Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Hello! I'm less over-loaded with work this week, so yay, back on track posting times! So, I realised that I've been forgetting to add in the long divider lines sometimes, and please forgive me for my stupid-blondness. It kicks in sometimes, what can I say?

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Enjoy!

Chapter 13: The Three Broomsticks

That weekend, Scorpius awoke to a suspiciously noisy room. Albus was sniffling in his bed.

"Al?"

"Yeah?" A hoarse voice whispered back at him."

"Are you okay?"

"No. I'm dead. I was resurrected during the night and now I finally know what it's like to be an inferi."

Scorpius paused, and the room went briefly silent. "Nice."

"Tell me this - why don't we have magic to cure colds?"

Scorpius thought for a moment. "Because magic laws or something. I don't know. Ask Grace Hall, she knows about healing magic."

"Grace Hall?"

"Yeah. Hufflepuff, our year. Ginger, long hair, a bunch of freckles."

"No?"

"Gossips a lot."

"Oh, yeah. Her."

"Please bugger off with your mother's meeting." Max moaned at them, throwing his pillow wildly behind his back. It landed with a muffled plop just yards from the foot of his bed.

"Ah! I'm so hurt! Oh, the pain!" Scorpius cried out in mock agony, and Max just mumbled more insults in retaliation.

Scorpius left the room as it faded back to almost silence. It was still dark outside - you could tell when the sun rose enough to shine over the highland hills by how the water in the Great Lake looked. If it was lighter and greener, you knew it was sunny outside. But if it was darker and the water was swirling tempestuously? The weather was terrible, and you should probably try and take the indoor route rather than the cross-courtyard shortcuts. And this, in turn, almost always meant that Joshua was even later to class than usual, and Max was in a bad mood if he had Care of Magical Creatures. Today, the water was a still, ambivolous, murky pool. Not bad, for an October day in Scotland.

Scorpius washed and dressed for the day quickly, donning his muggle clothes, and returned to their dorm.

Alfie was now awake, and Joshua was stretching in bed. But Max was still firmly asleep.

"Should we attempt to wake him up?" Alfie offered, watching the sleeping boy carefully.

"Depends. How badly do you want to get hit?" Joshua replied, and Alfie chuckled. There really was no point in arguing with that one.

Albus sat upright, levitating his pile of tissues into the bin. "I'll just go and cough over him. No quicker way to wake him up than that."

Scorpius laughed to himself. If there was one other person he knew that came close to Scorpius in taking every measure to stave off illness, it was Max. Once, when Scorpius, Alfie and Joshua had been simultaneously ill, he'd slept in the other Slytherin boy's room instead. Their yearmates hadn't been so pleased about having Max sleeping on their floor, especially when it came time to wake him in the morning.

"Hey, Max." Albus coughed loudly for effect. "I'm really, really sick right now. I might actually be the most contagious you've ever seen anyone."

Albus did sound like living death. Pausing every few words for a tremendous sniff; voice utterly nasal and a white pallor on his skin.

"Oh fuck off mate." Max mumbled, shooting upright and almost scuttling into Alfie's lap.

"Steady on there."

"I'd rather sit on your lap than get ill from that twat."

"Come on mate, I'm not that terrible."

"Fuck off, Potter." Max growled and leaned even closer to Alfie, who retreated back into his bed and under the toasty covers as soon as Max got off.

"Alright lads, that's enough." Joshua rolled his eyes at them and left the room, the door closing with a loud thud behind him.

"What's got his hippogriff?"

"That girl, I bet."

"It's the only time he's ever been turned down, isn't it?" Scorpius rested his head on his hand. "At least, as far as I know."

"Got turned down in third year a couple of times — fuck off Albus, really."

Albus finally relented and went back to his bed, pulling on his muggle clothes as he pulled faces at Max.

"Who turned him down?"

"That French girl from Ravenclaw."

"Oh!" Scorpius actually knew who it was for once. "Amelie Bennet, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Max nodded, also getting changed. Alfie watched the scene passively. Of course he knew something and wasn't telling them all; sometimes Scorpius felt like that was Alfie's job.

