Sometime in the middle of March, I reluctantly started prodding Albus to stop reading with me so he could work on his OWLs, which is what he did, grudgingly. I didn't have to worry about Rose; she had already started over Christmas Break. Lily was annoyed with both of them, and, as a result, spent more time than ever with me, especially because Scorpius was also a fifth year.

"Linny, I hate OWLs," she said to me one day in the library as we were all studying.

Albus scowled at her as he looked up from over an enormous stack of books. "You aren't even taking them yet, Lil. Shut up."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Changed my mind, Al. James is my favorite."

They continued bickering until Rose slammed the huge tome she had been reading from shut. "I simply CANNOT concentrate with this noise! Shut up and study or get out!"

"Geez, Rosie, don't have a cow," Hugo murmured as he glanced warily at his sister.

"Don't start with me, Hugh! I'll tell Mum what you and James got up to last Tuesday night!" she screeched.

Hugo paled. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, but I would," Rose threatened.

Jane, Georgie, Carly and I exchanged glances. This was nothing like the Rose we were used to.

I opened my mouth to ask Rose what was wrong, but was interrupted. "THIS IS A LIBRARY! GET OUT, ALL OF YOU!" Madam Pince roared, shaking her fist at us all.

Needless to say, we all scrambled for the exit.

After that, Rose refused to study with us. Albus would have probably been happier to stay with us, but I sent him to study with Rose. Rose had been right. We were all very distracting.

Besides Rose and Albus, and Kyle also had NEWTs to worry about, so he was off studying, too. I told Kyle to study alone, because he spent way too much time of our study sessions trying to make out. Ary also had her NEWTs to worry about, but I figured she could benefit from my help, because she wouldn't want to kiss me all the time.

And then that left Jane, Georgie, and Carly, who weren't doing as well as I was, so they begged me to help them. And I did, but I refused to let them copy. I was blessed with the ability to finish work quickly and thoroughly, so while everyone was still off studying, Hugo, Lily and I had the evenings to ourselves. We usually just sat in the common room bored out of our minds.

One afternoon, though, after much deliberation, Hugo finally decided to teach Lily and I about some of the secret passages around Hogwarts to keep us entertained. He swore us to secrecy, though, because James had sworn him to secrecy. He figured we would keep the secret, though, and it was better than just sitting around.

I was angry that I owed some my entertainment to James, but we had, for the most part, stayed away from each other since that disastrous day in December. And since Hugo wasn't about to tell him that we knew about the passages, I figured James would never have to know.

I carried around a small notebook and made note of where the passages were, where they led to, and what was required to open said passage. I also marked each entry with a star if it was a good make-out place, but I didn't tell Hugo and Lily about that.

After hours of wandering the castle, Hugo finally led us to a deserted part of the fifth floor, and stopped at a blank wall across from a tapestry.

"This is it," he said solemnly. "The Room of Requirement."

I frowned. "Are we going to go in?"

He shook his head. "It was destroyed the night of the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Oh." Lily put her arms around me and Hugo. "Dad almost died in there, didn't he?"

Hugo nodded. "Yeah. It's never opened since."

I hugged Lily. "A piece of history in your family."

Lily looked up at me with a smile. "Hogwarts is a piece of history for our family."

Hugo nodded.

I frowned again. "What do you mean?"

Lily and Hugo exchanged looks, and then launched into their family history. There were gaps in the story, but I figured their parents hadn't wanted to tell them everything. I had learned some of it in my old History of Magic classes, but this was a new side to it.

I cried and laughed. It was such an epic tale, and it was hard to believe it had really happened, especially to people who had later settled down and had kids. I was awed, and suddenly so grateful that these kids had trusted me enough to let me befriend them, and to know their story, even if it was a little messy.

You could tell that their parents had kept sections of the stories secret from their kids and the rest of the world, because some things didn't match up, especially timings. They had also added in parts that they had heard from other people. You could still appreciate it, however, for being the tale it was.

It took many days for them to finish telling me what had happened, but I loved it. I thanked them both for telling me, and promised I would always be there for them. Lily smiled and hugged me, but Hugo looked awkward at my words.

"Lin, are you getting mushy on me?" he looked horrified.

Lily and I laughed.