Kavya dragged me up to the sixth-year girls' bathroom and frantically began opening drawers and cabinets. "I know it's here somewhere," she mumbled. "It's gotta be."

"What are you doing? What is there somewhere? Kavya…?"

"Just a minute, Rose! I'm trying to help you, and you're distracting me," she said.

Oh, right. She said she would fix my hair. I leaned over the counters, letting my hair fall over my shoulders. As much as I had gotten on Scorpius when we were younger, he had a point. The stuff growing out of my head could hardly classify as hair. Thin, frizzy, red clumps more like. A matted horse's mane. Something untameable and wild and definitely not pretty. "It's not fixable," I said. "Don't bother."

"That's not true," Kavya said. "I know a story from when our parents were at Hogwarts."

"I know about a million stories from when our parents were at Hogwarts. What's that have to do with anything?"

"What did your dad tell you about the Yule Ball?"

I tried to think back. Dad didn't talk much about his later years at Hogwarts, and I knew things got complicated for him, to say the least. The Yule Ball should have been a highlight. Mum had told me about it before-she went with Viktor Krum. Dad averted the subject when I asked him.

"Not much. He told me he was miserable."

Kavya raised her eyebrows and almost looked offended. "He never mentioned that his date to the Yule Ball was my mum?"

"Godric, seriously? Not once."

"From what I understand, it was a disaster. But this isn't about their failed date. It's about how your dad was already in love with your mum. Aunt Parvati told me once that your mum started getting ready for the ball before Lavender Finnigan. And when she came down? No one recognized her."

"Okay, great, Mum got a makeover a billion years ago and it turned out she was pretty. I already knew that. What's it have to do with now?"

"She tamed her hair with spells and products my aunt taught her. And now I'm going to use them on you."

I sat down at the vanity and looked in the mirror at the rat's nest protruding from my head. "You'd better not make me regret this, Kavya."

"I won't. I have no desire to see what you'd do to me if I screw this up. Now hold still."

I looked at my reflection one more time. "Just a minute. Let me face the other way. I don't want to watch."

"Fine," she said, and let me turn around before beginning to work. After a while, my legs began to get stiff, and I could hardly feel my scalp, she'd been pulling on it so much. "You said my mum started to get ready before Lavender Finnigan? How long did it take?"

"I dunno exactly. Four hours?"

"Seriously? No wonder she lets it stay frizzy most days."

"It's not taking me nearly as long," she said. Then she tugged a brush through my hair. "In fact, turn around."

I turned, keeping my eyes squinted almost shut. I was afraid of what I would see.

At first, I blamed it on my squinted eyes. The girl I saw in the mirror was too beautiful to be me. My hair looked silky, falling around my shoulders in satin waves that looked intentional. "That wasn't hair product, Kavya. Don't lie to me. When did you get so good at human transfiguration?"

"Hair product," she insisted, holding up the bottle. "I tell you, my aunt is full of beauty secrets."

I didn't acknowledge her. I leaned against the counter, pressing my nose to the mirror, scrutinizing the girl who looked at me. I refused to look down at myself. It was easier to gape at the mirror like a stranger.

"Well? You going to snog Scorpius or what?"

"It's late. Our date's not until tomorrow. Can you make this last?"

She looked me over one more time and grabbed a final product from the counter. "I can. But if your date isn't until the evening, we're going to have to hide it. Put your hair in a bun in the morning. Your hat should hide it until your date."

"It'll stay like this even after being in a bun all day?" She nodded. "I can't wait."

"Rose!" Scorpius called after our last class. "Rose, where are you going?"

"Bathroom. Just give me a minute," I said. "I haven't forgotten our plans."

He caught up to me and slipped an arm around my waist. "Good. Because our plans have made me forget pretty much everything else. You might have to tutor me later."

"We'd get absolutely nothing done."

He grinned and kissed my cheek. "Exactly."

We reached the entrance to one of the bathrooms and I ducked away from him. "Be right back."

The moment I got inside, I wished I'd gone to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. This one was the most crowded between classes, and now was no exception. There was even a line to use the mirror. And the mirror was all I needed. To make things worse, Elizabeth Creevy was right in front of me. Just look down. Don't call any attention to yourself. I could do this. I just needed to pull my hair out of its bun, straighten it, and go back out to Scorpius.

Without catching Elizabeth's attention. As the line for the mirror edged forward, and students drew on eyeliner and extended their mascara with spells from books like The Magic of Beauty, I focused my energy on Elizabeth herself. That way if she noticed me, at least I noticed her first.