"She's in Potions, isn't she? Sits with Lucy, doesn't talk much?" Albus asked, voice muffled from behind his jumper.

"She's just a bit standoffish."

"You mean, she's a bit French." Max intoned.

Scorpius bit his lip, and just knew that Albus was rolling his eyes behind the neck of his jumper.

"Right." Alfie said uncertainly.

The door opened, and Joshua marched back in looking washed, dressed, and utterly sullen.

"Morning." Max greeted uncertainly.

Joshua nodded. The two shared a significant look, and neither said a word more.

"So, it's finally here."

Sheepishly, Scorpius looked up at a maniacally grinning Max. That grin rarely brought good news. "What... is?"

"The Hogsmeade weekend; only the biggest social event so far!"

"Oh, you sound like a Beverly Hills girl. Honestly." Joshua rolled his eyes, getting up to retrieve the pumpkin juice jug.

"Beverly Hills—?"

"Famous place stereotypically full of vapid girls — continue." Alfie answered concisely. Sometimes Scorpius wondered precisely where he got all this knowledge from.

"The point is - this is phase one of the Rose Plan!" Max' grin widened again. This was definitely not a good thing. Max being excited over a plan usually meant that things were about to crank up to twelve, and not gently. It did have the promise of entertainment value, though, which was exactly why they were friends with Max. Unfortunately, it might not end well for Scorpius.

"You feeling strong enough to do this, Al?" Scorpius turned to his very pale looking friend next to him.

He gave him a distant smile and weak thumbs up. "You're doing way better than any of us thought - why would I not want to sit and watch you finally get the girl?"

Scorpius smiled at his friend. "Thank you, Al."

Albus just nodded back.

"Al does make a good point; you're doing way, way better than any of us thought. This should be easy."

"And what dastardly plan have you cooked up?" Scorpius asked before draining the last of his pumpkin juice.

"Actually, you can thank Alfie for the bulk of this one." Alfie gave a mock salute right on cue.

"Astronomy's been kind of slow lately, I've had the time to think about it."

"Thanks."

"So we were thinking we send out our favourite Potter, Mr Warmed-Up-Vampyre here, to go and find Lydia."

"No pr—o-blems with that p-a—rt." Albus coughed his way through the sentence.

Max cringed at Albus, hurrying to cover it up by stuffing more toast into his mouth.

"You ask Lydia if she knows what time they're heading to The Three Broomsticks. She'll know. Then we just turn up at that time and prize the rest of the group away." Alfie finished, making it all sound oh-so-easy.

"How're you planning on managing that?"

"So I was thinking of saying that I saw a ghost outside the shrieking shack."

Joshua snorted at this, and they ignored it.

"I did hear that the ghost of Peter Pettigrew's been sighted there in the recent past."

"Yeah, and we all want to see that knob's ghost."

Scorpius shrugged. "Fair point. Then, there's the ghost of Lady Hartnell and Lord Cartwright."

"Who?"

"They were the first duelers in Hogsmeade. Both died at the same time, no points for guessing how. They've never been spotted as ghosts, but no one needs to know that."

Alfie and Max looked at each other. "Could work. Or we could just say 'ghosts'."

"Probably better to just say ghosts."

"Then you slip in next to her and try to be a lot cooler than you usually are. I don't know, maybe look out for a shooting star to wish on. We'll deal with the people for an hour or so, and then hopefully you two will have had enough time for you to ask her out somewhere."

"Where?"

"Literally anywhere." Max deadpanned. "The tower, Hagrid's place, the Great Lake, the next Hogsmeade weekend - just anywhere."

Scorpius sighed. "Okay, okay. I'll try my best."

"You'd better, or this all would've been for nothing."

They all turned to look at Joshua.

"You know, you can just tell us what's wrong. That is a thing that friends do."

Joshua frowned, jaw clenching. "No it's just - I don't get turned down. I can fix this by myself!" He declared with such forced determination he could've popped a vein in his temple.

