'I submit to your demands.' - Boyz II Men, I'll Make Love To You

I wake up sprawled across my bed, butt-naked, with my duvet on the floor and my legs tangled with a slim, tanned girl (also naked) who has her arms around my waist and her head resting on my bare chest.

Even though I hate mornings (blame Scor and his unconventional methods of getting people up), all in all, this is a pretty damn good way to wake up.

I make to sit up, then groan with a splitting headache, instead reaching out for the Hangover Potion that I know Lysander left on my bedside table yesterday.

The vile drink takes immediate effect, leaving me able to sit up and stretch, knowing that Ria's not going to wake up even if I jostle her, before remembering that it's only Saturday, so I sink back into the mattress contentedly.

The sunlight filtered into red by my bed-curtains makes it impossible for me to fall back into sleep, so instead I gaze up at the ceiling of my four-poster, pristinely white except for that splash of blue paint in the middle from when I decided to do my Art homework lying down.

Ria shifts slightly, and my gaze snaps to her as she smiles against my skin, still fast asleep. I match her smile unconsciously and pick up strands of her long hair as they lay splayed across my pecs.

"You know you're so beautiful?" I say to her, threading her silver hair through my fingers, "You're fun, and loud, and loyal, and - "

"Shut the fuck up, Potter." A voice growls from beyond the curtains.

I freeze.

"Leave him be, Aaron, he's composing a sonnet." Lysander laughs.

"Much as I respect you, Lysander, the thought of Al spewing love is fucking weird."

"I – I think the basis of healthy relationship is to show love as often as possible, and sonnet-writing is undeniably a means to that end."

There's a long pause.

"No offence, Josh, but I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about." Levitt says.

I can practically hear Lysander rolling his eyes. "And they say our generation's got intelligence."

"What was that, Scamander?" Levitt's got a warning note in his voice.

I smile; he'd never fight Lysander, mostly because no-one really knows what the tall, peace-loving guy's actually capable of in a brawl.

I hear the curtains of the bed opposite me draw shut and faint classical music can be heard from it. Thompson is such a dweeb.

"I said to stay away from Al's bed. Knowing him, the duvet's probably on the floor, and trust me, that's not a sight you want to see." Lysander warns Aaron.

I grin: he knows me so well.

"Sander, let him. I know he wants to see me naked." I call out.

I hear heavy footsteps moving away from my bed rapidly. "Fuck off, Potter."

"Nice choice of verb, man." I reply.

"Lay off the flirting, Potter, you're taken." The voice is faint, but the lips moving against my skin feel good.

Ria lays a kiss on my chest, before pushing herself up slowly, and pulling on the red jersey laying across the headboard.

"How'd you wake up?" I whisper, frowning.

She cocks her head to the side, hair falling naturally into place, and winks, calling out, "Cool tunes, Josh!"

There's a pause and then footsteps are heard and my curtain is suddenly wrenched back.

"Thanks! Do you - "

"Argh, my eyes!" Levitt backs out of the dorm, covering his eyes and moaning theatrically.

Josh blinks, eyes adjusting, then screeches girlishly and dives back onto his bed.

Lysander rolls his eyes and chucks me some shorts. "Cover up, man."

As Ria falls out of bed, laughing, I pull on the shorts slowly, beaming. "Like what you saw, Thompson?"

A muffled cry is heard from his bed.

I sigh. "Really dude, it's your fault for opening the curtains."

Josh runs out of the room.

Ria sits up, wiping her eyes. "Al, I think he was crying."

"With happiness, probably." I smirk at her.

Lysander coughs pointedly. "Well, I'm just going to leave you two to your flirting, while I head out and try not to die of embarrassment if anyone mentions last night."

"You were a sexy vampyre." I yell after him.

"Shut up, Al!" His shout is muffled by the door as he pulls it shut after him.

"So…" I ruffle my hair and grin at Ria.

"We had sex." She says factually, slipping into her blue shorts.

"Yeah babe, I know."

Something about my reply seems to annoy her, because she turns back to me, eyebrow raised. "And? What now? Was it good enough for you, or are you breaking up with me?"

I blink. "What?"

"You're a player, Al. A flirt, like you were chatting up Aaron just now. You have sex with a lot of people, and it means nothing to you. So you tell me, what now?"

"You think it meant nothing to me?" I repeat, dumb-struck. Of all the girls and guys I've laid, they don't usually blow up at me the morning after. Mood swing, much?

"How the fuck should I know if it meant something to you?"

"Well, you're the emotionally unavailable one, not me." Her anger is getting to me.

Her eyes narrow. "You may be an open book, Potter, but you're a master at pretending to love people. One-night-stands are right up your street."

I frown. "Ri, are you on your period, or something?"

My brain catches up with my mouth and I wince at my own words.

