Rose agreed that they should ask Harry for the list of Knights of Walpurgis members working for the Ministry. Since they didn't want to ask in front of Albus, and Ginny might read a letter, Rose sent her Patronus. They were eating dinner when a silvery stag Patronus materialised on the terrace.

He and Rose both heard the message.

I'll trade it for your guest list.

The stag faded away.

"Why would Uncle Harry want to know who's coming to our party?" Rose asked. "Any classmate who works for the Ministry is a trainee, not a security threat."

"Perhaps they suspect a Ministry employee attending as a date is leaking information."

"That seems unlikely."

"I agree. This is a probably a test." Would they make the trade? Play by Super Wizard's rules?

Scorpius pushed back his chair and went into the master bedroom for his wand. He drew circles in the air, concentrating on the happiness he'd felt making up with Rose on the guest room rug at Grimmauld Place. "Expecto Patronum!" A mongoose Patronus formed and shot like a comet into the night.

Rose entered the bedroom. "You couldn't wait to tell him no? What if Uncle Harry's eating dinner with Aunt Ginny?"

"He can share the second part of the message. I saw an article on naan bread pizza in the Daily Prophet's food section and wanted to know if he and Albus liked smoked salmon and caviar."

"On pizza?"

"There's no tomato sauce. You use crème fraiche." Rose's expression had shifted from annoyance to amusement as he spoke. Scorpius asked. "What is it? Someone's allergic to caviar?"

"Aunt Ginny loves it. We should expect three for dinner. Four, if Albus invites Merry since his mum's tagging along."

"I'll adjust my shopping list." He'd add arugula, red onion, and mozzarella in case Merry, an avowed flexitarian, was eating strictly vegetarian that week. Crème fraiche was drizzled over both pizzas. Scorpius noticed Rose gazing at him questioningly. He said, "Our shopping list."

"It isn't that. You didn't read the paper at breakfast."

"Mrs. Jamieson brought me a copy this afternoon when I was between meetings." Rose's lips took on the hint of an envious pout. The day of a Ministry trainee was more regimented than a student's at Hogwarts. He said, "Pure, Twilfitt and Tattings, and Madam Malkin's are advertising sales."

"Pure? Do you really think I'd wear a dress from Orna Bletchley's shop?"

"That was a joke."

"Then why am I not laughing?" She narrowed her eyes when he raised his wand. "Don't you dare cast a Tickling Charm!"

He wriggled his fingers. "I'll do it the Muggle way."

"Locomotor Wibbly!"

His legs collapsed.

"Inpello!"

Rose's spell pushed him onto the bed. She strolled over and took his wand. "Did you forget you were holding this?"

He shook his head and silently cast deturbo to cause her to fall forward. She landed on top of him, bracing her hands on the white duvet. Scorpius wondered if it was one of her mother's yoga positions. Downward Gryffindor. He asked, "Did you forget that you were holding a wand?"

"No." They shared a smile. Rose said, "I have a couple of fancy dresses in the wardrobe at Mum and Dad's that I've never worn." At his raised eyebrow, she said, "Lily pressured me into buying them and I thought they were too sexy, but either of them is suitable."

"I want you to look breathtaking."

"To match you?"

"My tuxedo. It's going to be spectacular."

She kissed him. "If you want, we can go look at the dresses."

.

Ron Weasley answered the door. He was still dressed in a WWW logo shirt and held a half-eaten pastry in one hand: a samosa, by the peas and minced lamb showing. Ron backed into the entry. The sharp scent of cumin and other curry spices filled the air.

Rose said, "Hi, Dad. I need to get a dress from my wardrobe."

Hermione walked in from the dining room. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes, Mum."

"We had chicken wings from a Nigerian takeaway," Scorpius said, overcome by the urge to prove that they had actually eaten, and he wasn't looking to avoid another family dinner.

"Nigerian chicken wings," Ron said. "Are they spicier than the ones Granddad Granger makes?"

"A bit," Rose said.

"Did you have anything for afters?" Hermione asked. "Your father bought salted caramel kulfi."

Rose's face lit up. Scorpius had never tried Indian ice cream. He said, "It shouldn't take long to pick out a dress."

Hermione smiled. "We'll wait to have kulfi."