"Alright. If you say so." Scorpius sighed. He'd learnt from very messy experience that it was best to just leave Joshua to his stewing until he approached you for help. Otherwise, it'd been like third year all over again where he and Albus had an hour-long shouting match and wouldn't talk for three whole days - which felt like a lot longer back then.

"Hey Scor, didn't you win Luck Potion at the beginning of the year?" Max asked suddenly, breaking the lull.

"Yeah. Want some?"

"You're offering it for free?! No. Well, I could do with some, but no."

"Oh, I don't like where this is going." Alfie mumbled, and Scorpius saw him cringing before he ran a hand over his face.

"I'm just saying! Have a little sip or two, and you might not actually trip over the thin air."

"You have a point there."

"Come on, Alfie! It's not like he's drugging her with Amortentia!" Max pleaded, and Alfie's cringe only faded minutely.

"It still feels a bit manipulative."

Albus stopped his coughing for long enough to say, "it's a bit creepy, but it's not like you're trying to get into her knickers with it."

"I mean, the use of a lot of potions when it comes to other people can be pretty unethical." With a heaved sigh, he ceeded. "I'll give this one a pass. As long as you do not take advantage of her in any way, shape or form." He was sterner than Scorpius had seen him look in a while.

"'Course. You know how I feel about her." He couldn't bring himself to meet any of their eyes, and none of them gave a sarcastic comment.

"Well then, that's settled. Al, question Lydia for details. Take a few sips of lucky potions just before going into the three broomsticks Scorpius, and then we get the rest of them to bugger off. After that, our friend Felix can do most of the work, and you just try not to fuck it all up, alright pal?" Max grinned cockily, and Scorpius offed sharply.

"Yes, Sir!"

"Let's get on with it then." Joshua declared, standing and leading the way out of the hall before any of the others were barely out of their seats.

"Oh, and Scor, if you could somehow magically fix his issues with a drop or two of that lucky potion, we'd be eternally grateful."

Potion tucked away carefully in his pocket, the boys trooped down the frosty tracks to Hogsmeade town and were milling about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes by late morning. Scorpius and Albus had taken one look at the chilly grey sky and decided that it was already cold enough to light the fires in their little jars, which they then used to warm their hands through the gloves. The pair of them and Alfie had worked on them together in fourth year, but they'd only really become a perfected art when Max had stepped in to help. He was surprisingly an artistic one, but he'd only ever admit that he liked drawing if you really needled him about it.

"Hey Al - why do you even like coming here?"

"Because it's a good shop...?" The Potter answered Max, confusion pulling at his features.

"No, but I mean, why this one? We've never been to the one in Diagon Alley."

"Oh, yeah." Albus shrugged. "I've got uncles hanging about in that one, haven't I? There's just random people in here."

Max was interrupted from putting his foot in it as the bell tinkled at the door and a group of second or third years trawled in. The girls amongst them spotted the five of them and giggled.

"I've got a letter to post." Alfie declared with a loud, uncomfortable voice, and they all filed out of the shop.

"I appreciate what you've done for my sanity, Scorpius, but do you think you could just be a little less like the Golden Child so we could go back to being normal?" Albus sniffled.

"And what exactly would that be? Being ignored, harassed, a mixture of the two, or neither?"

Albus snorted, which turned into a choke, which turned into a coughing fit. Alfie stood over him as he doubled over, patting his back. "You okay there, Al?"

Albus gave a weak thumbs up in response.

"Did you actually want to go to the post office, Alfie?"

"Huh? Oh," he dug a letter out of his pocket, "thought I'd let my parents know I'm still alive and well, etcetera."

"You mean you haven't sent them a letter yet?" Scorpius asked, with Max equally as aghast next to him.

Alfie merely shrugged. "I'm the youngest of seven. They know what the deal is by now."

Just as they began to cross the road to the owl office, Joshua seemed to come alive for the first time in hours. "Oh — I've got to do something. I'll see you later!" And without so much of an explanation he darted off across the road, and then was lost in the crowds.

"Are we all absolutely certain he hasn't gone nuts?"

Scorpius shrugged at Albus.