"YOU JUST HAD SEX WITH ME, SO YOU SHOULD KNOW. OR WERE YOU SO DRUNK THAT YOU DON'T REMEMBER? WAS I JUST ANOTHER SHAG FOR YOU?"

I scowl. This shouldn't hurt but it does, because I care what she thinks of me. "Are you calling me a slut?"

She pauses, thrown off-guard. "I've called you a slut so many times before."

I fall back onto my bed, annoyed now. "Not yelling at me. Not when you were actually trying to insult me." I fix my gaze on the blue splodge on the ceiling of my bed, as I hear her walk over and lie next to me.

Her hand tangles with mine, anger gone as suddenly as it came. "I'm sorry, Al. I was being a bitch."

I shrug, but then think over what she's just yelled at me, and bite my lip. What would Lysander say?

I turn my head to look at her as she takes her turn to gaze at the blue splodge. "You're not just another girl to me, you know? I asked you to be my girlfriend; I meant it and I still do."

She smiles and turns to face me, shifting closer, but I pull away unwillingly. Godric, I want to kiss her, but she's not just another girl. I want this to last, and that means honesty (Lysander-the-all-knowing has taught me that much with his daily words of advice). "But it's just … we've never argued like this before."

Ria grips my hand tighter. "I know. And it won't happen again, right? We may be dating, but we're still best friends. Agreed?"

I grin and finally kiss her. "Agreed."

"All through the night I'll make love to you, when you want me to."

I groan. I should have expected this.

Ria laughs and lets go off my hand to jump off the last few stairs, onto Scor, who has clearly been waiting for us in the Gryffindor common room.

"I don't need your cheesy sex-songs right now." I gripe at him, but he's already running around the common room, leaping over chairs and books like a kid on a sugar rush, with Ria hanging onto his back.

So I slump down on a sofa next to Emma, who is embroidering a tiny fairy and a butterfly onto the pocket of a cute little pink dress.

"Good night?" She smiles at me curiously.

I beam and throw an arm around her shoulders. "Ems, are you making a sexual innuendo?"

She pokes me with a needle. "No, I'm asking if you slept alright with Ria." Her smile falls and her voice lowers, "It's just … well, you probably already know: she's been having nightmares, every night. She's even resorted to putting a Muffliato charm around her bed. Was she okay yesterday?"

My arm drops off her shoulders. "She was absolutely fine." I frown, "And no, I didn't know she was having nightmares."

Emma gazes at me and opens her mouth to say something else, but she is interrupted as someone sinks down onto the couch next to me.

"I didn't tell you because it's nothing serious, Al. And yesterday was actually the first night in a long time where I haven't woken up screaming."

I turn and kiss my girlfriend briefly. "Hey, come for my healing fucks whenever you want."

Emma squeaks and whacks me with a cushion. "You explicit, outrageous, forth - "

"Oh yes, whack me, Emma." I moan.

"Al!" She squeals, eyes wide.

"You're such a bastard, Al." Ria grins, sinking back into the sofa, eyes half-closed.

I grin too. Dating, but still friends.

"Guys, I'm bored!" Scor whines, one loose strand of ice-blond hair falling into his eyes as he flings himself into the armchair nearest the fire.

"I think Rose is having a bad effect on you." Lysander mutters, as he enters the room. He hands me an apple, throws Ria a pretzel, and swallows the last bite of his sandwich as he sits neatly on the arm of Scor's chair.

"Rose." Scor sighs her name as he gazes into the fire, like the sickeningly-in-love fool that he is.

"Yeah, where is that whore?" I address him, and Ria snorts when he glares at me as I insult his girlfriend.

"Professor Atkins offered to teach her some runes beyond the NEWT curriculum, so she's having a private lesson with him." Emma answers for Scor as he goes down on one knee and starts singing to the fire, offering me a lovely view of his arse.

"Bob or Bill?" Ria asks, showing just too much interest in which of the Atkins twins is teaching Rose.

"Bill." Lysander sighs, sounding exasperated. "He does Ancient Runes. Bob Atkins does Arithmancy."

I shrug. "They're both old, wheezy and boring as hell: not much to choose between them."

Lysander just sighs again. "Sometimes I despair of you. But thankfully I've got a date now, so I'll see you later, yeah? Try not to get into any trouble."

"Bye, papa." Ria waves enthusiastically, leaving Lysander to roll his eyes and walk out again to find the smooth-talking hunk that is Sam Townsend.

"Let's go find Rose!" She beams at us, when Lysander has left the room. Scor looks around immediately at the sound of her name and stands up enthusiastically, clearly still not quite off his sugar rush.

"YES!" he yells, waving his arms around like a maniac, causing his neat shirt to come untucked (he grimaces and tucks it back in immediately).

"Fuck, no." I say.

Ria winks at me as I allow her to pull me and Emma up. "Honey, let's have some fun."

