Rose slowly made her way back to the Ravenclaw common room, still not quite believing the situation she was now in. So far, nobody she passed in the halls seemed to be whispering about her, but she had a feeling that would not be the case by breakfast tomorrow. To make matters worse, she had never hammered out a time with Scorpius to settle all the particulars of their new arrangement, meaning classes the next day would be an interesting feat.

Looking up, Rose realized she had already stopped at the top of the spiral staircase and been absently standing in front of the entrance to Ravenclaw tower for several minutes. After she snapped out of her daze and looked at it, the bronze eagle knocker finally asked her a question.

"Where is the division between perception and reality?"

With her mind still dwelling on the next day's breakfast, she hesitated for only a second before replying, "Eggs can't be unscrambled."

The beaked knocker seemed to frown a bit at her wording, but swung open obligingly.

Rose looked around the common room at all the friendly faces who could have helped her in the courtyard, had they been there. Finally, she found the one she wanted.

A beautiful fourth year with strawberry blonde hair made her way over to Rose and immediately asked, "What's wrong? You look positively pale."

"Oh Dominque, I think I'm in a bit over my head right now. Can we talk, somewhere private?"

"My dorm should be empty right now, let's go."

Rose followed her cousin, Dominique Weasley, up to the fourth year girl's dorm. They entered and Rose flopped herself onto Dominque's bed, face first.

"Well, I know that look. What have you done now?"

"You know how Copper has been following me around everywhere, and has been getting progressively creepier? Well I think I managed to put a stop to it, finally." Rose said, rolling over onto her back and staring at the ceiling.

"That sounds like a good thing, so why are you in panic mode?" Dominique asked, eyeing her cousin. "What, exactly, did you do to make him back off?"

"I-sort-of-kind-of-threw-myself-at-Scorpius-Malfoy-and-then-kissed-him." Rose said in a rush, red returning to her cheeks.

"You did WHAT? Merlin, tell me ALL the details, I need to know EVERYTHING."

"Well, Copper was following me around again, and honestly I was getting a little scared, which totally impaired my judgement. I tried to find someone I knew in the courtyard to help fend him off, like James or Albus maybe, but no one was around.

"So I thought, 'Ok, if this guy won't leave me alone, I'll just tell him I'm already taken'. I looked around for a candidate, but the only people even close to my age there were Scorpius and a Hufflepuff girl. I've got to tell you Dom, I seriously considered the girl for a second, but you know how bad I am at lying, so, I thought the easiest lie is the one that's closer to the truth."

"I KNEW you liked him!" Dominique said triumphantly.

"What? I do not."

"Oh please, you practically just said so."

"That's not what I meant! I just meant it would be easier to pretend to have a boyfriend than a girlfriend. And besides, the girl was a Hufflepuff and Cooper might have cornered her later."

"Then what about all those incidents last year?" Dominique asked.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Rose replied, looking away.

"That time when you 'accidentally' bumped into Malfoy and your hair got caught on his button and he detangled it with his hands instead of with a spell?"

"That WAS an accident, and he just wanted to make sure not to break my hair."

"Then what about that time you were late to supper because he spilled his potion and you stayed to help him clean up?"

"I was being friendly, we hadn't learned vanishing spells yet. He needed help."

"Ok, that time you fell asleep on him while studying in the library?"

"I swear, before I nodded off I was sitting next to Albus! I don't know what happened, I just woke up with my head on his shoulder. That was really embarrassing, I can't believe you brought that up!"

Dominique huffed and tried again.

"Well, how about at the end of last year when the whole Slytherin Quidditch team was running laps around the lake, and you were totally ogling him after he took his shirt off?"

"I was not ogling! It's not my fault he was running around topless in front of me. I was just trying to revise outside for end of term exams!"

"Outside, where Malfoy was running around without a shirt on." Dominique cut in.

"Outside, where there's fresh air." Rose retorted. "I can't help seeing what's right in front of my face."

"So you admit that you looked?"

"Well, I mean… ok, so he's not terrible looking…"

"You mean he's absolutely gorgeous."

"Ugh, whatever. Like I said, those were all coincidences." Rose said stubbornly.

"Sure they were. Anyway, so you see Scorpius in the courtyard…" Dominique supplied.

"Right, so, I kinda just stomped over to him, told him to please play along, and, er- threw myself onto his lap and kissed him?" Rose covered her face with her hands.

"And, how was it?"

"Oh, he caught on right away when Copper came out and started yelling."

"Ugh! No, I meant the kiss!" Dominique said.

Rose glared daggers at her beautiful cousin from behind her hands, "quick."

"Laaaame. Continue."

"Anyway, like I was saying, Malfoy caught on right away, and told Copper I was dating him, and to bugger off. Cooper didn't take it too well, but he left. Then I turned around to find that Lorcan and Lysander had seen the whole thing. They ran off to who knows where, so I'm sure this will be all over school by tomorrow.

"In a fit of desperation Malfoy and I agreed to pretend we were dating, and then he left. I came back here and told you, but you can't tell anyone Dom, I mean it. My parents might both be Gryffindors, but it took all the courage I had to go up to Malfoy. I can't deal with Cooper popping up everywhere again."

Rose looked at her cousin expectantly.

Dominique sighed and said, "Yes, I see your point. Honestly, Cooper's stalking was getting to the point where you should have gone to a teacher. But, now that you're in this, whatever this is, with Scorpius, I guess that works just as well. Just promise me you'll keep me up to date on what's going on, and I'll help you in any way I can. You know that with the two of us planning together we're practically guaranteed to figure things out."

Rose sat up in the bed and pulled Dominique into a crushing hug. "Thank you. I promise I'll try not to let this get out of hand. But, I think I'm going to need your help once the rest of the family finds out about my 'new boyfriend'. You know how nosy everyone is. Lily is going to FREAK out, and who knows what Albus will do, not to mention Hugo."

"Don't worry, I'll help you out all I can. Although, seeing as how you're now 'dating' the hottest guy in school, I'm going to do my best to make sure things work out for the happy couple." Dominique winked at Rose.

"We're not a couple though," Rose protested.

"We'll just see about that. You may not admit it, even to me, but you SO like him. I'm doing my best to make sure this sticks. For your own good, of course." Dominique replied.

Rose fell back onto the bed and pulled Dom's pillow over her face.