On the way upstairs, Rose said, "You'll like it. Kulfi is creamy and solid, like a custard ice cream. Usually it's frozen in little moulds, like cones, but they sell it to us in litre tubs."

"I'm surprised I haven't read about it in the paper. Weasleys Keen on Kulfi."

"Shhh, Dad will hear you and start ranting that we aren't celebrities. No one should care what we eat. I've heard that speech too many times to want to hear the latest version." She hurried to her room and pulled him inside before leaning against the door and breathing an exaggerated sigh of relief.

Scorpius glanced at the four poster bed with its lacy pillows and net curtains. "I wonder if the wizard's handshake is still in effect."

"Only if you still believe touching me is taking advantage."

The first time they'd kissed and cuddled on the sofa downstairs, his hand had stung with pins and needles. After returning from the holiday gone wrong on the island, Scorpius had sneaked into her bedroom, and their kisses had led to caresses –and the agony of invisible fire burning the nerve endings in his hand. Scorpius curled the fingers that once twisted into a claw. "The pain was self-inflicted?"

Rose locked the door. "I'm sorry I didn't realise it sooner." She unbuttoned her blouse. "If you trust me, I'll prove it to you."

He said, "Evanesco." Her blouse disappeared. So did her bra, but this time it wasn't an accident.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest. "If we're re-enacting what happened, you should take off your shirt."

He moved closer. "And we should be kissing on the bed."

She put her hands on her hips. "Fine. It's an experiment, not a re-enactment. Is your hand tingling?"

He traced her mouth with his fingertips. "In a good way."

Rose wrapped her arms around him. He caressed her back.

"Ready to experiment?" she asked.

"I don't need to. You're right. We weren't lovers, and you weren't on birth control potion, so I believed I was taking advantage, which was rather sexist now that I think about it. I apologise."

Her face was soft with sympathy. "You don't have to."

"The apology wasn't for being sexist." He trailed his fingers to her sides. "It was for this." He tickled her.

Rose shrieked with laughter.

Footsteps pounded up the stairs.

Rose said, "You stall him while I put on a dress."

Scorpius watched her step out of the navy trousers she'd worn to work. She shook her head at him, whispering fiercely, "I'm not stripping for your enjoyment!"

"Later, then?"

She fought a smile and lost. "You should strip for me."

The reverberating slam of a fist against the door wiped the grin off Scorpius's face. He unlocked the door and opened it enough for Ron to see him and nothing else. "Rose and I were debating whether Muggle tickling methods were as effective as a Tickling Charm. I tried to prove they weren't." He held up his right and hand and wriggled his pain-free fingers. "I lost."

Rose called out. "I wasn't expecting him to actually tickle me. Sorry, Dad."

Ron said slowly, "That's O.K. Did you find a dress, Rosie?"

"A dress," she said, "but I'm not sure it's the dress. Why don't you two give me your opinion?"

Scorpius opened the door all the way and turned to see Rose wearing a stretchy, form fitting dress that ended mid-thigh. At first glance, it looked like skin was showing through black lace instead of a nude fabric.

"Absolutely not," Ron said. "That's practically lingerie."

"Really?" Rose shot back. "How would you know? Been shopping Siren's Secret for Mum?"

"Maybe."

Rose's eyes widened comically.

Scorpius asked, "You have another dress?"

"Why? You don't like this one?"

"I like it a lot."

Ron said, "Let's give Rosie privacy to try on the other dress."

In the corridor, Scorpius and Ron leaned against opposite walls.

"Don't look at anything below her neck when I'm around, remember?" Ron asked grimly.

Scorpius instantly recalled Harry Potter's dating advice. He said, "Hard to give an opinion on a dress I don't see."

Light footsteps on the stairs were followed by Hermione walking towards them. "Everything all right?"

"Rosie's trying on a dress," Ron said. His expression warned Scorpius not to say anything else.

Hermione tapped on the door. "Need any help?"

After a few moments of silence, Rose answered, "Could you send Scorpius in?"

"For what?" Ron growled.

Hermione said, "His opinion, darling."

Scorpius ducked into the room. The wardrobe door was open all the way, a barrier between him and Rose. He glanced down to see her toes and the hem of a floor length gown that glittered with platinum sequins. He said, "What I can see under the door looks lovely."