She didn't have her camera around her neck. It was something like a miracle and it took effort to keep myself from saying something stupid. We made it through the line without incident, until she stepped in front of the mirror and saw me behind her. Elizabeth's makeup scattered around the sink as she began to grin. It was not the grin of someone happy to see me. It was the grin of a reporter catching her next story.

"Rose! You and Bryan had quite the tiff at dinner last night, didn't you? And then disappearing outside… I am going to find out what happened, you know."

I ignored her, instead I moved closer to the mirror and pulled out the elastic that kept my bun in place. Kavya was right-the bun hadn't made a difference. My own jaw slacked looking at my reflection. I wasn't ginger anymore. I was strawberry blonde. No frizzy tangles surrounded my face, only sleek, silky hair. Real hair.

"Who are you and what have you done with Rose?" Elizabeth accused.

"None of your business," I said, and marched back out to where Scorpius was waiting for me.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I expected Scorpius to do. Faint, maybe. Or have his jaw slack so far he started to drool. Stutter out a compliment about how he never knew how beautiful I was. I think I would have been content with a smile.

I got none of those things.

"What the hell, Rose?"

I shook my hair around my shoulders, trying to keep up the confident facade I'd practiced the night before with Kavya. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah! Your hair. It's… normal! Why would you do that?"

"What do you mean, why would I do that?" I dropped the act and took on a stance much more familiar to my conversations with Scorpius: arms crossed, leaning forward, scowling. "I'm not sure you remember, but I was teased relentlessly about my hair by some kid for three years. Some blond, pretentious kid who uses more hair gel than brain cells sometimes. Maybe I wanted to impress him."

"Maybe he was already impressed."

"Fine. Maybe I wanted to impress myself, for once. Think I was worthy of… whatever this is."

"You spent yesterday afternoon with me and still didn't think you were worthy? Didn't I prove to you that I think you are?" He had stopped arguing. He response was sweet and gentle, chivalrous.

He sounded like Bryan.

"Okay, so maybe I did this for you. But maybe I also did this for me. Maybe my opinion of myself isn't contingent on how you think about me. I've got to figure it out for myself. And I started with my hair. Deal with it."

He looked down and touched me for the first time since I came back from the bathroom. He ran his fingers along my arms and I felt fire between us again. Fire that kept us fighting. Fire that kept us wanting each other. Scorpius pushed my hair back behind my ear and whispered. "On one condition."

"What's that?" I said, my breath coming in shallow bursts. He was too close. We needed out of the hallway, and quick.

"Give me an opportunity to mess it up again."

"Right now?"

"Please." He didn't need to beg.

"I've heard rumours that the Room of Requirement really does meet any need you have," I said. I grabbed his hand and started running toward the seventh floor before he had a chance to respond.

"Excellent idea," he said as we collapsed onto the waiting double bed. "This is incredible. It's perfect."

"It's doing its job," I said as I worked at loosening his tie.

"You're incredible. You're perfect. I guess it's time I start doing my job."

"What might that be?" I asked. My face was buried in his neck as I traced the lines of his muscle with my lips.

"Thoroughly messing up your hair."

There is one thing that must be said about Scorpius Malfoy: when he sets his mind on something, he does it well. I need a mirror, I thought. So it appeared. I no longer had sleek, shining locks that fell exactly where I wanted to. I also no longer had a frizzy tangle of hair. No, it was far worse. Rat's nests and knots were all over the place, and more of my hair stuck straight up than cascaded toward my shoulders.

"Damn," I said. "You sure don't work halfway."

"Not when the job is this important," he said. He grabbed my bare waist and pulled me back toward him. I rested my head in the crook of his elbow.

"So much for that walk around the grounds," I said.

"You honestly thought that we would make it that far?"

"Not really."

"Good. I would hope you knew me better than that by now."

"Of course I do." I snuggled deeper against him, pressing my frame to his own. "I can come in and read you. You're my favourite book."

"And you're mine."

I laughed. "I'm probably the only book you've read."

"I won't deny you're an easy book to read, Rose Weasley. But that doesn't make you any less of my favourite."

"You know what's perfect?" I said, half-asleep against him.

"Hmm?"

"We are."

I was almost asleep when he tensed suddenly beside me. "Did you hear something?"

I hadn't, but then I started to listen. A camera shutter. Though the comforter half-covered us, we still weren't wearing any clothes.

Laughter came from near the doorway, and the door seemed to bend its shape. "I can't believe they didn't try harder with the spell to get in the room. You're publishing this, aren't you?" said Bryan.