And when have I ever been able to say no to a hot girl winking at me?

And so we traipse out of the portrait hole, Scor and Ria hitting the high notes, with me and Emma walking alongside in companionable silence.

Until we run into Lucien Black and Lorcan Scamander, that is, sitting close together on an icy window seat. Lorcan jumps to his feet when he sees us, leaving Lucien to follow at a more leisurely pace.

Scor and Ria immediately stiffen, leaving me to roll my eyes and Emma to glance between them warily, but Lorcan just sighs in exasperation and walks away (I really don't like how many similarities I draw with that guy) and Lucien just leans against the wall, smirking, his dark eyes taking us in, and stopping on my arm around Ria's waist.

It's a gesture I've done many times before, but maybe this time it seems more intimate, because he lifts a cool eyebrow and sneers, "Would've thought even you could do better than Potter no.2, Black."

Scor, full of tense energy, steps forward, Ria at his back as always. "You don't know a damn thing about us, Lucy, so why don't you follow Lorcan's example and run off back to the dungeons?"

Lucien laughs coldly, and pushes himself off the wall to step up to Scor, looking down on him amusedly. "Has it slipped your mind that I know more about you than your so-called friends here? What would they think if I told them what you've done? All the darkest parts of your soul? The things you remember in your nightmares?"

Scor turns white, but Ria hisses, fist clenched around her wand. "Don't forget that you were right there with us, cousin dearest."

Lucien's expression darkens immediately, and he scowls at her. "Oh trust me, I know, even though you seem to have forgotten." He holds her gaze for a moment longer before locking eyes with Scor. "Just watch your step, angel." And then he's gone, robes sweeping around him.

I let out a breath and clap Scor on the back. "Well, that was intense."

I make to continue down the corridor like nothing happened, but Emma speaks up quietly. "What was that about?"

Ria turns to her, stupid smile in place. Bloody mood swings. "Just Lucien being a wanker, as usual."

"No," Emma shakes her head firmly, "Scor wouldn't look like that if Lucien was making stuff up. And why did he call him an angel?"

Scor turns, jaw tense. "He was referring to that article from a few weeks ago, about my family finally joining the side of the angels."

Emma still looks confused, but even she knows that there's no getting information out of Scor and Ria when they don't want to spill, so she just frowns and links her arm through mine. "I just hope you'll tell us when you're ready." She adds quietly, and then continues with me down the corridor, leaving Scor and Ria to follow us, having what sounds like an intense whispered discussion.

"Rose?" Emma pops her head around the door to the Arithmancy classroom.

I can imagine Prof Bob A looking up in surprise. On seeing pretty blonde hair, a sweet smile, and an innocent face, his wizened old face will be softening. "What is it you want, my dear?"

"Oh." From out in the corridor, I can imagine Emma's realistic look of embarrassment in seeing the classroom empty except for the teacher, her rosebud mouth forming a tiny 'o'. "I'm ever so sorry sir, but I thought Rose was with you. I was coming to see if she wanted to head down for lunch now; you know how hungry she gets."

"Rose? Ah, you mean Miss Weasley?" At Emma's eager nod, the Prof will be smiling, single grey hair on his head quivering in excitement, before his smile slips, and he frowns. "I am sorry to disappoint you, my dear, but the lovely Miss Weasley is not here. I have not seen her at all today." He sounds upset. Upset is not an emotion usually connected to the absence of my cousin. In my opinion, relieved would be more appropriate.

"Emma, I told you!" I yell, loud enough for the Prof to hear me (which has to be pretty loud, let me tell you), "She's in Ancient Runes, not Arithmancy."

"Nah man, she definitely said she needed help in Arithmancy." Scor replies, winking at me.

"But didn't Prof Bill A come by earlier and say he was looking for her?" Ria adds in, equally as loud.

From inside the classroom comes an almost-angry voice. "Did I hear correctly that Bill was looking for her? You think he intercepted her for his own gain while she was looking for me?"

Ria, hand in mine, smirks evilly at a manipulation job well done. The rivalry between the Atkins twins is infamous, especially when it comes to the favourite student of both of them: one Rose Weasley.

We hear Emma sigh, probably looking desolate. "It's not for me to say sir; I wouldn't want to cause any trouble. I suppose we'll just catch up with her later. Thanks for all your help, Professor Atkins."

There is no reply and instead Scor springs away from the door as Prof Bob A potters out angrily, milky eyes flashing behind his specs as he heads for the Ancient Runes classrooms.

I can't help but grin. Spicing up my cousin's tuition life is what I live for.

A/N: Hey:) I know I don't normally do A/Ns, but here goes: I'm sorry for the irregular updates recently; today's is an attempt to get back to regular weekend updates.

I also just wanted to say a huge thanks to all of you guys out there: EVERYONE who has reviewed, favourited, followed, or read this story. It means a lot, and I think you know that x