"It's got the same kind of flesh toned backing as the other dress," Rose said. "This one isn't as clingy, but it's strapless, and there's a high slit that shows a lot of my thigh when I walk."

The mental images were arousing. "I'd love to see it."

She closed the wardrobe door.

His breath caught in his throat. Her dress was elegant and sexy as hell.

Rose said, ""You like it more than the other one, don't you?"

He nodded. "But take them both."

Tap! Tap!

Hermione's voice rang out. "What's the verdict on the dress?"

"I'm going to wear it to the party!" Rose answered.

The door handle rattled and then stilled as if Ron had started to barge in and Hermione had stopped him. Ron said, "Don't you want to show us your dress, sweetheart?"

Scorpius didn't want to be in the room when that happened. He went to let Rose's parents in. "Is there a label on the kulfi?" he asked Hermione.

She said, "It's a plain white tub marked Mr. Ron. Give him three scoops."

He gave Ron four, and by the time they sat around the dining table with empty bowls, the tense atmosphere had relaxed considerably. Scorpius asked about the re-branding of Plain Jane into Incognito Potion, and Ron told him the shop would have a display to unveil Friday morning. Hermione asked Rose if she'd like to go get manicures together Friday afternoon.

"You should have time before our guests arrive," Scorpius said.

"You're throwing two parties this weekend?" Ron asked.

"We're having a few friends over." Scorpius turned to Rose. "We should order a litre of kulfi. Mango, if they have it."

"They should," Rose said. "It's a traditional flavour." She reached for Hermione's bowl. "Let us do the clearing up, Mum."

"I appreciate the thought, but it's only a few dishes."

Rose hugged her parents goodbye.

Scorpius picked up the garment bag holding her dresses. Once they were outside, he said, "Albus and Merry count as friends." He hadn't lied about having a few friends round, although it had felt like it. He'd brought up kulfi to keep from doing something mental like invite her parents to dinner.

"Mum has a talent for making you feel as guilty for what you don't tell her as what you actually say. I asked Dad if she'd learned the trick in Magical Law training, but he said she'd always had the knack." Rose's lips curved. "The ability might run in the family. I got the impression that there was something you wanted to say, but didn't, when you told me to take both dresses."

They were far enough away from the house for him to admit, "You were right."

"Well?" Rose said when he didn't elaborate. "What was it?"

He said, "If you wear the lace dress, I'll strip."

.

Scorpius always enjoyed taking off his clothes with Rose watching, but seeing her in the dress inspired him to throw in a few dance moves, which inspired her to take a participatory role in his "show." The memory brought a smile to his face whenever he thought about it afterwards. When she walked onto the terrace wearing the lace dress Friday evening, however, he frowned. "Why are you wearing that?" She wore high heels, too, drawing his gaze to her amazing long legs.

"For that reason."

"What?" He dragged his eyes to hers.

"My other dress is sexier. I'm helping you learn to control your, um, reaction, with systematic desensitization."

His gaze wandered over her. "Isn't that for phobias?"

"The same counter conditioning should work. We don't want to . . . eliminate . . . the response, just acknowledge it and put it away until later."

"That sounds like meditation," Scorpius said. "Wouldn't your mum acknowledge a thought and let it go?"

Rose's eyes flashed. "You aren't my mum!"

"Thank Merlin." He stopped teasing. "You're right. I want to save the thoughts for later, but I can't perform Occlumency and Legilimency if I'm distracted." He visualised his thoughts and emotions hidden in a chest covered with snow. He smiled a little. "There's a benefit to this method. Steamy thoughts sent to the chest melt snow and create protective layers of ice."

"What kind of steamy thoughts?"

Silently, he chanted, "Legilimens" and created an image in her mind of him pressing her body against a wall. In the vision, between kisses, he said, "This is why I wanted you to wear nothing but high heels."

The vision changed to him shivering beneath a rain shower set to Polar Plunge. His lips were blue.

"Less steamy now?" Rose asked.

She laughed when he chattered his teeth as he said, "Y-yes."

.

The first guests to arrive were Harry and Ginny Potter. Harry wore jeans like Scorpius, while Ginny wore a casual dress that didn't make Rose's seem entirely out of place. Ginny handed him a salad bowl. "Since I invited myself, it was the least I could do. The salad is romaine lettuce and scoops of everything on the antipasto bar at McGregor's Market," she said wryly. "I was finishing a Quidditch Illustrated article and time got away from me."

