Rose and Scorpius 19 years later

by Slytherpuff and proud

Rose Weasley, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy begin their time at Hogwarts. But will the reputations their parents left stop them from ever getting along? Or will their mutual belief in finding their own paths bring them together? Please enjoy. I aim to write at least 8 or 9 chapters.

5. Chapter 5 FIFTH YEAR

I AM PRETTY NEW TO WRITING FANFICTION AND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THIS FAR. THE STORY I THINK YOU MAY RECIEVE EMAIL UPDATES WHEN I WRITE A NEW CHAPTER.. I UNDERSTAND THAT THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS WEREN'T GREAT BUT NOW I FEEL LIKE THEY'RE REALLY IMPROVING. PLEASE SEND ME FEEDBACK, IT IS MUCH APPRECIATED. PLEASE DON'T BE MEAN. I'M SORRY THIS TOOK A WHILE, I'VE BEEN TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE IT GOOD ENOUGH. I JUST STARTED UNIVERSITY AND SO THESE CHAPTERS MAY TAKE A WHILE TO COMPLETE. THANK YOU SO MUCH READERS, I'M GLAD WE CAN ALL BOND IN THE WONDERFUL WORLD THAT IS HARRY POTTER 19 YEARS LATER. HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

FIFTH YEAR. 23 YEARS LATER

GRANGER-WEASLEY HOUSEHOLD. TRYING TO LEAVE FOR PLATFORM 9 3/4

"Mum, have you seen my badge?" Rose shouted from upstairs.

Hermione was frantically trying to calm Rose's owl down so that she would go in her cage, but as Hermione herself was stressed, the owl was not compliant.

"Hermione." Ron gently said behind her but Hermione ignored him. "Hermione!" he called louder this time.

"What?!" She snapped. As soon as she did, Hermione sighed and apologised. "Sorry, I just always get so stressed. Why can't they be ready the night before? I always make them pack early but they always forget something and the house goes wild!"

"Why don't you help Rosie and I'll try and get Pocket into her cage?"

"You know Rose gets as stressed as I do, this is not a fair swap." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yes, but Pocket likes my calming influence. Rosie needs someone to stress with her, she gets more stressed because I'm not stressed, apparently." Ron shrugged in bewilderment.

"How are you not stressed?!" Hermione panicked.

"We're always early. Your definition of 'late' is not leaving an hour early! We have loads of time."

Hermione huffed and charged up the stairs to Rose's room. "What is it?"

"My badge, I can't find it!" Rose's legs were the only part of her that Hermione could see as Rose was searching under her bed.

"What badge?" Hermione was lost.

"My prefect badge!" Rose said proudly and bumped her head. "Ow." she slowly slid out from under the bed and knocked over the stack of books that had been delicately balanced on the bed.

"On the kitchen table," Hermione remembered. "You might have to move around Hugo's stuff to find it." Hermione hugged Rose and smiled. "I'm so proud of my little prefect."

Rose chuckled. "Thanks-"

But she was cut off by Hugo shouting. "Mum, have you seen robes?"

Hermione was alarmed and shouted back. "How could you loose all your robes?! Why didn't you keep them packed in your trunk?! I only put them there yesterday!"

"Oh," Hugo was a little quieter. "Never mind, I found them."

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Wait," Rose couldn't help but laugh slightly before shouting at her brother. "Where did you find them?"

"It doesn't matter!" Hugo said quickly.

Hermione gave a questioning look to Rose. Rose laughed again. "That means he found them in his trunk, exactly where you put them last night."

But Hermione was distracted by the pile of books that Rose had knocked over and was picking up then shoving them one by one in her trunk.

"I thought you packed all your books yesterday?"

"I did, but then I woke up early-"

"You woke up early?" Hermione scoffed in disbelief.

"Yes I did! Because I thought I didn't have enough books."

"Ok, I think the owls are ready to go and so is Hugo." Ron shouted up the stairs.

"Merlin!" Hermione shouted in alarm. "We're so late!"

The Granger-Weasley family were finally out the door, half an hour early.

PLATFORM 9 3/4

Rose spotted Lunette over the crowded platform and waved. Lunette waved back and grinned. Her hair, this time, was still blonde but her highlights were the colours of the Hogwarts houses. Green, blue, red and yellow-orange.

"Hi Rose!"

"Hey!"

"You're a prefect!" Lunette noticed Rose's badge. Both girls were already in their robes.

"Yeah! Sorry, I forgot to write. I love your hair, very suiting."

Lunette shyly fidgeted with one of her yellow-orange highlights. "Thanks, it's the only thing that would settle my nerves this morning."

Rose placed a comforting hand on Lunette's shoulder. "Any house would be lucky to have you."

"Oh! I read Hogwarts A History like you suggested! Thank you so much, it was really interesting and I've found that, apart from the sorting, I'm more excited than terrified."

Rose smiled and hugged Lunette. "I'm sorry I won't be able to sit with you on the train, I've got to go to the prefect carriage. But I'll be patrolling the corridors so I can find you and check how you're doing."

Lunette was hugged by both her parents, Rose saw just how beautiful her mother was, lots of people were stopping and staring at her.

"Hey Rose!" Roxanne suddenly appeared at Rose's side. She was now in her sixth year with Dominique, James and Lorcan.

"Roxanne! Brilliant!"

"Umm, thanks?"

"Look, there's a girl here, Lunette, she recently moved from France and will be in my year. I'm the only person she knows here and I was hoping to find someone to sit with her on the train. And I can't find Albus."

Rose introduced her cousin to Lunette and the two got along well enough, although Lunette was a bit anxious of Roxanne's bounciness.

Lucy, the new Head Girl and Rose's uncle Percy's youngest daughter, found Rose and the two went to the prefect compartment together after Rose picked herself off the floor as she had tripped over someone's trunk.

"So, excited about being a prefect?" Lucy asked.

Rose laughed. "I think I should be the one asking the question. Lucy! You're the new Head Girl! How are you feeling?"

"To be honest, a little overwhelmed. Molly was excited for me, she even took a day off work to come and visit, mum and dad were proud, but I'm freaking out inside."

"You'll be great Lucy, I couldn't think of anyone better for the job."

Lucy smiled. "Thanks."

Rose was quite happily smiling until she reached the prefect carriage and saw who the other new prefects were.

Scorpius was sitting there staring out the window. The worst part was that next to him was the only spare seat. Rose angrily plonked herself next to him.

"Weasley." Scorpius grunted when he realised it was her.

"Malfoy." She acknowledged him. But Rose's smile came back when she saw the other prefects.

She only recognised a few of them. She knew two Ravenclaw prefects, in her year there was Daniel Leyton and in the year above there was a guy who was friends with Roxanne, Mosi Smith. Also in the year above was a Slytherin called Gregg Gully and the Gryffindor Lucile Pond who had gone out with James so many times and she was also the quidditch keeper. Fred, Rose's cousin in his seventh year with Lucy, was also there as the Gryffindor prefect. And the Gryffindor in her year who was chosen to be a prefect with Rose was Wesley Mclaggen. He winked at Rose. Rose looked away in indifference and directed her attention to Lucy who was just starting to read out the duties of the prefects.

Meanwhile, Albus was sitting in a compartment with James, Lorcan, Lily and Hugo. He couldn't help but feel a little lost without Scorpius and Rose.

"Al! there you are!" Roxanne hopped inside the compartment.

"Um, hey."

"Look, I've got a favour to ask. You know how most of my friends are guys? Well, Rose asked me to look out for a new girl who's in your year, but the guys are kind of developing crushes on her and their clumsy attempts at pickup lines are getting annoying. So I was wondering if she could sit in here with you guys?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Albus felt a bit awkward.

"Thanks, I'll tell Rose. She said that she'll come down and chat to the new girl while she does her patrol."

Roxanne moved out of the door and let the new girl in. Lily, Hugo and Albus's jaws dropped. It was Lunette from the bonfire. Albus went a bright shade of red. Lunette was just as surprised to see them too.

"Merlin's beard!" Lily shouted with glee. "Al it's her! Wow! Hi! Remember me?" Lily bounced over to Lunette.

"Yeah, hi." Lunette smiled. "It's Lily, right?"

"Yeah! Wow, this is a small world. We thought you were a muggle."

Lunette laughed a little. "I thought the same thing about you guys." She then peered past Lily to see Hugo. "And you're Hough? Or Hugo? I'm sorry, I can't remember your name exactly."

Hugo grinned and shook her hand enthusiastically. "Hugo, nice to see you again."

"Thanks, you too. And of course, how could I forget Albus?" Lunette saved her biggest grin for the very bashful and awkward Albus.

"Wait," James cut in laughing. "Is this the girl you spilt cola all over at that bonfire? It's nice to finally meet you, I'm James, Albus's older brother. He won't stop ta-"

"James!" Albus whispered harshly.

Lunette then turned her attention to Lorcan who had a cocky grin on his face.

"Well, hello there. I'm Lorcan, a friend of James. I love your hair, it's captivating."

James and Lily snorted at Lorcan's flirting.

"Yeah, well since I'm going to be sorted with all the first years, I thought I might swell embrace it and wear all the house colours."

"My brother Lysander is being sorted today too. But I have no idea where he is now."

"Really!" James spoke to Lorcan. "Shoot, I didn't get to see him and wish him luck"

"That's alright." Lorcan smiled mischievously. "I've got an idea."

Lunette sat next to Albus who was quietly staring at his feet. "So Albus, it's nice to see you again."

Albus felt choked. He couldn't speak.

"Al?" Lily called, trying to get him to talk.

"What?" Albus shook his head.

Lunette smiled softly at him.