"He'll be fine." Alfie watched after where he'd disappeared, that look of utter calm and knowingness on his face. "Come on, owl post and then we'll send Al off on his quest."

"Oh bollocks, yeah. Forgot about that."

"How could you forget Scorpius' mission to get into your cousin's knickers?" Max said just loud enough for Scorpius and Albus to pick up. Albus grimaced, and no one could quite tell if the shiver down his spine was from the his repulsion or his illness.

Alfie, efficient as ever, was done in record timing and so the four set off down the street on the lookout for Lydia.

"Can't be hard to find them. There's always about twenty of them floating about."

Max wasn't wrong. They spotted Lydia, and Rose and a mixture of a few other six and seventh years hanging out near the path to the Shrieking Shack.

"Who voluntarily comes here? It's haunted." Albus shook his head in amazement.

"And you wonder why you're not a Gryffindor." Albus have Max a nasty glare.

"I will cough next to you and I will make you ill."

Max raised his arms in surrender.

"Give us a few minutes to scarper, then go and find out the details from Lydia. We'll be waiting in Honeydukes." Alfie clapped Albus on the shoulder.

"Oh, and try not to die. Or combust."

"That's rich coming from you."

Scorpius grinned at Albus. "I know."

Albus shook his head and then mined for them to leave. They spotted Albus crouching behind the thick line of trees for a few minutes before straightening up, doubling over as he coughed for way too long to be remotely healthy, and then walked out of sight.

"He's a mess," Max remarked, "but I hope he does okay."

"Yeah. Those two could've been made for each other." Alfie remarked wistfully. "Besides, wizards statistically marry school mates 68% of the time."

"What— really?" Scorpius asked, brows raised.

Alfie nodded as they continued the traipse back up the now extremely middle path to Honeydukes. "Yep. Not like there are many witches and wizards who live in this country and don't got to Hogwarts nowadays, anyway."

"Sure, but 68%?!"

"Well look at it this way. Where did your parents meet?"

Max thought for a moment. "I think they said Hogwarts."

"Scorpius?"

He shrugged. "Sort of Hogwarts, sort of an arranged marriage deal."

"Oh yeah, forgot about your weird-incest-pure-blood family." Max cringed. "No offence."

"None taken."

"And my parents met at Hogwarts, too. So that makes it three-for-three between us alone."

"Al's parents met at Hogwarts, too." Max added.

"And Rose's parents."

"So did Sabrina, Mia and Lydia's parents." Alfie added. To Max' inquiring look he merely said, "unlike you two, I am actually able to have friendships with women."

Scorpius and Max rolled their eyes almost simultaneously. The warm air of Honeydukes hit them like a blanket as soon as the door opened, and the chocolatey smell beckoned them in.

"Weird though, isn't it?"

"What?"

"That probably two of us are going to marry someone we already know." Max declared, inspecting a jar of cockroach clusters unenthusiastically. "I don't even want to think about that sort of thing yet. I can barely work out what I'm going to be doing tomorrow, never mind years in the future."

"Or hold down a girlfriend for more than three days." Scorpius added with a grin. "It is weird though. My parents got married at eighteen. We're eighteen in less than two years."

"Times were different then, though." Alfie pointed out. "There's less pressure on us to stay alive and stuff."

"That's true." Scorpius acknowledges, picking a few peppermint imps out of the large jar in front of him. "Can we please think about something different? This is both depressing and weird."

"Agreed." Max added hurriedly. "Hey, d'you want to hear about how Rhys Owens fell into a pile of dragon dung the other day?"

Max entertained them with a probably vastly exaggerated version of how Rhys Owens lost balance and fell face first into a pile of dragon dung, as they mosied around the shop until a distinct harmony of coughing and the shop bell told them that Albus had arrived.

"Hi." He greeted weakly. Lydia Griffiths was at his side, looking extremely concerned about him.

"Merlin. Al, you look awful. Want some help back to the castle?" Scorpius offered, stepping closer to examine his extremely sick looking friend.

"It's okay, I'm doing that. But he said he wanted to tell you something before we left." Lydia explained as Albus collapsed into coughs again.

