victoire was conceived, even during those two years at Hogwarts that they spent hating each other's guts.

It was good to catch up with Indy and laugh listening to her stories, but I also felt a bit of a pang, listening to her talk about people and places I would never know. She had this whole other life, one that I couldn't even begin to understand, and though we were best friends, I had to wonder what exactly that meant now.

When the crowd around the happy couple thinned, Indy went to give her congratulations to them, while I took a seat in the sun at the edge of the cliff. I watched the waves beat below me, completely lost in thought. I was thinking about my future. Indy was only a year older, yet she'd already seen so much. I had know idea what I would do or be, and though she wasn't sure of a career, she was so sure of everything else, of who she wanted to be, and I was envious of that.

'Your family is huge.' The voice made me jump so hard I nearly fell off the cliff, and subsequently hurled myself away from the edge, sprawling on the rocky ground.

'Don't do that,' I gasped. 'You nearly sent me plummeting to my death!'

'Oh, quit being such a drama queen!' Scorpius reached down a hand to help me up, which I ignored.

'I'm not a drama queen! I just would rather live the next month until my seventeenth birthday!'

'Whatever. Anyhow, I repeat, your family is huge.' He sat down next to me and dangled his feet over the edge.

'Yup. Huge, and absolutely insane. Just you wait, soon you'll meet my grandma Molly, the clan's matriarch. Then you'll have a reason to be afraid.'

He shuddered. 'I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you.'

I shrugged. 'She's not actually that bad. And she knits really cozy jumpers.'

'I've seen them. Gigantic letters on the front, as if you'd forget your own name.'

'Look around. In this clan, you might as well, especially if your hair is red like theirs.' We both turned to look at my ginger relatives.

'Point taken. But your hair is red too!'

'Not like theirs. It's more browner.'

'More browner?'

'Shut up, blondie.'

'Your hair isn't brown, it's copper. Theirs is carrot-coloured, yours isn't.' He reached out a finger to touch a curl.

'Huh. Copper. Interesting.' I kept my voice cool, although my heart was beating fast, for some reason.

He dropped his hand, colouring a little, and turned his face towards the horizon. 'Isn't this something?'

'Yeah it is. I stand on a precipice overlooking the ocean and I close my eyes. I can feel the water stretching infinitely in front of me; everything else is footnotes to that.'

He looked at me sideways. 'Did you just make that up?'

I shook my head, causing my curls to bounce. 'Nope. I made it up when I was eleven. I was here in the summer with Louis, but me and Louis were fighting, so I spent every day outside.'

He looked impressed. 'That's pretty poetic for an eleven-year-old.'

'My mum started me on books early. I was reading Keats at eight.' Changing the subject, I added, 'Besides, it's true. Can't you feel it out there?'

He didn't say anything for a minute, then he stood carefully, placing his toes right at the edge. He lifted his face and closed his eyes. I watched his pale features lit by the sun, each shadow etched, and felt a strange feeling right in the pit of my stomach. Was it…fear? It felt a lot like fear. I took a deep breath and closed my own eyes, pressing it down. It stayed, but I could handle it, whatever it was. When I opened my eyes, Scorpius was looking right at me.

'What?' I asked. I felt self-conscious, like I'd grown a second nose or something.

He just shook his head and sat back down. 'About the ocean, you're right. You can feel it, just like you can feel someone watching you.'

'How do you feel someone watching you? I've always wondered how that worked.'

He brushed his white-blond hair out of his eyes with a swift brush of his hand. 'I don't know. It's just one of those things, a knowledge that surpasses logic.' He was quiet for a moment. 'Do you believe that there can be a connection between people, something important and, I don't know, cosmic, something controlled by something bigger than us?'

'Do you mean something like a God, or what?'

'I don't know. A higher power of some kind, or maybe just some design for the universe. People that are drawn to each other for a purpose.'

I thought for a minute. 'Well, I-'

'Rosie-Pose!' James was calling from the door to the cottage. 'You're wanted!'

'Just a minute!' I yelled back. Turning to Scorpius, I pulled a face. 'Duty calls.'

'Before, do you believe it?' There was something almost desperate in his grey eyes.

'I'll let you know.' And with that, I ran off to the cottage.

When I got there, I stepped through the door and stopped dead, then attempted to step backwards out when I beheld the sight that was the main room. I only stopped when I hit the door that James had shut behind me, and even then I scrabbled for the doorknob.

