Cassi doesn't wait for bedtime to start bothering me. Over breakfast, still in her dressing gown, she says, "OK, Mum, we're ready for the next part."

"Don't you have plans today?" I ask.

"Yes, I do. They involve hearing about what happened in Runes. Right, Antares?" She looks at her little brother for confirmation.

He does far too well impersonating an adult as he responds. "Right, Cassiopeia."

"Wait a minute," Scorpius says. "They want to know what happened in Runes that day?"

I nod.

"You aren't going to tell them, right?"

"Of course I am. It's not like I give them a play-by-play."

"Good. Because I remember what happened when-"

"Scorpius," I say, looking pointedly at our children. "If you don't want them to know, this probably isn't the place to discuss it."

"Mum! Why did you have to stop him? It was just about to get good."

"The version you are about to hear will be perfectly satisfying and very nearly true," I tell them. Scorpius returns to the kitchen for coffee while Cassi and Antares all but drag me to the sofa for story time.

"Only very nearly true?" Antares complains, but he settles down anyway as I begin to speak.

Professor Li's scolding took a few moments to reach me. I was still inches from Scorpius, taking it in turns to stare up at him and glance sidelong at Bryan. There were about a million words scrambled up inside my brain wanting to escape. All I could manage was a muddled "Hrmph" before collecting myself.

"Are you coming?" Professor Li said again.

"Right away," Bryan replied, and only narrowed his eyes at me slightly before turning to go inside. Scorpius and I were still frozen, staring at each other.

Professor Li shook her head, exasperated, then grabbed an arm from each of us to drag us inside. "As Prefects, you two should know better. Snogging in the corridors is strictly forbidden."

"First of all, no it's not," Scorpius said.

"Yes-"

"It's implied," I added, "But the rules do not 'strictly forbid' snogging in the corridors. And secondly-"

"We weren't snogging." Scorpius and I said at the same time. In the same tone of voice.

"Right, you two. I may be a teacher, but I am not unobservant. I teach Runes, remember. Which is all about assessing the signs."

"Er, Professor Li?" Bryan asked. I stared at my desk, begging him not to speak. He was bound to insult our professor and embarrass me all at once. And sure enough… "Maybe you are a good Runes decipherer, but Rose is my girlfriend. If she would be snogging anyone in the corridors, it should be me."

"I'm not unaware of your relationship, Mr Macmillan."

"But, then-"

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley, we will be speaking after class. For now, your antics have wasted enough of our time together. Please open up your books to page 42, where we will continue our study of ancient Egyptian Runes."

Ancient Runes was not a popular class. In fact, our N.E.W.T.-level classroom was even emptier than it had been for O.W.L. years. Scorpius, Bryan, and I made up half the class. The other half was Kavya and two Slytherins Scorpius never befriended. Bryan seemed to have forgotten his desire to separate me from all my old friends, and had slid, embarrassed, into his old seat. That left me free to sit between Kavya and Scorpius, neither of whom looked at me. Scorpius was, like me, still flustered from our encounter in the hallway. Kavya was still furious that I had chosen Bryan over them. Even if it looked like that was about to change.

No one had opened up to page 42. The two Slytherins eyed Scorpius and me warily. In a theatrical whisper that was neither theatrical nor very quiet, Liam Zabini said, "If the professors have started to notice the whole Rose/Scorpius thing, you'd think Bryan would have, too."

"I almost feel sorry for him," Preston Roberts responded. "Getting duped like he is."

Liam shrugged. "Don't go all Hufflepuff on us. He got himself into the mess. We've seen it coming since second year."

The one book open - Bryan's - slammed onto the floor, the pages landing crumpled and bent. I hazarded a glance his way. His face was red and his arms shook.

"Is there a problem, Mr Macmillan?" Professor Li asked him. Bryan tried to answer her, but it was like he had eaten a Ton-Tongue Toffee and couldn't get his words to move around his tongue. "If there isn't, would you please retrieve your textbook and continue reading?"