"2 pm — The Three Broom— sticks-" Albus managed to wheeze out.

Scorpius nodded. "Alright. Thanks, mate." Scorpius put a hand on the stooped over Potter's back, and felt his whole rib cage seem to vibrate with the weight of his coughs. "Lydia, would you take him to the hospital wing, please? He looks shocking." Lydia nodded and began ushering him out of the shop. The staff behind the counter watched him leave reproachfully, and were glad to see his germy-mess finally near the door.

"Take care, Al." Max called behind him.

"We'll come and visit you in the hospital wing this afternoon." Alfie added.

"Merlin's left bollock. I haven't seen someone that I'll for a while." Scorpius said once the door had jingled shut to signal Albus' departure.

"I know. I hope he doesn't die. I quite like him." Max declared.

Alfie and Scorpius both turned to look at him. Max never showed an ounce of affection towards his friends if he could help it. He shrugged. "What? I do. This may rock your world, but I'm actually a bit fond of my friends."

By one o'clock, Scorpius was a somewhat composed mess. By one-thirty, he was jittery. By two o'clock, he was asking Max and Alfie every second if they could go in yet.

"If we go in at two on the dot, you're going to look like as big a stalker as you actually are."

So with a firm talking down by Max, Scorpius finally agreed to mill around the bookshop for another twenty minutes or so.

"I'm not sure I've ever been in a bookshop this long." Max remarked.

Alfie stared at him. "Perhaps it might make a nice change of pace."

"Yeah, maybe." He gave Alfie a charismatic grin and clapped the taller boy on he shoulder. "Maybe when I'm rounding forty."

Scorpius listened to the two talk, to nervous to add anything note-worthy.

"You're really never interested in settling down?"

"Are we back on this? Again?"

"No. I meant settling down as in calming down. One girl a week instead of two."

"I haven't done that since fourth year, to be fair."

"Seriously, though. What do you even want to do?"

Max shrugged and put down the folklore book he'd been browsing - mostly for the pictures by the way he kept on stopping at the brightly illustrated pages. "Come on, Scorpius. Let's put you out of your misery.

Alfie watch him go without a look back, and didn't meet Scorpius' eye as he walked past.

"It's a shame we don't have Josh here; he's the best at this kind of pep talk." Max smirked at Alfie and Scorpius' silent responses. "There's a reason we've been friends so long."

"Are you going to pep-talk me instead...?" Scorpius asked uncertainly.

"'Course. Now, just take your potion and try not to become the Panicky Scorpius we all know and hate."

"I don't hate Panicky Scorpius." Alfie volunteered.

"Unhelpful, Alfie. Nice, but completely off message right now. Look, Scor. Just try to relax and be yourself. She seems to like you well enough when you do finally relax so just be like that and if she turns you down,-"

"Yeah, I know. I'll leave her alone." Scorpius gave a shrug that was far lighter than the weight that suddenly seemed to sink right through his stomach to his toes.

"Go on. Take your potion, then."

Scorpius reached into his pocket and pulled out the tiny, ornate glass vial that he'd been storing in a rolled up old sock. He uncorked it and eyed the potion, now honey-blonde, now almost translucent and shimmering with golden flecks. It was by far one of the most beautiful potions he'd ever seen. Even the smell was pleasant; wafts of honeycomb came to him and seemed to give his stomach a nice lining. He felt pleasantly full, but who knew on what.

"Scorpius, you probably should take it now if you want it to kick in on time." Alfie and Max were watching Scorpius curiously, as though he were about to do something very, very strange.

Scorpius nodded. One generous sip, he'd reckoned. One generous sip should last him three hours. And if he couldn't at least hold a normal conversation with her in that time... he'd have to acknowledge that there was just no hope. "Alright." He put the tiny vial to his lips and took one sip.

The reaction was immediate. A warmth that had nothing to do with the bright sun spread all over him, travelling all over his very skin like fire. It felt like there was a roaring flame in his stomach. The contented kind of flame that simmered away in the fireplace at home, warming your toes all winter long. A dazed smile spread over his face unconciously. Alfie and Max gave each other a concerned look.