The entire place was full of racks. The racks were full of clothing, gauzy dresses in bright colours, silks and satins, lace. In every possible way the last place that I, the tomboy, would ever want to be.

'Rosie! There you are!' It was my aunt Ginny, clad in her ever-sensible jeans.

'I'm not wearing a dress' were the first words out of my mouth, but she paid them no heed, just dragged me off to a far corner, where more of my female relatives waited, including my mother, and my auntie Angelina. It was an onslaught of femininity, and even my usually sensible godmother Luna was being made soppy by the hormones brought on by her pregnancy. I still gave my aunts kisses, and one for Luna, and one on her belly for the baby. I went to give my mum a big hug, but stopped dead for the second time in as many minutes when I saw the determined look on her face. I turned to my aunt Ginny for help, but her look was equally stubborn. I looked to Luna, who just held up her hands as if to say 'I'm staying out of it.'

Surrounded by determined estrogen, with no one sensible to turn to, I was trapped.

'You, Rose Elizabeth Weasley, are wearing a dress to your cousin's wedding, and that is that, young lady.'

'Why? Why can't I just wear a, a skirt, or even nice dress pants? Why a dress?' I pleaded.

'Because, Rosie, you're a young lady, and it's time you started acting like it.' That was Ginny.

'But Mum-'

'No buts, Rose.' I opened my mouth to argue, but she cut me off again. 'Fistfights at school? You're nearly seventeen, and Head Girl.'

'But he-'

'Enough.' I fell silent. 'I don't care what he did, whoever 'he' is. I didn't tell your father about that, and I could have. I still could, if you don't stop protesting this instant, act your age, and put on that dress there.' She pointed to a dress on a hanger, on it's own at the end of a nearby rack. I picked it up and went into the bathroom to try it on. As soon as the door was shut behind me I started muttering about blackmailing, sadistic, schadenfreude-practicing mothers. I heard the women outside fall into peals of laughter, which sent me into further grumblings as I shed my clothes and instead slid on the blue satin monstrosity. I zipped myself up and sent a quick prayer to whoever might be listening, then turned and looked in the mirror.

The dress was a cerulean blue that matched my eyes. The bodice was satin and v-necked dipping far enough to show some cleavage, but nothing slutty. The floaty skirts ran from the edge of the bodice down to my knees, with plenty of room to move around in.

I felt awkward and overdressed. 'I look ridiculous! I'm not coming out!' I called.

'Rose! You come out here, in that dress, now.' I knew that voice, and hopped to, gloomily. I straightened my shoulders like a sergeant headed into battle and opened the bathroom door. I was met by cries of 'oh, how lovely!' by my female family members. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the doorframe.

'Okay, now that you've had your fun, can I change back?'

They completely ignored me, gathering round and fixing the straps, twirling me around to see the whole dress, talking about how grown-up I looked, while I tried not to barf. During this, I noticed Indy enter the cottage and grin at me.

Help me! I mouthed, but she just grinned wolfishly and shook her head, taking a seat on the coffee table.

I endured the femininity for another minute, then nearly snapped. I walked over to Indy and picked up my mother's glass of wine from the table. The women stayed in the bathroom doorway, admiring the dress from afar.

'Why, Rosie, you look positively darling!!' Indy grinned at me. I knocked half the wine back in a sip.

'Don't even. I feel like a clown.' I looked down at the dress and grimaced.

'Do you want my honest opinion?' I considered this for a moment, then shook my head. 'Too bad, I'm giving it anyways. I think that you look absolutely amazing.'

'Too bad. I'm not wearing it.'

'Rose, seriously. This is Teddy and Victoire's wedding day. This is important to Victoire, she picked the dress out herself. Imagine how hurt she'll be if you don't wear it.'

I sighed. I hate it when she does that; she always knows my weak point. 'Fine. I'll wear it. But I'll hate it.'

'Fine, hate it, babe. Do whatever you like.' She stood. 'I'm off to find my 'beau' as Grandma Molly calls him.'

I laughed. 'That works. Whenever she sees me, she asks if I 'have a young man'. I'm always like, 'yup, bought him in Diagon Alley last week.''

She laughed too and left. I drank the rest of the wine in one sip and headed back into the bathroom to change. I was almost there when the door opened again, bringing in Victoire.

'Oh, Rosie, you look beautiful!' She swept over, and I groaned softly, knowing that I'd be made to stand dummy for at least another ten minutes. I needed more wine.