"Lunette! Here you are! I'm so glad you found Al." Rose suddenly appeared at the door with her fellow Gryffindor prefect, Wesley McLaggen.

"Rose! You're friends with Albus too?"

"Actually, Albus is my cousin, so is Lily and James. Hugo is my little brother."

Lunette's eyes widened in shock. "No way."

They all nodded.

Lunette laughed. "Do you remember me writing to you about a guy dropping a couple of bottles of cola and the it all spilling on me, well that was Albus. We met while I took a day trip with my family to Hunstanton."

Rose now joined in the laughter. "Al? Really? That was you?!"

Albus nodded sheepishly.

"Wait, but how do you know Lunette?" Lily was confused.

"We had a day overlapping our work experience at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, my dad's a new Auora." Lunette explained.

"Hi, I'm McLaggen. Wesley McLaggen." He pushed passed Rose, held out a hand for Lunette to shake and put on a charming smile. "I'm a Gryffindor prefect with Rose." he winked and held onto her hand. "It is such a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, hi." Lunette said pleasantly not knowing that Wesley was putting on his so called 'McLaggen charm' which he used to go out with girls. Even James found him a bit sleazy.

"Alright McLaggen." Rose forcefully yanked him away from Lunette. "We've got more corridors to patrol. See you later Lunette."

Once they were gone the carriage grew quiet. Lunette awkwardly sat next to an even more awkward Albus who was still red in the face. She twiddled her thumbs for a moment before deciding that she was going to have to be the one to speak.

"So, what house are you guys in?"

"We're all in Gryffindor." Lily answered. "Most of our family are, except our cousins Lucy, Dominique and Louis. Oh and Albus. Lucy is in Ravenclaw, we're all pretty proud to have another Weasley as Head Girl."

"What house are you in?" Lunette turned to Albus, desperate to get some conversation out of him.

"Oh, I'm in Slytherin."

The rest of the ride was spent in this fashion. It was mostly quiet other than the muttering conversations between Lily and Hugo and James and Lorcan. Lunette found that the only way to talk to Albus was to ask him question. And boy did she have a lot of questions. And Albus was all too happy, although a little awkward, to answer.

SORTING

"Today we have a new person who will join our fifth years, so everybody give a warm Hogwarts welcome to Miss Tinker." Headmaster Fairweather stood and announced to the school in front of all the yet to be sorted first years.

Lunette turned slightly pink but waved back to Rose once they spotted each other in the hall. She even waved to Albus who only laughed and turned red, Scorpius sitting beside him noticed this.

"But before we get to the sorting, I would like to welcome a new member of staff to our lovely school. Professor Lupin, would you mind standing?"

Edward (Teddy to his friends and family) Lupin, son of Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, stood and grinned at his new students. His hair was green and he showed off a little while the students were clapping by using his Metamorphmagus ability, changed his face from a snake, to a badger, a lion and an eagle while his hair changed colour rapidly.

Lunette looked at Rose with an expression of pure awe and amusement. She was glad to see that there was at least one other Metamorphmagus in the school. Rose had forgotten to tell Lunette that tiny detail.

"Professor Lupin will be our new defence against the dark arts teacher and professor Longbottom will take over the position of Herbology professor as dear Professor Dunkerly has left us."

There were gasps and whimpers around the room.

"No! She hasn't died!" Headmaster Fairweather had to clear up quickly. "She has retired to spend more time with her great-grandchildren. In fact, she still lives in hogsmeade and would be happy for any visits during the weekend trips."

Nobody, but the first years and Lunette, was surprised by this. Professor Dunkerly was very elderly and loved her students very much, her door was always open.

The Weasleys and Potters looked around at each other with big grins. So this was the big mysterious surprise that Teddy had for them all. There were all excited and looked forward to their defence against the darks arts lessons.

"Now, onto the sorting." Fairweather nodded to Longbottom who pulled out a piece of long parchment.

After the hat sang, Longbottom took his place next to the stool.

"Well, let's start with Tinker, Lunette."

Lunette took a deep breath and made her way towards the stool. The first years shuffled quickly out of her way, she was taller than all of them as she was four years older, and she stood out like a sore thumb.

"Well, well. This mind is older and a great deal wiser than any I've met with before. But you, my dear, will find no better home than Hufflepuff!" The sorting hat roared the name of the house and the table at the end of the hall stood to applaud, so did Teddy Lupin as it was once his house.

Lunette made her way on shaky legs to the Hufflepuff table and found herself sitting next to Dominique. Lunette found Rose again and gave her a thumbs up which Rose returned.

"Hi, I'm Dominique. I'm just a year above."

"You're Dominique Weasley?!" Lunette was amazed.

"Er, yes." She answered with a confused smile.

"It's great to meet you! I've heard all about your mother, she went to Beauxbatons! As did I and my mother."

They had to be silent as the sorting continued. Eventually it was Lysander's turn.

"Scamander, Lorcan." Longbottom called out with a smile.

The little version of Lorcan quickly made his way to the stool. He didn't seem as nervous as the rest of the first years, he was excited. He had a brother who was five years older than him and had grown up visiting the Weasleys and the Potters, he was the last to go to Hogwarts and he had been waiting for his sorting for ages.

"I never forget a mind or a head. I know your mother, your father and your brother. I even remember your grandfather." the sorting hat said quietly so that only Lysander could hear, then suddenly he shouted loudly, "Ravenclaw!"

The Ravenclaw table cheered and so did Lorcan and James, they even stood to applaud and shot blue sparks from their wands, which gained a few laughs around the hall.

SECOND WEEK

Albus and Scorpius were quietly eating their breakfast at the Slytherin table. Albus was watching Lunette who sat on the Hufflepuff table with her new friends. They giggled and chatted together, Albus thought her smile was beautiful. A few guys went up to Lunette and flirted with her, she only smiled and waved them off as her friends giggled some more.

"So how's that crush of yours turning out?" Scorpius finally spoke.

"What?" Albus pretended not to know what he was talking about.

"Oh, come on mate, you can't expect me not to notice your constant staring at Lunette."

"I'm not staring, it's just that- that, umm, she's Rose's friend and she's new and I'm- er, keeping an eye on her. Making sure she's ok."

"You're such a bad liar. I know you have a crush on her, you even told me while we were on holiday. Besides, you're not alone. Most guys have a crush on her, just look around. Hathaway, McLaggen and Earls. Three Gryffindor guys who always sit on the Gryffindor table, are now crowded around her and trying to flirt. Earls even has a girlfriend!"

"Who?" Albus hadn't heard this piece of gossip yet.

"Not sure, I think it's Robin Stirling."

"Potter!" Someone shouted at Albus.

Both Albus and Scorpius started looking around the hall to find who it was. Gregg Gully, the Slytherin quidditch captain, was strutting towards them.

"Oi, Potter. Quidditch trial start tomorrow, I want to see you there." Gully said in such a demanding voice that Albus felt like he couldn't argue. Gully wasn't listening anymore so even if Albus had tried to explain his poor skills, Gully wouldn't have noticed. He looked Scorpius up and down. "How good are you on a broom Malfoy?"

Scorpius shrugged, Albus scoffed at his modesty.

"I heard your dad weren't half bad, not great, but not bad. I'll see you at trial too." And Gully strutted off again.

Scorpius looked at Albus with slight surprise. "So I guess we're going to quidditch trials tomorrow."

Albus shrugged. "I guess so."

Rose marched into the hall and scanned the tables. She saw Gully out of the corner of her eye and jumped in front of him.

"Gully! What are you doing? Where are you going?" Rose's stress was apparent

"Woah, calm down Weasley, I'm going! I'm just a bit late."

Rose glared at him until she was sure that he was headed in the right direction. Then she stormed over to the Hufflepuff table.

"Hey Rose!" Lunette greeted her with a smile.

"Hey, I'm sorry I can't talk right now." Rose angrily grabbed Wesley by the ear and dragged him away. "Wesley, I need you."

"Ow, ow. Rose, calm down. Look, I like you," his cockiness was irritating Rose "you're smart, funny, we're friends - kind of - and," he looked her up and down. "you're kind of pretty in a quirky sort of way. But your friend Lunette here is hot, if you could just-"

Rose smacked him on the back of his head. "Just follow me. Mclaggen" She rolled her eyes.

Lunette looked alarmed. "Rose, I'm sorry-"

Rose managed a smile. "It's fine Lunette, we're good. But I'd watch out for twats like Wesley and Grant. I'll catch up with you later."

Wesley looked like a dog with his tail between his legs and followed Rose who took a deep breath and headed towards the Slytherin table.

"Malfoy!" she practically shouted in his ear.

"Merlin! No need to shout!" Scorpius covered his ear, he grumbled as soon as he realised who it was. "What the hell do you want Weasley?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Rose said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I'm sorry, do I owe you a morning smooch?" Scorpius asked sarcastically and leaned towards her with puckered lips. A few Slytherins around them laughed but one dark look from Rose shut them up. Albus was hiding a chuckle behind his mug of tea

"Only in your dreams Malfoy." Rose whipped out her wand and sent a bat-bogey hex at him. "Prefect meeting. Now. Actually it started ten minutes ago and I've been sent to find you lot who didn't turn up!" Rose shouted and glared. She took a deep breath. "Hi Al." She greeted her cousin who grinned in return.

Albus always found it amusing when Scorpius and Rose fought. Scorpius was trying to sort out his nose so Rose had to wait for him before going up to the joint Head Girl and Boy dormitory for the meeting.

"So how come you're looking for them and not Head Girl?"

Rose sighed. "Lucy is doing that thing where she pretends that everything is fine but really she's freaking out."

"Like she does every year when she makes herself a ridiculous revision plan."