"Right! Let's go." Scorpius grinned, rubbing his hands together. Max and Alfie raised their eyebrows in unison. "Oh, and you need to tell them Hagrid told you the unicorn foals were starting to walk."

"But-what— why?"

"I don't know. You just should." Scorpius couldn't have told you where that thought came from or even how it came about, but somewhere in his heart he just knew/ it was right. Like a more assertive and correct voice of consciousness had suddenly sprung up at the back of his mind. It made him smile like nothing had in a long time.

"Scorpius, chill out—!" Max urged as Scorpius pushed the door to the Three Broomsticks open. But Scorpius ignored him; he had a feeling that what he was doing was exactly right.

"Oh, hello Isabelle!"

Isabelle Moore just happened to be at the end of the bar nearest the entrance. She also just happened to be both a friend of Scorpius', and with Rose and her friends.

Isabelle turned around with round, surprised eyes. "Oh, Scorpius! Alfie, and... Max?"

Max held out a hand to her. She shook it reluctantly, eyeing him wearily.

"How're you doing? What're you doing in here?"

"Oh, well," he cast around for a reason. Usually he'd be desperately reaching for something which would innevitably come out sounding stupid. But somehow, he had the perfect excuse come to him within seconds. "Albus went back up to the castle, sick. He had to send a few letters so we've only just finished doing everything we needed to and we decided to come here since it's emptier now, anyway." He could almost feel Alfie and Max's eyes boring an astonished hole into the back of his head. "How about you? You here with people?"

She pointed to a group of perhaps six or seven people near the back of the pub, "there were more of us, but some wanted to go and check out the shrieking shack."

"Not one for horror?"

Isabelle laughed. "Come on, Scorpius. We both know it's not really haunted." She nudged him conspiratorially. Two years ago, they'd been set a project on the Shrieking Shack together. It'd been utterly dull, but they had become much better friends as a result. Well, it might've been described better as 'acquintances' at the time.

"They're going to be so disappointed when all they find is some ripped wallpaper and a few broken chairs."

"My thoughts exactly." She smiled. "Why don't you join us? Alfie, Max, you too."

Scorpius was nodding without even checking with the others. "Of course!" The four of them made their way to the back of the bar.

Scorpius could start to make out who it was as they got closer. Of course there was Rose, Jasmine Taylor-Thomas and Lola Travers - although Paige Finnegan was conspicuously missing. There was Evie Lee from Ravenclaw who Scorpius vaguely remembered Max wanted to go out with for a while last year, and Grace Hill the Hufflepuff with another Hufflepuff he didn't know next to her.

"Scorpius! Alfie, and Max. Come, sit with us."

"Sure." Scorpius nodded at the other two. He just knew that this was the way to go. They nestled into the semi-circular booth with the other girls, taking off their coats and scarves.

"I'm Matilda. Matilda Parker." The unknown Hufflepuff said to Scorpius. "I'm in Care of Magical Creatures with Max." She eyed Max wearily over the brim of her glass. Max just smiled innocently. He was lucky he was good-looking.

"That's me." Max saluted.

"Say, did Hagrid say anything about the unicorn foals when you went to see him last?" She asked Max.

Max and Scorpius met eyes. Scorpius nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Well, they're starting to walk and shed their golden fur."

Grace Hill made a squeeing sound of delight, and Isabelle and Jasmine stopped their subdued conversation to listen intently.

"Seriously? Because I went yesterday and they didn't look that near..." Evie Lee frowned, pushing her drained mug of butterbeer aside.

"Really. I went with him." Alfie added in an earnest tone.

"Let's go! Let's go and see them!" Grace and Matilda cried, almost in unison.

"Jas? Isabelle?" Evie asked, and the two girls nodded.

In a flurry of scarves being thrown on and coats wrenched back on, Scorpius leant over to Rose.

"Hey, mind if I have a word?"

Rose looked at him suspiciously.