"But- but-" Bryan said, getting actual words out of his mouth for the first time since class started. "What about the others? Surely they were being just as disruptive."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Mr Macmillan. If you'd like to settle it in detention on Saturday, that could be arranged."

I tried hard to suppress a grin, but had to look down at the cover of my still-closed textbook instead. Saturday was supposed to be our date night in Hogsmeade. Another trip to Madam Puddifoot's to look forward to. In addition, however, and much more important to him, he had yet to get a detention and was always writing home to his parents about his good behaviour. He had somehow become certain that his lack of detentions alone was reason enough to make him Head Boy next year.

"No, thank you, ma'am," he mumbled, bending over to pick up his crumpled textbook.

The disruption from all of us apparently over, I opened my textbook and began to study the hieroglyphics. How anyone originally interpreted these is beyond me, but with a key on the next page, it was easy enough to begin to decipher. Intent on not upgrading my talking-to after class to my own detention, I hardly noticed anything around me.

"Rose, come on!" Kavya hissed, and I shook my head as I looked up, adjusting from the close reading. A carefully crafted paper airplane was hovering at my shoulder, tapping me so gently I could barely feel it. One glance to the front of the room showed that Professor Li was bent over notes of her own. I snatched the note from the air and it opened in front of me, still hovering.

I never realised the Professors would ship students

"What are you talking about?" I whispered.

Kavya grabbed the note back and started scrawling on it hurriedly again. The handwriting she sent back was barely legible.

You know. Trying to set students up with each other. She wants you and Scor to end up together! I can't believe it! I mean, of course it was obvious to all of us - except you and Bryan I guess - but I never thought about how the teachers might notice, too.

I stared at the paper for more than thirty seconds before having the good sense to put it inside my textbook. Professor Li wants us together? It would have seemed like a strange joke if it weren't for the way she'd been acting in class today. I doubt Scorpius felt it, though. Nothing had changed with me. I was still just plain, boring, studious Rose - with a bad boyfriend. Scorpius had become something so much more than that over the summer holidays. It was impossible to look at him as just a friend, and just as impossible to imagine him seeing me as something more.

Professor Li's eyes wandered over the edge of her paper, surveying us. I waited until she seemed satisfied and returned to her work before writing back NOT HAPPENING and ignoring Kavya for the rest of the lesson.

At the end of class, as the others gathered their book bags and started to file out, not a single other student failed to glance my way. The Slytherins seemed interested in the drama. Kavya sent me a look that I could tell was supposed to be pity, but she was working hard to cover up amusement. Bryan stopped at my desk. "I'll be waiting outside, sweetheart," he said. It sounded like a threat. And like he would definitely be listening in.

Scorpius didn't look at me, despite being seated right beside me. It wasn't until Professor Li left her desk that he sent me one sidelong, confused glance. "You two weren't snogging in the hallways," she said authoritatively.

"Of course not!"

She looked pointedly at me. "That's a shame. I was hoping you were beginning to see sense."

It was my turn to send a confused glance to Scorpius, but he wasn't looking at me. His cheeks, however, were tinted an unusual shade of pink. "What are you talking about?" I asked.

"I have it on good authority that you started dating Mr Macmillan near the beginning of the year. And I have even better authority - my own personal grade books - to prove that you are suffering for it. You're a bright young lady, Rose, and you can't tell me that N.E.W.T. work is beyond you. I went to school with your mother. I've personally taught you for more than two years, and I know you, rather fortunately, take after her and not your father. You're smarter than your grades show, and it doesn't take someone trained in Runes reading to guess at the reason."

I refused to admit that she made sense. "Why are you making Scorpius sit in on your lecture to me? We've barely spoken all year!"

Her smile had a hint of mischief to it. "That is precisely the reason, Rose. I believe you both have free periods after Runes?"

We nodded.