Yep, anyway, I thought I'd help out. I mean, this is our first prefect meeting and three people didn't turn up."

"Well tell her that I think she can do it."

"Thanks Al, I'll tell her." Rose chuckled.

"No, I'm serious. She made it two weeks and hasn't screwed up! She's doing great."

This made Rose laugh.

"Ready Malfoy? Or do you need some help from someone who actually knows what they're doing?" Rose smirked.

Scorpius had finally stopped the flow of bats and glared at her.

They left and Albus was on his own once again. Lunette spotted this and joined him. Her friends looked confused as she left them without saying a word, Grant Hathaway and Sulli Earls looked disappointed.

"Hi Albus, are you ok?"

Albus immediately turned red. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. How- how- um- how are you?"

Lunette smiled at his sudden stutter. "I'm great."

"So, so how's Hufflepuff treating you?"

"It's great Albus, everybody is so nice there. And I've made a lot of friends in other houses too. Granted, you're the only friend I have in Slytherin."

"You could always hang out with me and Scorpius." Albus regretted the words as soon as they exited his mouth. Not because he didn't want Lunette around, it was just that his awkward levels arose to new heights, he began to stutter and he turned bright red whenever Lunette spoke to him.

"You know what, I'd love to. How about I come and find you guys at lunch?"

Albus couldn't believe it. Lunette Tinker, the prettiest girl in school, wanted to hang out with him.

"Well, er- um -I guess- i-if you want- sure!"

Lunette smiled again. She found him endearing.

"Hey, Lunette, can I speak to you for a moment?" a guy from Ravenclaw who Albus had seen in class every now and then but did not know the name of, interrupted their conversation.

"Oh, sure Nick. I'll see you later Albus." Lunette gave a small wave to Albus then walked out with Nick.

By the time lunch came around, it was common knowledge that Lunette was dating a Ravenclaw named Nick. Something deep down in Albus hurt like crazy. Rose and Scorpius were the only ones who noticed a difference in him.

Scorpius and Albus had finished their lunch and were leaving the hall when Lunette ran up to them.

"Where are you going? I thought we were going to hang out." Lunette looked a bit disappointed.

"Oh, yeah, but um- we- you - we thought that you-" Albus's voice was shaking so Scorpius finished for him.

"We heard that you're going out with Nick, congrats by the way, he seems really nice, anyway we thought you might want to spend the day with him and we can hang out another time."

Lunette nodded slowly. "Ok, but I'm going to hold you to that."

"Sure, we'll see you around." Scorpius smiled.

"I'll see you next lesson for defence against the dark arts."

"Sure Lunette, see you then."

"Bye Scorpius, it was nice to finally talk to you, even if it was only for a bit. And Albus, I'll see you later ok?"

Albus nodded and stared at the ground.

Rose was watching this from the Gryffindor table, she had stopped writing her homework and had completely ignored Mel. Rose stood and ran after Albus, she lightly grabbed his arm.

"Take a break Malfoy, I need to talk to Al."

Scorpius scoffed. "Get lost Weasley, he doesn't need you here."

"I'm his cousin, arsehole." She flicked her wand and shouted. "Steleus! "

Scorpius began sneezing repetitively and retaliated by giving Rose a fox tail. She scowled and prepared to send him another hex when Daniel Leyton came in-between them.

"Leave Rose alone!"

Scorpius laughed between sneezes. "You-" sneeze. "-need-" sneeze. "-a protector-" sneeze. "-now Weasley?"

Rose grit her teeth and stepped in front of Daniel, her face just inches from Scorpius, her new tail flicking with irritation. He managed to stop sneezing for a moment.

"You and I both know that I can handle myself. Get lost Malfoy. You may not have realised this, but family is pretty important and I need to talk to my cousin right now." She muttered with such authority and sincerity that Scorpius backed off. But not without using a trip jinx to make Rose fall flat on her face.

Rose took what she could get and walked away with Albus. Trying different spells to rid her of her tail as she went. "How are you feeling?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come one Al, I know it must hurt when someone you like goes out with another person."

"How would you know anything about how I feel?!" Albus couldn't help but be irritated.

"Well, I don't know exactly, but there was a guy I kind of liked and it hurt every time a girl flirted with him. It was like someone was punching me in the stomach."

"Who did you like enough for you to feel like that?"

Rose unwillingly thought of Scorpius when Mae was flirting with him and her ears turned red. "It doesn't matter." she said quickly. "But the thing is, it will pass eventually. You know what I do, I throw myself into my studies."

"Yeah, well, I'm not as smart as you Rose."

"So find a hobby, distract yourself and eventually you might start to like someone else." Rose gave him a hug and saw Scorpius making his way back to them. She neglected to tell Albus that she was pretty sure that Lunette and Nick wouldn't last long because Rose was pretty sure that Lunette had a crush on Albus. But that would only get his hopes up and if Rose was wrong, it would crush Albus even more.

"Move on Weasley, your protector is getting whiny." Scorpius glared at Rose until she left them.

"Rose, hi." Daniel caught up with Rose who was trying to go back to the hall to apologise to Mel for leaving halfway through their conversation. "Look, I was just trying to stand up for you, but I didn't want to see you hurt."

Rose scoffed. His apology didn't sound like an apology. He sounded more like he was defending himself.

Rose had ancient runes with Ravenclaws, they were making notes. Daniel took Phil's usual seat next to Rose and began talking to her. To her surprise, Rose didn't find him as painfully dull as usual. Instead she found that they both had a passion for quidditch, something which very few knew she loved.

"Yeah, trials for all house quidditch teams are tomorrow. Are you going to go?"

Rose shrugged. "Maybe I'll watch the Gryffindor ones, but I don't know if I'll go for the team yet. Maybe next year."

"Probably for the best, we all know that you can be a little clumsy."

Rose laughed a little and accidentally hit an ink bottle, it only wobbled and only a few drops of ink splashed themselves onto Rose's parchment.

"Well I'm going to the trials." Daniel continued. "Mosi smith, Sixth year, he's our team captain and last year I started to get to know him better. I figure I'll have a better chance of getting in the team if the captain knows my name."

Rose disapproved instantly. "No, you should be put on the team simply because of pure talent."

"I know that, but it can't hurt to have him know my face."

Rose sighed. She still didn't agree, but she would rather drop the subject and finish her notes than argue for the rest of the lesson. Rose turned around and smiled at Phil who was none too happy to have to move seats next to Robin Stirling.

When the bell went Rose was happy to catch up with Phil and Mel, both of whom were very excited to hear what Rose's chat was like with Daniel and why he chose to specifically sit with her.

Meanwhile, Lunette had sat the whole lesson of defence against the dark arts sat next to Felix Stirling. She discovered that Felix liked to talk. A lot. Especially about Rose.

Scorpius made Albus wait at the end of lesson to meet Lunette.

"You still want to be her friend right?"

"Yeah." Albus muttered.

"Well then you need to make an effort. We kind of blew her off at lunch, I mean yeah, this time we had a proper excuse, but you can't always make excuses. Besides, she sat next to Stirling all lesson, she deserves an award for not punching the chatty prat."

Albus nodded and smiled as he saw Lunette rolling her eyes as she exited the classroom.

"Merlin! Felix likes to talk! Is he, by any chance, obsessed with Rose?" Lunette groaned as she walked with Scorpius and Albus.

Albus chuckled. "Yeah, they dated for a bit last year." Albus noticed Scorpius's expression of pure disgust. "And he got clingy and wouldn't leave her alone, and that didn't change when she broke up with him."

"Poor Rose." Lunette said with a sigh. "Oh! There's Nick. See you later guys." Nick whisked her away.

THAT NIGHT

Albus was lazily slumped in an armchair by the fire in the Slytherin common room. He was feeling slightly down. Suddenly a head popped beside.

"Hey Albus!" the blonde girl had a sickly sweet voice. He recognised her as one of Mae Blinston's friends that followed her around all day and giggled at Rose whenever she walked past.

"Oh, hi. It's Buchan right?"

She giggled. "Yep, it's me, Holly Buchan. We don't really talk much do we?"

Albus shrugged. "I guess we haven't talked ever." He could not recollect ever actually speaking one syllable to her. But he could remember her being annoyingly close to him every now and then when he was writing an essay.

"Oh, well, we should change that." Holly leaned on the armrest of Albus's chair.

"Umm, you know what Buchan-"

"You can call me Holly if you want."

"Ok, Holly, I'm not really in the mood to talk to anyone right now. Actually I'm going to bed now." Albus sighed and walked to his dorm. He didn't see Holly's bottom lip sticking out just like Mae often did when she was flirting with Scorpius.

Rose and Wesley were patrolling the corridors outside the kitchens when Rose heard a sigh. She looked around to see that Wesley was no where near. She lit her wand and took a step closer.

"Merlin! Weasley! Get that light out of my eye."

It was Scorpius.

"It's past your curfew Malfoy, you should be in bed." Rose said grumpily

"Jealous you can't come to bed with me?" Scorpius smirked.

Rose resisted the hurt to hex him and only answered. "Would you rather me give you a detention writing lines with professor Stockett?"

Stockett was the games teacher and head of Ravenclaw. She was known for being strict.

"Alright." Scorpius put one arm up in defence. "You win, I'll go now."

That's when Rose noticed the mug he was holding. She looked at it suspiciously.

"Mug of tea, for Albus. He can't sleep." Scorpius explained.

"Then get him hot chocolate! Tea has more caffeine in it and will keep him awake. Even just hot milk will work better."

Scorpius rolled his eyes but when he realised that Rose was not moving out of his way, he knew that it was not up for debate.