"Alright. Girls, I'll be right behind you." She nodded, and the other girls said hurried goodbyes before dashing out with Alfie and Max. Max looked like a Cat who's just found a mouse colony. Alfie turned back at the door to give Scorpius a thumbs up. Scorpius returned it with a smile, before Rose shuffling closer won his undiluted attention.

"So?"

"Oh- yeah. I wanted a word." He said, more to himself than to her.

She frowned. "Are you just winding me up, Scorpius?"

She must've seen his eyes dilated and his heart stop for a second because she leaned ever so slightly closer. "Scorpius?" She wasn't talking very loudly - he doubted anyone even heard her say it - but it meant the world to him.

"O-Oh yeah." Now he started to panic. He'd thought for a long time how to get her alone, he'd just never thought about what to actually say to her. But somehow that calm, confident voice in his head steered him in a sensible direction again. "I wanted to say that I was really impressed with your transfiguration project last week."

Her eyes widened. "Oh." Her face flitted between proud and confused and her cheeks flushed a little either from the warmth in here or pride. "Thank you. Is that really all you wanted to say?"

"No. I wanted to ask you about it, really. How're you so good at transfiguration, anyway? Do you want to go into the field?"

Rose was still looking at him suspiciously as she picked up Her butterbeer and took a sip. "Well, I'm not sure yet." She seemed to relax into herself a bit. "Ideally I'd like to work in the Ministry in some research capacity, although obviously life will be harder since I'll really have to prove my worth to avoid it looking like nepotism."

"Don't say that. Everyone at school knows you're the brightest witch of your age."

Rose actually did flush with happiness this time. Her mouth curved in a badly restrained smile, and she fiddled with her hair. "W-Well... I'm not sure about that."

Scorpius grinned. "Trust me, I would know."

She smiled again, somewhat sheepishly. "Thanks."

"So, you want to go into research?"

Once Scorpius got Rose going on her future ambitions, she didn't seem to stop. They talked for hours, about the possibilities of distilling the power of transfiguration into more adaptable spells, about what the future of magic could look like, and above all, what life might be like after Hogwarts.

"It'll be nice not to have to do potions." She opined.

"Why'd you had them so much?"

Rose sighed, shrugged. "Couldn't say."

"Can't, or won't?" She laughed.

"Both."

By the time Scorpius was next aware, it was dark outside.

"Oh, no." Rose sighed.

Scorpius frowned. "What is it? Something wrong."

"No," Rose nodded to the window, "it's just dark outside already."

"Oh." Scorpius felt his heart sink. "We should go back to the castle then."

Rose was silent. She was biting the inside of her bottom lip, which always meant that she was thinking. "Yeah. I guess."

"Come on, we might be able to see those unicorn foals if we ask nicely."

"Are there really unicorn foals?" Rose narrowed her eyes at him.

"No idea. They could be anything in reality."

When Scorpius fell silent, he realised the entire pub around them was quiet. It was almost empty of people. "I guess we stayed for longer than we thought."

Rose frowned. "Yeah." She made a sound, and got up. "Let's go back to the castle."

She wouldn't look at him again.

"What's the matter?"

Standing this close to her and not being afraid for his life, Scorpius realised he was only three inches or so taller than her. And that she smelt more like fresh roses than ever today.

"Nothing." She shook her head. Nothing." She looked up at him.

Winding their scarves back around their necks, they left the pub with a smile to Madam Rosmerta as they went.

"Oh Dumbledore, it's cold." Rose shivered, her cheeks growing pink in the evening chill.

"Here," Scorpius took the little flame-containing bottle out of his pocket, "use this."

He could see Rose frowning in the half-light of the Three Broomstick's lights as she took it. "This is... nicely done. Thank you."

"You may be the best of this age, Rose, but I'm the best at Charms."

"Oh!" Rose let out a competitive bark of laughter. "That is debatable!"

Scorpius laughed. "Fine. But I am the best when I've also got Albus and Alfie helping me."

Rose conceded to that with a nod of her head.

The path back up to Hogwarts was almost deserted, but clearly well travelled. The grass had been pummelled into the a sludge of earth around the sides of the stone path, and only very few students were still travelling it.