"It's inappropriate!"

"Come on, at least the headshots. What a cheating bitch."

They were talking at normal volume. I looked at Scorpius and tried to press down the grin forming. He just seemed confused. I Summoned my shirt and sat up. "Hey, Elizabeth! Did James really tell you that the Cloak masks noise, too?"

A dusty blonde head appeared in front of the doorway. "You knew I was here?"

"I can't believe you fell for that. It's an Invisibility Cloak. It makes you invisible."

"He said it was a special one…"

"It is. That's not why. How did you earn it anyway?" Mostly, I wanted to keep the conversation away from the fact that Scorpius and I were lying in a bed together. But I was honestly curious. James doesn't give his Cloak to just anyone.

"Caught him sneaking around with Rachel Boot. He begged me not to publish the story. This was my payment." She sounded proud of her accomplishment. And she should have been. I didn't know if anyone who wasn't a Gryffindor or directly related to James had borrowed it before. I just wished she had used it for something else.

"Can we get back to capturing her cheat on me, please?" Bryan said, throwing the Cloak haphazardly on the floor.

"Be careful with that!" I said. "It's a family heirloom!"

"And she wasn't cheating on you," Scorpius said. "It's over. She ended it."

"Is that what the lying bitch told you? Because she apologized to me for your snog session. Said it wouldn't happen again."

Elizabeth was furiously taking notes with an acid green pen.

"Lizzie, what do I have to do to keep you from printing this?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied without looking up. "This story is too good to pass on. And don't call me Lizzie."

"Bryan…" I found my skirt beneath the covers and tried to be discreet as I pulled it up. I left the bed and treaded toward the intruders. "Don't do this. You know what happened down by the tree at the lake. It's over. It never should have started. Please don't be unreasonable."

"I don't know what's so unreasonable about wanting my girlfriend to stay true to me."

"Ooh! That is an excellent quote! It should sell us a lot of copies. Good job, Bryan." He looked too pleased with himself after her compliment.

"I thought you were better than this," I said, motioning for Scorpius to join me. "At least give me a glimmer of hope that you were worth dating."

I didn't wait for the glimmer to appear. I wasn't sure it ever would. I shut the door of the Room of Requirement behind us and squeezed Scorpius's hand. "When word of this gets around school, I am so dead."

"Tell me about it. Emma-"

"You're worried about Emma Davies? My entire family goes to school here. There's a high chance my parents will find out before I can tell them. I have to get an owl to them. Now." We still held hands, but I began winding toward the owlery, Scorpius half-dragged along.

"Maybe the Room of Requirement was a bad idea," he said as we reached the top of yet another staircase.

"The whole year has been a series of bad ideas. I really screwed this one up."

Scorpius paused and faced me. "Even us? Was that a bad idea?"

"Sort of. I mean, we snogged before I dumped Bryan, and didn't give him any chance to get used to not being with me before I ran off with you. And now I have a crazy ex and a reporter following us around, and our snog will be in Lizzie's paper tomorrow."

"I should have asked you out right after Charms that day."

"You should have. None of this would have happened. I never would have said yes to Bryan if you'd followed me, too."

"Fine. Blame the whole thing on me."

"That's not what I meant, Scorpius!"

"Go send your bloody owl," he said. "I'm going to bed."

With that, he turned away from me and began to run toward the dungeon.

The doorbell interrupts my story. "Go get it, Cassi. We all know it's for you."

"What about the story?" Antares asks.

"I'll make it as Muggle as I can. This story is about love, not magic. It shouldn't be difficult." I look over at Cassi and Jake in the doorway. Cassi runs her hand through her hair and leans closer to him. "Although love is its own kind of magic."

Cassi and Jake walk over to join us and sit down across from Antares and me. "Mum? I'd like you to meet Jake. He lives across the street. Jake, this is my mum, Rose, and my brother Antares."

"Antares? Your family sure gives weird names."

"It's a tradition in my husband's family," I say. "Many of them are named after stars and constellations."

"That's kinda cool," he says.

"Mum was just telling us about how she and my dad got together. I don't know if you want to hear it… I mean, I can always listen to the story later if I need to."

"What's happened so far?"

Cassi begins telling my story to him, and I am proud to realise she was listening, even as she sat texting Jake. "And now the school reporter just caught them snogging, and she's threatening to publish the pictures."

"Yeah, I'll stay for the rest. Sounds like it isn't your everyday love story."

"It's not," I say, thinking back over the years. "It was magical."