"Fine!" Scorpius turned around, tickled the pear on a portrait of a gigantic silver fruit bowl, and disappeared through it to the kitchens. When he came back with a mug of hot milk, Rose was still there looking more worried than ever.

"Is Al going to be alright?" She muttered and slid onto the floor.

Scorpius didn't even think about it and sat beside her, shoulder to shoulder.

"Probably, it's just a crush."

"No, it was more than that. Albus never really ever had crushes when we were younger, somehow when I saw him with Lunette, it was something different. And Albus has never let anything keep him from sleeping."

"I think I know what you mean. A crush is one thing, but some people are special, and letting go of them is hard." Scorpius stared at Rose's worried face.

"Yeah. And Albus had to let go of her pretty quickly, it's not like he had two or three years before…" Her voice trailed off as she thought about how not being friends with Scorpius was one of the hardest things she ever had to do.

"I worry about him." Scorpius whispered.

Rose finally looked him in the eye. "I know you do, so do I."

"Maybe it would've been easier on everyone if we were still-"

"Yeah, but that's not going to happen." Rose said sadly.

They were in silence for a moment until they heard Wesley coming towards them calling out for Rose.

"Rose? Where did you go?" He was getting closer and the two stood up. "Rose, I'm bored, let's just go. Head Girl doesn't have to know if we leave early."

Scorpius sighed and rolled his eyes. "Some model student he is." he whispered and Rose smiled.

"He's well known and well liked because girls like him for his face. I think it was the lesser of three evils, if you look at his friends Sulli and Grant."

Scorpius let out a small chuckle. "True. Sullivan Earls isn't much of a leader and Grant Hathaway is worse than McLaggen."

Rose nodded. "It's past curfew, leave." She didn't sound very forceful but Scorpius left anyway and passed Wesley on his way.

"Were you talking to Malfoy without hexing him?" Wesley was really confused.

Rose shrugged with indifference. "It's past curfew and I threatened him with a detention. It's night, I'm not going to be hexing anyone. He might scream and cry so loudly and wake everybody up." Rose smiled as she saw Wesley flinch. Rose looked at her watch. "We've got five minutes left of our patrol, think you can hang on of that long."

Wesley groaned. "But I'm boooored."

"But I don't caaaare." Rose mimicked his whining.

Scorpius heard this and couldn't help but smile.

Rose and Wesley quietly made their way around the ground floor and then went back up to the Gryffindor dormitories. Rose thought about how easy her conversation with Scorpius was. It was like he had said, some people were special and it was hard to let go.

QUIDDITCH TRIALS

Rose and Mel bundled themselves in gloves , scarves and coats and made their way to the quidditch stands. They waved to Phil who was lining up with the rest of the hopeful Gryffindors.

James began shouting at them and eventually and organised line was made. Rose laughed as this was the only time James and anything organised. after a long couple of hours, Phil finally came running up to Rose and Mel.

"I'm a beater! I actually got in!"

The girls embraced.

"Ooh, who is the other beater?" Mel asked

"Guess." Phil gave Mel a look of disbelief, the Gryffindor beater was always the same.

"Lorcan, as he always is." Rose answered. She looked down at the pitch and saw Lorcan doing cocky circles around Grant Hathaway and Wesley McLaggen. "I hate to say it, but that guy just keeps on getting better every year."

"I know!" Phil burst in a worried tone. "And I have to be just as good!"

Rose and Mel managed to calm Phil down.

"James wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't think you were up for the challenge." Rose gave a reassuring pat on the shoulder to Phil while Mel hugged her. "Quidditch is one of the few things he actually takes seriously."

"Hey look! Slytherin's are doing their trials!" Mel perked up and Rose and Phil turned to look.

"Merlin! Is that Al?" Rose squinted as she was sure her cousin who hated playing quidditch. "Why is he here?"

Albus spotted Rose in the stands and waved. Scorpius also saw her and turned around to look at anything else.

"They're leaving right?" Scorpius asked Gully. "You're not letting Gryffindors watch our trials are you?"

"Woah, calm down Malfoy." Gully put his arms up in defence. "If you were actually looking, you'd see that there leaving now."

Scorpius did turn around and saw that Rose and her friends had left. Then he finally turned his attention to Albus.

"Albus, are you ok?" Scorpius muttered as Gully started shouting at them all to get into a line.

Albus was white as a sheet and his mouth was dry. He looked at Scorpius with wide worried eyes.

"I suck at quidditch Scorpius! Now everyone will find out."

Scorpius didn't know how to answer this, but he didn't need to as Gully split them up into those wanted to be chasers, beaters, keepers and seekers. Scorpius went to the chaser line while Albus wondered over to the line with all the keepers, at least he could try and stay still on a broom with that position. Lloyd Parkinson also happened to lining up for the position of chaser. He was directly behind Scorpius.

"So pathetic Potter wants to be just like his brother?" Lloyd scoffed. "If I were him, I'd be ashamed to be a Potter, they're all the same, like little sheep following in their parents footsteps. The only reason he's even allowed near the quidditch team is because he's a Potter. I bet he's just like his brother and has no real skill."

Scorpius had had enough by that point. He spun around and in one swift flick, Lloyd had jelly legs and his friends were carrying him off the pitch.

Scorpius couldn't help but smile as he heard Lloyd swear at his friends for dropping him on the way to the castle door. It turned out that Lloyd hadn't been so quiet and the entire group of Slytherins who were at the trials had heard. Albus switched lines to stand next to Scorpius.

"Thanks mate." he whispered. "But he's right, I have no skills. But James does!"

"Say that louder." Scorpius whispered.

"What?" Albus continued whispering.

So Scorpius did it for him and spoke louder so that all those who were listening in could hear. "You're right Albus, you're not very good at quidditch. But James is, and so were your parents."

Albus understood that Scorpius was preparing everyone for Albus's failure. They had to be prepared or they're shock would have been embarrassing for Albus and his family. And if they didn't defend James, then the rest of the school would believe that he was only the Gryffindor quidditch captain because he was a Potter.

"Yep, I can barely stay on a broom if it's windy. And if it rains, I don't even bother to go near my broom. But James does, he's amazing at flying." Albus grinned at Scorpius as a few people stopped listening.

Gully had heard it all.

"Nonsense Potter, you're good at quidditch! You have to be."

"You can do it Albus!" A tiny voice shouted from somewhere in the stands. They all ignored it.

"Seriously Gully, I'm not lying. I suck. I am the worst at flying in my whole family," Albus didn't seem too upset by this, it was a fact he had come to terms with. "except Rose I guess. I've never really seen her on a broom but I can imagine she falls off a lot." Albus then sighed and rolled his eyes. "But I'll do this anyway because there's no way you'll believe me unless you see."

"That's the spirit." Scorpius said sarcastically with a smile.

The trials then went off without a hitch and Albus was as bad as he had warned and Scorpius proved how highly skilled he was.

"Alright. I'll put the final team up in the common room later for you all to see." Gully announced. On their way back to that castle, Gully grabbed Albus and whispered to him. "Look, you weren't the worst out there, I mean there a few first years who snuck in that couldn't even stay on a broom. If you just practised a little-"

"No Gully, I'm not doing it." Albus was outraged.

Gully quieted him again. "Look, I'll just take Malfoy off the team and then there's room for you."

"No way." Albus took a step away. "Scorpius was one of the best out there, and he's fast. If you want to even stand a chance winning, Scorpius is the best move forward. Not me."

"But you're a Potter."

Albus shrugged. "And you're a Gully and Scorpius is a Malfoy. What has my last name got to do with anything?" Albus stomped away but yet another person grabbed his arm. "Gully! I told you-"

But it wasn't Gully. It was Lunette. Albus's face was red again. She surprised him with a hug.

"I made the team Albus!" She squealed with delight as she let go of him. Rose was walking past and so Lunette dragged her into the conversation too. "I'm the Hufflepuff seeker!"

"Amazing Lunette!" Rose congratulated her with a side hug.

"Wow, well done." Albus grinned, he had never felt so happy for someone else before.

"Thanks, I couldn't believe it! This was only my third time playing as well!" She turned to Rose. "Thank you so much for the practise during the holidays."

Albus was confused. "Rose taught you to play quidditch?"

"Well, I already knew the game, she just helped me improve my flying."

Albus was still lost. "Rose plays quidditch? You're my cousin, how did I not know this?" He began to get excited. "Are you any good?"

Rose shrugged. "I only play a little bit and I'm alright at at."

Lunette scoffed.

"Anyway, well done Lunette. I think the first match is Slytherin vs Ravenclaw, so you better watch Scorpius's skills and get ready for them. Because Hufflepuff will be playing Slytherin in the second match in a few weeks time." Albus said and noticed Rose roll her eyes at Scorpius's name.

"Thanks for the heads up. Nick said that Hufflepuff were sure to win with me on their team." Lunette smiled sweetly.

Albus couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened at the mention of Nick, it was even worse when the Ravenclaw himself came up behind Lunette and lazily rested an arm on her shoulder.

"We'll see you around Lunette!" Rose waved goodbye and dragged Albus away. "Why don't we go down to the kitchens and get you some of those biscuits."

Albus shrugged and was about to reply when Daniel Leyton appeared.

"Hey Rose." He grinned. "I was wondering if you wanted to study the new herbology text books together? I need something to take my mind off quidditch." Daniel was suddenly angry and kicked the ground. "Stupid Smith didn't think I was good enough."

Rose felt a little sorry for him, after spending an hour talking nonstop about quidditch during a lesson, it had to be something Daniel really cared about.

"Umm, I can't right now. I wanted to spend some time with Al, but I'll be happy to after dinner." Rose ended with a smile.

"Oh, sure thing Rose. I'll see you then." Daniel sulked off.