"Good. I have a fourth-year lesson next, but if you'll follow me…" She began to walk away. I slung my book bag over one shoulder and looked at Scorpius. He shrugged and I followed him out of the room. We didn't leave by the main door, the one Bryan was inevitably standing outside of, perhaps with an Extendable Ear at the ready. Instead, Professor Li showed us into her office.

It was a comfortable size, smaller than the classroom outside of it, but containing a sofa and two arm chairs in addition to a desk. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined three of the four walls. She motioned for us to sit on the couch. "As I mentioned, I have another class to teach in ten minutes. As the only way out of my office is through the classroom, I trust you two will show the younger students some respect and not disrupt them while they're learning."

"You just want us to stay in here for an hour?" Scorpius asked. "That is our punishment for, um, not snogging?"

"Precisely. Talk to each other, please. Don't just sit in there with your noses in books."

"Well," Scorpius said as Professor Li closed the door behind us. "Hi."

"Hi."

"A whole hour just to talk? That must be more than we've spoken all year."

"I'm sure it's twice what we've said to each other. I'm sorry about that, Scorpius. I guess now we just have to see if we still can talk for an hour straight."

He shifted toward me, pulling a knee up onto the couch as he faced me. His look was stern at first, but I could feel his muscles straining as they held back a smile. "Remember third and fourth years, when even Kavya had to keep telling us to shut up? It can't be that hard to get back there."

I laughed at the memory. We could have a serious discussion for hours and still want to keep speaking when we finished. "A lot has changed since then, though," I said.

"Has it? The only thing I've seen change is you."

"That's funny, because I'm the only thing I haven't seen change," I said before I realised I had spoken aloud. "I mean-" I scooted away from him, embarrassed.

He followed me, moving even closer than we had been sitting before. He placed his fingers over my own, rubbing a thumb lightly along my hand. "Please don't stop talking. It sounds like I was about to find out what's really been bothering you this year."

"It's awkward. You won't want to know."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "It can't be any more awkward than what you've told me before."

The problem with Scorpius was how much I had seen him as just another friend of mine before that year. In fourth year, I got halfway through an embarrassing - and hilarious - story about how I couldn't find supplies for my time of the month before remembering that he was in the room. He'd heard about the awful foot fungus that grew between my toes last year, and accompanied me to the hospital wing when I managed to break my arm when trying to comb through my hair.

"It's a different kind of awkward," I told him. "One I'm not sure you'd want to hear."

"Fine. Let's start with something easy. Tell me about Australia."

And so I did.

"Time for lunch!" Scorpius announces from the kitchen.

"Already? But Mum was just getting to the good part!"

"Your mum and I have linked brain waves," he says, winking. "I knew what part she was at and timed lunch accordingly."

"You can be a right git sometimes, you know that, Dad?"

"Cassi! Don't talk to your father that way," I chastise as we get up from the sofa.

Scorpius just laughs. "That's not a kind way to talk, love, but you can't tell me she isn't right."

I make my way to him and he pulls me in for a hug, kissing my forehead, then my lips. All these years later and he still melts me. "Okay, I admit it. Cassiopeia is right about you being a right git sometimes. But it doesn't excuse her actually telling you that. She hasn't earned the privilege yet."

"When will I earn that privilege?" she asks eagerly, too close to us.

"When you're seventeen," I say. "Now let's eat and we'll get back to the story after lunch. Unless, of course, there's something you'd rather do." I look at Cassi when I speak. She understands me too easily.

"He was planning on coming over for five this afternoon," she tells her food.

I look at the clock. "That should give me plenty of time to finish my story."

Antares's eyes light up. "It will? We're that close? But you and Dad haven't even kissed yet!"

Scorpius and I have a silent conference in a matter of milliseconds and make up for this lack in our story. "Better?" I say after our intentionally loud kiss.

"Ew, gross. Not at all. Maybe we can skip the kissing parts."

"Sorry, little bro. I'm gonna make her tell those bits."

I smile deviously at our children. They will just have to wait and see.