Scorpius felt slightly sick the whole time. They'd fallen into silence, and it was only because Scorpius knew that he had to ask her somewhere or to do something, but he couldn't quite bring himself. He fished around for that calm, assertive voice of Felix Felicis, but it was gone. That increased the lead weight in his stomach by tenfold. He looked over at Rose, who was looking at him. They both quickly looked away. What if he'd been getting all the signs completely wrong? What if she was just humouring him, just being nice? What if she was only putting on an act and still secretly hated him?

Or, he thought as he noticed her sneak another look at him out of the corner of her eye, she might like him.

"Say, Rose?"

"Yes?" She replied a little too quickly.

Scorpius was slightly thrown off, and took a moment to stir up His courage again. He was going to ask her. He was going to do this. "Would you want to go to the next Slug Club meeting together?"

She didn't look startled. She didn't even look concerned. She just stopped under the golden, glowing light from the castle and turned to face him.

He felt like he was being searched, but he was confident that he had nothing to hide. No secret intentions like Max - nothing.

She gave a slight nod. And then another, bigger one. "Okay."

Scorpius heart seemed to fall all the way to Australia and then rose back up into his throat again. "R-Really? You will?" He almost yelled.

"Yes! Now quieten down before I change my mind." She turned away and started walking up the path again, but not before he saw her smile.

He restrained himself, saving this burst of euphoria for the dorm, and swallowed his cries of joy. And his tears of happiness. "Alrighty then."

She cast him a sceptical look out of the corner of her eyes when he caught up to her. "'Alrighty'?"

"I know, I'm so sorry." Scorpius was about to further exonerate himself when he was interrupted by a rustling from the bushes to their left.

Scorpius pulled out his wand, taking a step in front of Rose.

"Really, Scorpius, you have to stop doing this." A jolt went to his stomach, despite the apparent imminent danger. "I can take care of myself." She appeared next to him.

"Right. Yes. Sorry."

He watched Rose roll her eyes with a tiny smile.

Suddenly, whatever it was emerged from the bushes and ran, giggling, back onto the path.

Rose raised her wand for a curse, but Scorpius put his hand on her arm.

"Joshua?" He squinted to see who it was with him. "Amelie...?"

"Alright, Scorpius? Oh, and Rose."

Joshua raised his eyebrows in a meaningful way at Scorpius. "What happened? Where are Max and Alfie and Albus?"

"Max and Alfie went to see unicorn foals at Hagrid's, Albus is in the hospital wing."

"Al's in the hospital wing? What happened to him?" Rose asked, a slight note of panic in her voice.

"Oh, he's really ill. He's going to be fine though, don't worry." Scorpius looked back over at Joshua and Amelie, engaged in a discussion about the unicorn foals.

"I'll take you to see them tomorrow! How about that?" Amelie narrowed her eyes.

"Okay."

And the pair started up the path again, marching in unison through the wide gates of Hogwarts.

Scorpius shrugged at Rose.

But she was smiling at him. "You're a good friend. To Al."

Scorpius was certain he must've looked halfway between frightened rabbit and confused dog. "Thanks. I mean, he's annoying but I do my best with him."

Rose laughed, and as they walked under the Hogwarts gates and through the empty courtyard into the entrance hall, she turned to him,

"Thanks. For this." She hurried to add, and gave him the little bottle back. "I'll... I'll see you in class on Monday."

Scorpius nodded, and wasn't quite able to get any words out. He just watched her go, staring happily at her retreating back.

Oh boy, Albus was going to love this.

Hee hee, I love writing hopelessly romantic stuff!

What can I say? It was always going to go well. Luck potion to the rescue! But on a serious note, we all know that real-life romances never go this well, not to ruin your dreams or anything.

Also, I'm not sure if it really is 68% of Hogwarts students get married to a fellow student, but looking at the in-book generation, this would be my guess. What about you guys - what would you say, if you had to put a percentage on it? Strange food for thought, right?

Anyway, please follow for more and review if you've got time. Thanks!