"I think he likes you." Albus muttered.

"He's just being friendly."

Phil and Mel suddenly jumped in front of them so they stopped short.

"Merlin's beard!" Mel squealed.

"So what did he say?!" Phil excitedly shook Rose's arm.

Rose pulled herself away from her friends. "What? What's going on?"

"Dan! He came and spoke to you right?!" Somehow Mel seemed to be getting more and more excited by the second.

"Rose!" Lily appeared beside Albus. "I overheard Nick tell Lunette that Leyton said that he was going to ask you to study with him and then ask you out." Lily spoke too quickly and she had to repeat herself twice to Phil and Mel as they chattered away together.

Rose looked at Albus, "Look, do you just want to get out while we can? They're gossiping to each other, we can grab biscuits and I doubt they'll even notice we're gone."

Albus grinned. "No, actually I'm loving this."

Rose was mockingly outraged. "Al! What do you mean? I thought we were dealing with your love life."

Albus laughed, glad for the distraction. "No, no. I don't have a love life whereas you have a potential one. This is much more interesting."

Rose playfully punched his arm.

"So, are you going to go out with him if he asks?" Albus asked which got Phil Mel and Lily to stop chattering and turn to face Rose.

Rose's ears turned pink and she shrugged. "I don't know. I've never really thought about Daniel that way." she sent Lily a look that meant they would talk more later.

Scorpius tapped Albus on the shoulder. "I'm going to the library."

"Ok, I'll see you later then." Albus waved as Scorpius glared at Rose while walking away. Albus turned to Rose. "Biscuits?"

"Sure."

"Wait! You didn't tell us what happened!" Mel caught up with them.

"We can talk later." Rose reassured them. "Lily can meet up with us in the dorm later."

AFTER DINNER

"So Rose, ready to study?" Daniel appeared hopefully beside Rose as she and Lunette were exiting the hall.

"Sure, just wait a second." Rose turned to Lunette. "Don't worry about it, Albus is just a bit awkward. He'll get used to you soon enough and then he'll stop turning bright red and stuttering. I promise."

Lunette sighed with relief. "Thanks Rose."

"But it might take him a while longer than usual."

"Why?" lunette was slightly alarmed.

"Because your one quarter veela! You are easily the prettiest girl in our year and you also happen to be one of the nicest girls me or Al have ever met. You seem pretty perfect and so Al doesn't know how to act in front of you." Rose smiled.

"Thanks, I guess. I wish he could just be himself."

"Give it time and he will be."

"And you're wrong Rose, I'm not perfect. I'm not even close to perfect." Lunette suddenly spotted Nick and went to him.

Rose spun to look at Daniel who had taken a few steps back so that she could have a private conversation with Lunette.

"Thanks for waiting."

"No problem. Shall we go?"

Rose heard a squeal of excitement from behind them. Unmistakably it came from Mel.

In the library, Scorpius was silently writing a long essay on Giant wars when he was interrupted by someone laughing. Not laughing, but giggling. An annoying giggle in his opinion. Scorpius looked up and around the library only too see Daniel Leyton and Rose whispering to each other. He rolled his eyes and couldn't stop himself from sending a biting jinx at Leyton's bag. While Leyton attempted to deal with his attacking bag, Scorpius was sniggering and Rose scowled at him.

"Hey, Daniel." Rose whispered to him.

Daniel wasn't listening, he was still trying to get his bag to stop biting him.

"Daniel." Rose whispered again, this time a little louder.

Daniel was still not listening.

Rose huffed and returned his bag back to normal with a simple flick of her wand. Daniel looked at her with pure amazement.

"Woah Rose, how did you know the counter curse off the top of your head?"

Rose looked over to Scorpius and spoke loud enough for him to hear. "It's not the first time I've seen that jinx being used." Rose then smirked. "I've often used it myself."

Daniel noticed Scorpius for the first time. "Should we go somewhere else? How about a stroll before curfew?"

Rose watched Scorpius's face change from anger to concern. 'He clearly doesn't approve of the possibility me and Daniel dating', thought Rose and she remembered Scorpius's reaction to Felix. 'Ok, so he was right about Felix, but we're not friends anymore and his opinion doesn't count. And Dan isn't that bad, maybe when I get to know him better, we'll be perfect for each other.'

"Sure Dan, let's go." Rose smiled.

Scorpius's face turned back to anger.

As she and Daniel walked out of the library, Rose got payback for Daniel and sent a shrinking charm at Scorpius's shoes.

Scorpius's toes were suddenly squashed. He leapt up out of his seat and put all his effort into ripping the shoes off. The librarian glared at him and Scorpius decided that it was best for him to leave before she shouted at him. Once in the corridor, Scorpius overheard Daniel speaking to Rose around the corner, he stopped short and listened in.

"-we would make a good couple. I mean, you're pretty, we're both smart and we got along so well the other day just the two of us in class and I realised that I'd like to spend more time just to two of us. I'd love to be more than 'the guy you drenched in water in third year', more than 'that Ravenclaw in my class', more than just friend. You make me happy and I like being around you-"

Scorpius scoffed at his cheesy way of asking her out

"-So, I'm asking, will you go out with me?"

Scorpius waited for Rose to reply. He only heard a sigh and some more silence. Then eventually she spoke.

"Daniel, I like being your friend. And you're right, we do get along pretty well. But-"

"Oh, come one Rose." Daniel interrupted.

Scorpius knew that Rose wouldn't like being interrupted. 'If anything, he's made it worse for himself.' Scorpius thought.

"Just think about it. Give me your answer sometime tomorrow." Daniel's voice was softer than Rose had ever heard it, she felt like she was seeing a gentler side of him.

"Ok, let's talk tomorrow." Rose said with a smile.

"Thanks for giving me a chance and not just shooting me down straight away." Daniel kissed her on the cheek then left her alone. "I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow." He called back.

Rose let out the breath she was holding and heavily leant against the stone banister. She watched Daniel make his way to the Ravenclaw common room. She chuckled when he noticed she was watching and blew her a kiss.

"You're not seriously thinking about going out with him, are you?" Scorpius appeared leaning beside her.

Rose jumped and scowled. "Why? What's it to you?"

Scorpius shrugged. "You're my best friend's cousin, I don't want him suffering with all you're inevitable whining once you start dating Leyton. I heard he's no good."

"Well, I guess you heard wrong, he's pretty nice to me. Or maybe you're so impossible to get along with that everyone's no good to you. No one's good enough for the little rich boy." Rose spat and stormed off. She shouted back at him. "It's none of your business who I do or don't date. And your opinon means nothing to me. You know what, I might actually go out with him. I wasn't sure, but your advice holds so little credit that it's making me want to do the exact opposite."

Scorpius growled sarcastically. "Well that makes perfect sense Weasley!"

"It doesn't have to make make sense to you Malfoy. It's my life."

"You know, if you weren't so stubborn and obnoxious, you'd see that I'm right."

"Piss off Malfoy." Rose spat and angrily marched off to the Gryffindor common room.

Scorpius marched to the Slytherin common room.

"Rose!" Phil, Mel and Lily greeted her as she stomped into her dorm, still angry at Scorpius.

She flopped onto her bed face first.

"Uh oh, that can't be good." Lily said to mostly herself.

"What happened?" Mal bounced onto the bed next to Rose's head.

Rose sat up so that there was room for all three of them to sit on her bed. "Where's Anna?"

"Being a third wheel with Robin and her boyfriend Sulli." Phil answered grumpily .

"Ok, well, you were right." Rose looked at Lily. She then proceeded to tell them all what happened from Scorpius and the biting jinx to Daniel asking her out with his cheesy 'confession'. She neglected to tell them about Scorpius afterwards.

"Are you going to say yes tomorrow?" Phil asked.

"I think so, I mean, I like Daniel, he's nice. And he's definitely different from Felix, which is what I was hoping to find in a new relationship. Plus, he's so passionate about things and I feel like we can talk properly, whereas Felix wasn't that smart."

"True." Phil nodded

Lily looked at her watch. "Merlin! I've got to go to bed. I've got a potions test tomorrow." she rushed out the room.

"Shoot, I think I left my slippers in the common room. I'll be back in a sec." Rose hurried out after Lily.

Phil and Mel shrugged and went to bed.

"Rose!" Lily said quietly as soon as she saw her in the narrow corridor outside the rows of doors leading to all of the girls dormitories. "You didn't tell us everything did you? Something must have happened between Daniel asking you out and you coming back."

"Malfoy happened."

"Ah," Lily understood. "And he had an opinion which made you think the exact opposite."

Rose nodded.

"So, are you sure you want to go out with him? I mean, you can't date someone simply because your enemy warned you against them."

Rose sighed and leaned against the wall. "I know, but I can't show Malfoy that I agree with him. And, besides, Daniel is nice. Actually, do you remember I humiliated him and Finley in my third year by using a water charm and making them slip in mud then changing their hair colour?"

"Yeah."

"Well, later on in the year, Daniel came and apologised to me. He was really sweet and I thought that he'd maybe ask me out then, but he didn't."

"Were you disappointed that he didn't ask you out then?"

Rose shook her head and shrugged. "Honestly, no. It didn't really matter to me at all because I don't think I would've said yes anyway."

"I don't get it, why is he different now?"

"He's not, but maybe I've grown up a little bit and realised his apology was sincere. He's never made fun of me since, whereas Finley has, and Dan and I have had really had good intellectual conversations before. I like him and I'm willing to give it a try."

Lily shrugged and gave Rose a side hug. "Well, it's up to you. I just don't want to see you hurt."

"I think I can handle myself Lily."