"A player interview?"

"A player who became coach. Oliver Wood is celebrating his twenty-fifth year with Puddlemere United."

Harry said, "I still think of him as captain of the Gryffindor . . . ."

Rose had walked into the lounge from the terrace.

Scorpius said in an undertone, "She's wearing that dress to help me perform Occlumency despite distractions."

Harry and Ginny traded glances. Harry shrugged. "I've seen Lily wear worse."

Ginny said, "She probably picked it out."

The couple went to greet Rose. To their credit, they acted as though they didn't even notice what she was wearing.

Not so, Albus. The moment he strolled in with Merry, his eyes went to his cousin and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Looking fit, Rosie."

Merry thrust a platter of crescent shaped biscuits dusted with icing sugar at Scorpius and made a beeline for Rose. "Don't mind Al, he's jealous because you haven't gained a stone from the canteen food like all the other Ministry trainees."

"I haven't gained a stone," Albus said. "Anyways, I was underweight."

Scorpius used the brief eye contact to lift the memory of Albus mouthing curses as he sucked in his stomach to fasten his trousers while Merry, wrapped in a floral patchwork quilt, giggled. Scorpius looked away and met Harry's gaze. In the back of his mind, wind blew at the snow covering his chest of thoughts. Scorpius used the advice he'd given his father and projected something he admired about the man trying to use Legilimency.

Harry Potter, sitting at picnic table surrounded by Weasleys, smiling and at ease.

"Are we ready to make pizzas?" Rose asked.

Scorpius said, "Absolutely."

By the end of dinner, he had used Occlumency to project reading an article by G. W. Potter, conjured an image of Merry and the Hufflepuff team flying across the Quidditch pitch, and recalled a moment at school when he'd been impressed with Albus's potions making skills. He'd been more subtle with his use of Legilimency. He'd lifted brief snippets of memories and snatched glimpses of thoughts.

Harry standing in Teddy Lupin's kitchen, chugging a lager before pouring the rest down the sink . . . Merry writing a song . . . Rose hurling a fireball at the guest room door . . . Albus staring around the Forensics lab like a child on Christmas morning . . . Ginny giving Kreacher a newspaper clipping showing a photograph of a remarkably handsome baby: the birth announcement of Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.

Only once had he used Legilimency to influence: he'd made Merry remember the time she'd gone on an all fruit reducing diet until she became ill at the sight of fruit. She hadn't been able to eat more than a bite of mango kulfi.

The fairy lights glowed on the terrace by the time they'd finished dessert.

"Time for an Occlumency lesson?" Albus asked.

Merry's brow creased. "I thought we were all helping Scorpius practice Occlumency by trying to use Legilimency to read his thoughts during dinner?"

Ginny said, "We were."

Albus told Merry, "But he wasn't supposed to know that."

Scorpius looked at Harry. "I'd guessed."

"You did well," Harry said. "The new tactic was effective."

Albus nodded. "Less chilly."

Harry lifted his lager bottle. "And your Legilimency was excellent." He smiled at Rose. "As was yours. It took a few seconds to realise why I was thinking about this." He gave her a folded square of parchment.

"Thank you," she said, "although to be fair, you were all distracted." Her husky voice gave Scorpius the impression that she'd seen some of his naughty thoughts before he'd put them away. He suppressed the urge to call an end to the evening so she could tell him which one she fancied the most.

The list in Rose's hand changed things. If Harry could make a gesture of good faith, Scorpius could too. He said to Albus and Merry, "Tomorrow night, we'd like your help."

.

.

A/N: A funeral, chiropractor visits (roller derby accident, yay for helmets!), a mild concussion and a cold made this chapter take longer to write, but I hope the wait was worth it. :) Thanks to all the readers who reviewed the last chapter and made me get up and write in between lying around watching Netflix. Thanks to alix33, Arcoiris, ctc, HopeWithinDarkness, , Needle In A Haystack, nobodysperfect2133, rosesnlilies (almost here!), Siriusmunchkin, TheBookCritic (I'm sorry you were sleep deprived and yet very happy you look forward to updates!) and VandyFNP