"I know that. But one day you might not have a handle on things because you'll fall hard for someone but you'll break each others hearts. And then you might just be hurting so much inside that you won't speak to anyone about it for awhile."

Rose laughed. "Whatever you say Lils. Goodnight."

"I'm serious, love makes people do stupid things."

THIRD WEEK

The news that Rose Granger-Weasley was dating some Ravenclaw took less then a week to travel around the school. Even the teachers knew. But only professor Longbottom and professor Lupin really cared as they were practically family to Rose. Once they found out the name of Rose's new boyfriend, they glared at Daniel suspiciously while teaching. They, along with Lucy who was in Ravenclaw with Daniel, received daily letters from Ron and Hermione to check on Rose as Hugo had let slip that she had a boyfriend (Lucy tried on countless occasions to explain to her uncle that Head Boy and Girl no longer used their house common rooms and dormitories as they shared a separate one near the headmasters office). Those who cared about her were hoping that this new boyfriend was not as wimpy as the first.

That weekend was the first visit to Hogsmeade and Rose could be seen happily chatting away to Daniel.

"No way, you never even noticed me!" Daniel said with a grin. "The only time was when I was with Finley and you managed to get me covered in mud and somehow I was the one who ended up with a buttload of detentions!"

"That's not entirely true." Rose smiled back. "Ok, maybe I didn't really notice you for a while, but when you apologised to me after third year, I really thought you were proving yourself to be a decent guy and a friend."

"Really?" Daniel stopped in front of her and tried to hold her hand but Rose wasn't giving it up.

"Really. It showed me that you were actually quite mature and your apology was so sincere. I myself hate apologising, it shows that I was wrong and I hate being wrong. I think you'll find me very stubborn Mr Leyton."

"And I think you'll find me very accepting of the long list of things you hate."

Rose chuckled. They reached the Three Broomsticks and Daniel opened the door for her.

"After the lady." He said with a charming smile. "As you can see, I can be quite chivalrous."

Rose's eyes narrowed as she went inside out of the cold air of late September. 'Lady? Did he just call me lady?' Rose thought bitterly to herself. 'Why can't he say my name? It's not that long, it even has less syllables than lady. And why do I care if holding the door for a girl is chivalrous? I would have opened the door for him if I had got there first.' But she ignored his borderline sexism as it was their official first date.

However, Daniel insisted on buying her a butterbeer which she accepted but when Rose got up to pay for their second round, he just said

"Women don't have to do anything on dates. The man should pay." And Daniel pushed her back onto her seat, he had meant to be gentle but Rose wobbled a bit on her chair.

Rose scowled at the back of his head. 'I don't think he means to offend me, but if this keeps on happening I might have to say something.'

Wednesday evening, after his prefect duty, Scorpius angrily burst into the Slytherin common room and leaned on the back of an armchair opposite Albus who was writing an essay and trying to get Holly Buchan to leave him alone.

"What's up mate? How was prefect duty?" Albus asked, shuffling onto the arm of the chair just so Buchan would let go of him.

"Well Monday I threatened to ruin someone's relationship and today I taught them what happens if you ignore me the first time, two things that might get my prefect title taken away from me if anyone ever found out."

Albus looked up and stared at Scorpius for a while. He could see that his friend was not joking.

"I won't ask then."

"And I won't tell you."

Albus shrugged. "Fair enough. I'll be an innocent party, not an accessory."

Scorpius smiled. They had recently had a lesson about the muggle justice system.

"Muggle studies homework?" Scorpius peered over at what Albus was writing.

He nodded in reply.

"I'll go and get mine. I'm almost finished." Scorpius ran off to his dorm but he realised he was being followed. He stopped and spun around, it was Holly Buchan. "Can I help you?" he asked dryly.

"Does Albus have a girlfriend?" She sighed.

"Not that I know of." Scorpius looked at her suspiciously.

"Is he just uncomfortable around girls then? I mean, he seems pretty normal with his cousins but he's also pretty civil with Mae."

"Well, Mae is my friend so Albus has to at least acknowledge her presence."

"So he notices her because she's with you."

Scorpius shrugged, he wasn't entirely sure what Holly was getting at.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Scorpius leaned against the wall. "Not currently." He then smiled charmingly, "why do you ask?"

Holly also leant on the wall, closer to him. "I'm just interested. How could a guy as smart and handsome as you still be single? The other girls in our year must be dumber than I thought." She smiled slyly at him. "I'll catch up with you later Scorpius." She gently put a hand on his arm and then pushed herself slowly off the wall.

When Scorpius returned with his almost complete essay, his friend couldn't stop grinning.

"What?"

"I think you might have a potential date. Yet another girl flirting with you, I wonder how Blinston will take this?"

"Ok, so Holly was flirting a bit, but Mae doesn't anymore. I think she finally understands that I just want to be her friend."

Albus scoffed. "No chance."

As if on cue, Mae Blinston appeared at Scorpius's side and was practically drooling over him as she waffled away about how neat his handwriting was. Neither Albus or Scorpius were really listening to her.

The next day Daniel walked into care of magical creatures with a broken nose. He went to greet Rose with a hug but she managed to sidestep her bruised boyfriend. Finely Norwood chuckled at his friend.

"Ah, mate! What happened?" He spurted through laughs.

"Nothin'" Daniel shrugged.

Scorpius scowled at Daniel from the other side of the group. Rose saw this and brushed it off, she figured that Scorpius was just annoyed at another one of her boyfriends for no reason other than he hated her.

"Well something obviously happened." Rose muttered just loud enough for Daniel to hear.

"Seriously, it's nothing!" Daniel snapped at her. "For Merlin's sake, just calm down woman."

Rose gritted her teeth. After dating for just over a week Rose discovered that referring to her as 'woman' was something Daniel did and she often called him on it when they were alone. But now, surrounded by his friends and the fact that Scorpius was there and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being right about Daniel, she just sighed.

"Just, come here." Rose dragged Daniel by the ear away from the group of students. Needless to say that when she dragged him away she did it with a little too much force. He was going to pay for addressing her as her gender, rather than her name, one way or another.

"Ow, Merlin! I'm already in enough pain without you pinching me so hard!" Daniel whined at Rose.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. I just fell over." Daniel shrugged uninterestedly while looking back at his friends who were now talking and laughing about something else. He'd rather be laughing with them than dealing with his concerned girlfriend.

Rose rolled her eyes. She grabbed his ear and forced him to look at her. Daniel glared at her, but she pointed her wand right at his nose. His faced turned to fear.

"Look, Rose, babe, calm down. We can talk about this rationally later." He began to stutter as more and more of the other students watched as Rose held her wand steady pointed at his face. "I swear, I just walked into a wall!"

"So, how come I don't believe you?" Rose groaned in a monotone voice.

Professor Nye had just turned up and saw Rose and Daniel, the latter now had his arms up in surrender.

"Miss Weasley, what is going on?! What are you doing?" Nye was slightly panicked. He did not try to get in between his two students as he had seen Rose's quick hexing skills in the castle corridors.

"Don't worry sir, I'm just putting everything back to right." And with a swish of her wand, Daniel winced. Rose had fixed his nose. He had been expecting something else.

Nye clapped loudly and a few awkward students joined in. Most just stood there stunned that Rose new such a complex spell.

"Well done Miss Weasley!" Nye praised his student. She grinned but Daniel still looked in shock. "Now, as long as you weren't the one who broke his nose in the first place, ten points to Gryffindor!"

The few other Gryffindor students cheered as the other houses grumbled slightly, but were still impressed with Rose's skills.

Professor Nye was starting his lesson and droned on in his Sonorus charm, which the class had gotten so well at ignoring. Scorpius glared at Daniel more. Rose asked him about it but Daniel just shrugged.

"I guess he just hates me because I'm with you. And everybody knows that he hates you the most."

Scorpius heard this and stood in outrage. Nye looked in complete loss, Scorpius was usually so well behaved. He grabbed his bag and charged back towards the castle, leaving the whole class to stare after him. Scorpius did not leave without knocking over Daniel's bag resulting in his belongings being spread over the grass.

Rose was confused as to why Scorpius had left. Sure they hated each other, but he had never stormed out or even skipped a lesson before. Why start now? Rose shook her head and told herself off, she didn't have time and she didn't care enough about Scorpius to question his motives. For a long while Daniel stared, paranoid, in the direction Scorpius had stormed off too.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Rose asked.

Daniel snapped his head back. "What?" He sounded panicked. "What did he say?" he added urgently.

"What?" Rose was confused, "What did who say?" Rose gently put the back of her hand on Daniel's forehead. "Did someone hit your head as well as your nose?" she asked with genuine concern.

"I told you-" Daniel started to get more irritated and raised his voice. Professor Nye heard him and interrupted.

"Mr Leyton! I expect your full attention."

Rose raised her hand. "Sorry sir, but I think that Daniel may need to go to the hospital wing, I think he hit his head to hard and he's not making any sense."

"Very amusing Miss Weasley. Now I would like everyone to pay attention." Nye continued his class.

"I walked into a door that's all." Daniel whispered harshly.

Rose huffed and started making notes. She leaned in closer and added bitterly, "Earlier you said that you fell, and then you said that it was a wall."

Before Daniel could answer Rose dived into her notes. He knew that she had called his bluff.

Daniel managed to avoid her for the rest of the day and claimed to only have time to briefly speak to her for the rest of the week between classes before her rushed off to the Ravenclaw common room. Rose could tell that there was something more than him just ignoring her to avoid a potential fight, yet she had know idea what it could be.

She finally managed to spend more than two minutes with him over the weekend.

THIRD WEEK, SATURDAY

"I'm sorry Dan." Rose tried to by sympathetic to her boyfriend as they strolled towards the castle. But Daniel was in a really bad mood and it was annoying her.

"This is ridiculous! I hate those Slytherins!" Daniel was so angry he pushed Rose harder than he meant to when she tried to comfort him by holding his arm.

"Hey, don't judge an entire house based on one-" Rose stopped and sighed as a group of Slytherins ran past shouting and laughing, and pushing over first years in celebration. "Never mind, I get that some of them are bad. But not all."

"You're only saying that because your cousin is in Slytherin. So just shut up Rose." He pushed away again even though she wasn't touching him.

Rose stopped clenched her fists and walked away from him, towards the changing rooms rather than the castle.

"What the hell are you doing?" Daniel was still mad from the quidditch game.

"I'm giving you space to be angry. Stop taking it out on me and grow up. Besides I need to talk to someone, I'll meet up with you outside Gryffindor common room after I finish prefect duty tonight."

Daniel just grunted in reply and continued his angry walk back to the castle alone. Had he actually paid any attention to Rose, he would have realised that it wasn't her turn to do prefect duty that night.

Scorpius exited the Slytherin boys changing rooms with a wide, smug grin on his face. He had just won his first ever quidditch game as chaser. Mae ran up to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she giggled. Most students had already left the quidditch pitch to go to lunch, only the players who were getting changed and a few others stood waiting around for their friends were still there. The majority of the school were in a fowl mood. It was the first match of the quidditch season and Slytherin had just beaten Ravenclaw. This meant only the Slytherins were pleased.

"Oh Scorpius," Mae flopped in his arms and spoke dreamily. "You were an amazing today! I think you are the best chaser Hogwarts has ever seen!"

Mae's squeals were interrupted by a sarcastic scoff. One Scorpius knew well.

"Yeah right, I heard Malfoy's only on the team because there was nobody else available. Albus practically gave you the chance. We all know the Slytherins would much prefer a Potter on the team." Rose smirked as she leant, crossed arms, against the outside wooden wall of the changing rooms.

"I'm better than Albus at flying and you know it." Scorpius defensively took a step forward and Mae lost her grasp of his shoulders.

Rose stepped forward and said through gritted teeth, "You and I also know that that doesn't matter to most people. They judge him because he's a Potter and quidditch, according to those idiots, is what Potters are supposedly meant to do." Rose took a step back and shrugged. "You're still not the best. I could fly circles around you in my sleep."

Scorpius watched her apprehensively. He had never actually seen her fly. He snapped back at her. "Well you're forgetting who won the game. Slytherins! And who scored the final goal? Me!" He gathered back some of his cockiness.

"You got lucky."

Scorpius huffed. "What do you want anyway Weasley?"

"Yeah, nobody wants to talk to some ugly, soulless redhead." Mae added bitterly.

Both Rose and Scorpius rolled their eyes and ignored Mae.

"Believe me, I don't want to be talking to you anymore than you want to be attacked by the giant squid."

"Unfair comparison." Scorpius mumbled under his breath, Rose heard and only raised her eyebrows.

"The other Slytherin prefect is ill and in the hospital wing, so head girl asked me to do rounds with you tonight. So no Slytherin victory party for you I'm afraid. I'll meet you after dinner at the entrance hall." Rose said with indifference and turned to leave.

"Yeah right. Head girl aka your cousin Lucy Weasley, bet you practically begged her to put you on rounds with me!" Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Oh, yes Malfoy! Well done, you've found the meaning behind my every action, everything I do is to be with you!" Rose mocked Mae's dreamy voice and sarcastically pretended to faint into his arms, Scorpius only just managed to catch her as he had not been expecting it.

He unwillingly caught the familiar scent of new parchment and freshly cut grass from Rose as he held her briefly.

She stood and gently shoved his shoulder. "Get over yourself Malfoy. You're not as important as you think you are. Your usual prefect buddy is genuinely ill, can't you feel some sympathy for her? Wow, well if you can't even care enough about your fellow house mate, I almost feel pity for your girlfriend." Rose finally looked at Mae who was standing behind Scorpius looking angry. "That is, I would feel pity, if Blinston wasn't so uncaring and pathetic."

"We're not going out." Scorpius spoke quickly.

"But, you said..." Mae strode towards him and wrapped around his right arm.

Scorpius pulled away from her. "I said what? When? I don't remember these conversations you seem to think we have.."

Rose knew she had successfully annoyed both of them, so she smirked and strutted off.

Scorpius realised what Rose had done and stormed away from Mae mid sentence and went to his room to put away his Slytherin quidditch uniform before dinner. Rose had successfully dampened his mood after a victory.

After dinner Rose was lazily leaning against a wall by the entrance hall as Scorpius came begrudgingly down the stairs. He sighed and rolled his eyes when he saw Rose check her watch. She had obviously seen him coming and looked at her watch to emphasise his lateness and it aggravated him.

"Alright Weasley, tonight, I'm all yours." Scorpius held his arms open wide and gave a sarcastic charming smile.

"Oh joy." Rose said in a monotone voice. She suddenly became very businesslike. "We'll start with the main corridors to make sure no one's picking on first years before their curfew. Then we check classrooms. Then we circle around checking outside the common rooms, twice if we have time."

"All work and no play. Typical Weasley." Scorpius rolled his eyes and showed his boredom

"Zip your whiny howler Malfoy, I'm only doing this as a favour to Lucy. Otherwise you'd be left on your own. Nobody else could be persuaded to help you."

"And what made you so desperate to spend time with me?" Scorpius asked slyly

"Head girl is my cousin, you berk." Despite being smaller, Rose was a lot quicker at walking than Scorpius who strutted lazily behind her.

"So?" Scorpius wasn't sure how family relations had anything to do with her helping him do prefect duty

"So I would do anything for my family. Even if they ask the worst, like helping some prat do prefect duty or crossing paths with a yeti."

The yeti is believed to be related to the troll, though no one has yet got close enough to conduct the necessary tests. At up to fifteen feet in height, the yeti devours anything that strays into its path.

"Oooh, ouch Weasley. Your words really hurt me." Scorpius pretended to have a wounded heart and 'fainted' on to floor.

A couple of third year Ravenclaw girls saw him and giggle. Scorpius sat up and winked at them before Rose gave them a stern look. The girls ran away quickly.

They were silent for a while and Scorpius finally thought of something to say.

"You know what might interest you, I've been reading a muggle book."

Rose scoffed in disbelief.

"Yeah, as a Christmas present someone gave me some kids book about a girl called Alice. It's alright, and since it's my own copy I think I'll be reading it a lot."

Rose bit her tongue. Scorpius was trying to get a rise out of her. Hugo had given Scorpius her own 'Alice in Wonderland' book to borrow, no to keep. However, Rose knew that if she said anything, Scorpius would know that it was she who let him borrow the book. And that was the last thing Rose wanted.

"Ok, on to checking classrooms." Rose quickly changed the subject as soon as they finished the main hallways.

"That was quick. Man, you really don't want to be with me do you?" Scorpius huffed.

Rose suddenly turned around and shot him daggers from her eyes. She flicked her wand and his hair turned blue.

Scorpius scowled and retaliated with the same hex. She looked like she had a big blue fluffy bird sitting on top of her head. Scorpius chuckled. They returned their hair back to its original colour and Rose stormed ahead of Scorpius again.

Scorpius lifted his wand. Rose second guessed him. Before he knew it, Rose had disarmed Scorpius and was pointing both wands at his face.

"Let's just call a truce for now Malfoy. We can finish prefect duty without hexing each other, or do I need to perform a bat-bogey hex on you right now with two wands?"

Scorpius thought back to the many times he had been on the receiving end of Rose's bat-bogey hexes. It was bad enough when the short tempered redhead only used one wand. He couldn't imagine what pain may befall him if she used two wands.

"Alright." Scorpius put his hands up in defence and Rose cautiously gave back his wand.

She may have called a truce, but Rose was still not happy to be helping Scorpius. Rose pushed open the door of an empty classroom, took a quick look around and joined Scorpius again in the corridor. And this is what they did for ten minutes. Their truce was more like dead silence so not to aggravate each other.

Scorpius checked another classroom and stopped short before backing out slowly.

"Umm, Weasley?" He quietly called for her as she was checking another classroom.

"What?" She snapped.

Scorpius nodded his head to indicate to the classroom he had just checked.

"If this is one of your pathetic little pranks, I'm not inter-"

"No, not that." He whispered nodded his head sharply at the closed door

Rose rolled her eyes and huffed before carefully opening the door. What she saw made her let out a quiet squeal and jump out the room again as if it were made of fire.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow at Rose's reaction.

She paced back and forth in front of the door muttering something to herself. Took a deep breath. Then charged back into the classroom, her wand out and steam shooting out her ears.

Daniel Leyton and some Ravenclaw girl were making out on the table. Daniel jumped away from the girl as soon as he saw Rose.

Scorpius heard Daniel try to shout some excuse. Next thing he knew the girl was running out of the classroom. She didn't seem angry or upset, just a little flustered.

Rose had calmly told the girl, who was in the year below, that it was past her curfew and that she better leave before a detention in the forbidden forest came her way. Rose turned to Daniel, raised an eyebrow and hung him upside down my his right ankle. Rose swiftly walked out the room as Daniel was shouting at her to get down. She looked at Scorpius then went back into the room where she shut up Daniel with a jinx and left again. Scorpius just stood still wondering what he should do when Rose turned to talk to him.

"Some idiot Ravenclaw is helplessly flailing about in there. You should probably sort him out." Then she walked away and checked the rest of the classrooms on that floor.

Scorpius smiled despite himself. He and Rose may not get along, but he had to admire her reaction to finding her boyfriend cheating. It was as if Daniel was suddenly dead to her. She didn't even cry or seem particularly upset.

He went into the classroom and let Daniel down. Daniel looked awkward. Scorpius just gave him a cold look before flicking his wand again giving the Ravenclaw the ability to speak.

"Umm, thanks? I guess." Daniel shrugged

"Shut up Leyton, you knew this was coming. You keep cheating on someone, they'll eventually catch you."

"You put her up to this didn't you? You told her!" Daniel was angrily shouting.

"You're not important enough for me to ruin your relationship." Scorpius shut the door and caught up with Rose.

"So…" Scorpius said slowly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope." Rose said quickly

"Why did you even go out with a guy like that anyway?"

Rose turned and sent daggers from her eyes. "Because he was nice and interesting and he didn't hex me in the corridors or criticise my relationships or pretend too be my friend for three years!" She shouted.

Rose shook with anger. She wasn't directly angry at Scorpius, although he always made her angry, but her humiliation after just finding out she had been cheated on was coming out and pointed at him.

Scorpius glared at her and spat bitterly. "You know what Weasley, I can do the rest by myself and you're lucky that I won't report you for your treatment of Leyton. He deserved it. I don't need your babysitting Weasley, I don't care what Head Girl said." He strutted off without so much of a backwards glance.

This irritated Rose even more. If anything she should be the one ditching him. Not the other way around.

Rose reached the Gryffindor common room only to find Daniel waiting for her with some excuses lined up.

"Rose-" he began desperately.

"No." She grunted and pushed her way through the portrait.

END OF SEPTEMBER

There was a different mood around the school. It was more peaceful, yet suspicious. Even the teachers noticed it. The main reason for this was down to one person.

Holly Buchan.

She had started dating Scorpius and she often distracted him. (Constantly having to pull her away from flirting with Albus who hated it more than Scorpius did.) And thanks to Buchan, Scorpius ignored Rose's presence.

He didn't fight with her. He didn't argue. He didn't hex or jinx or prank her. Their potions teacher was still adamant that they were a good pair to put together as they were his best pupils, but Scorpius refused to speak to Rose during their lessons. Rose found, that since he did not communicate, she had to do a lot of the work.

All of this aggravated Rose like nothing had ever before. She found a new level of irritation. But Rose claimed that it was only because her grades weren't as high as usual in potions. She and Scorpius were being marked down for not working as a team. Something which Rose thought was ridiculous.

Holly and Scorpius occasionally held hands, but Rose noticed that Holly put on a 'happy and sickly lovey-dovey' voice whenever Albus was around. Rose couldn't help but think that maybe she was one dating Scorpius so that Albus would notice her. Something that even Anna Gardener would have done to get Albus's attention.

Rose was making her way to the hall for dinner one evening, the corridor was practically deserted as she was late to dinner, her potions easy simply too important to her O. as her partner in class was not pulling his weight. Rose noticed Scorpius and Buchan holding hands and she scowled. It was all thanks to him that her grades were not she had wanted. Thanks to him that she had to constantly ask their professor for extra that would boost her grades.

"Oi! Malfoy!" Rose angrily shouted before she knew what she was doing.

He turned his head slightly, saw it was Rose and kept on walking. She sent a tripping jinx at him, he only stuttered slightly but kept on moving. If anyone had seen that they would have taken it as Rose attacking Scorpius for no reason. That would not have been good for her. But as it was nobody had seen.

But while one new relationship had just begun, another one ended. Nick had broken up with Lunette. No one could understand why. She seemed perfect to everyone. She was kind, she had good friends in every house, she was not dumb and not so smart that she outshone everyone, she was beautiful, one quarter veela, she was popular and she spoke both French and Bulgarian. Yet Nick was positive he had done the right thing.

Lunette felt a bit down, yet found comfort in her many friends. Mostly Rose and Albus who helped.

After dinner, Lunette caught up with Rose who was walking back to her common room glaring at the back of Scorpius's head as he was walking slightly win front of her.

"Rose!" Lunette gently grabbed her arm.

"Oh, hi. I heard about Nick, sorry." Rose stopped and they found an empty corner to stand and chat undisturbed.

"No, don't be. I guess he just didn't like me as much as I thought. I'm not really upset, just disappointed with myself for ever liking him. I can be so dumb sometimes." Lunette stared at her feet.

"We all make mistakes Lunette, I mean, just look at my last two boyfriends. You can't do any worse than a clingy guy who obsess over you and a guy who cheats on you."

Lunette smiled. "I guess we all make stupid mistakes."

"Exactly, we're not all like James who can have up to two girlfriends per month, have horrible breakups and then continue as if nothing ever happened."

Lunette laughed, James had just walked past with a new girlfriend who was looking none too happy that a bunch of other girls were following them jealously.

"But there are some of us who get it right first time. Bam! Their first love is the one they say with and never regretted it. Like my parents. My dad was the first person my mother ever dated for longer than a week and she was the first and last woman my dad ever dated."

"Yeah, but things very rarely turn out that way-"

But Lunette was thinking and interrupted Rose.

"There are certain people you can look at and know instantly, 'the love of your life is the first person you set your eyes on.' And they'll know it too! People like, oh I don't know, Albus. You can just look at him and know that he'll never make any stupid mistakes when it comes to his love life. He's too kind and innocent for anyone to take him for granted!"

Rose eyed her suspiciously and smiled. "You know, Albus is single, he's never dated anyone." she added subtly.

"That's because he hasn't met 'the one' yet. He's waiting for him or her and then he'll ask him or her out."

"Well, maybe he has met 'the one' but hasn't had the guts to ask them out." Rose casually shrugged.

Rose thought back to all the times Albus had drooled over Lunette and how miserable he got when she was dating Nick. Rose was 99% sure that, despite being so young, Lunette was the love of his life. There was a certain look in his eyes whenever she passed.

"So how are you doing Rose?" Lunette changed the subject.

Rose shrugged. "I'm not sad about Dan, I shouldn't have dated him. I'm actually more angry at myself for not realising sooner that he was cheating on-"

"No I mean about Scorpius and Holly."

"What?!" Rose was slightly flustered.

Lily had overheard and suddenly appeared with them.

"Yeah Rose," Lily became very sympathetic. "How are you feeling now that he is with another girl and completely ignoring you?"

Rose grit her teeth and clenched her fists. "I'm fine. I don't care about him in at all. The only thing that really bugs me is that he's not contributing at all in potions class and we're being marked down for it."

"Mmhmm." Lily nodded and grinned. "Sure." she sarcastically agreed.

"It's true!" Rose said through her teeth.

Lunette laughed.

"I know!" Lily mocked sarcastically. "Im agreeing with you!"

Lunette was now in hysterics.

"Ok." Rose huffed. "I've got a potions essay to rewrite." she began to charge away but Lunette grabbed her arm again.

"Sorry," she stopped laughing but couldn't stop smiling. "All your cousins are pretty cool."

Lily grinned, did a silly salute and strutted off just as Hugo was passing.

"Thanks."

They both watched as people continued to pass them in the corridor, Rose's cousins seemed to come out in clumps.

"We're all pretty close and protective. Like, as a rule, Lily hates all of James's girlfriends. And if anyone has a boyfriend or girlfriend who is in another house, whoever is in the same house will keep an eye on them and report back to the rest of us. Birthdays are fun too, we all sneak into each other's common rooms early in the morning and pass around presents."

"That sounds fun." Lunette sighed. "I don't really have any family other than my parents and my grandparents are still in France."

"Then we'll be your family." Rose wrapped an arm around Lunette's shoulder. "We all like you and I'm pretty sure that you'd be welcome to all birthday mornings."

Lunette began tearing up. "Thank you so much Rose." and she hugged her.

Rose felt a bit awkward and patted Lunettes back.

"Rose! What did you do?!" Albus jumped between them with a worried face. "Lunette?"

She turned and hugged him instead, Rose stared at them feeling slightly lost.

"Lunette? Are you ok? What happened?" Albus had never felt so much concern for anyone. He seemed to realise that Rose hadn't been the cause and looked at her over Lunette's shoulder. "Is something to do with Nick?" he asked Rose.

He felt Lunette shake her head on his shoulder. She stopped crying and let go of Albus.

"No," she sniffed then smiled. "Rose said I could be part of the family. I really like you guys." She sniffed. "Rose, you're like the sister I never had and Lily's like my little funny cousin. And so is Dom, she's been really nice to me. So has Roxanne. And James and Fred have been acting like protective older brothers." she hugged Rose again. Lunette turned to Albus and stared at him for a while before hugging him too. "Albus, your, - you, -you're like, I- I really." Lunette didn't know what to say. Albus wasn't like a brother or cousin to her.

Lunette gulped then hurried off to the Hufflepuff common room.

"I'm just a nobody." Albus slumped on to the floor.

Rose joined him. "I don't think so Al."

"Rose, I've never felt so hopeless and enchanted but invisible at the same time. Lunette is the most amazing person I've ever met, I'd do anything just to see her smile. But she doesn't see me in any way other than, a guy she met once at a fair." Albus sighed and stood. He stuck out his hand to help Rose up but she pushed it aside.

"I think she might just think of you more than you realise."

Albus shook his head. "You may be the smartest person I know Rose, but you're wrong about this one."

Rose shrugged and smiled. "We'll just see."

Albus trudged back to his common room and Rose took her time strolling lazily to the library. She spotted something colourful out of the corner of her eye. Rose yanked back a tapestry to reveal Lunette. She was shaking, staring at nothing.

"Wha-?" Rose couldn't finish.

"Does Albus really feel that way about me?" Lunette blurted out.

All Rose could do was nod.

"Shit." Lunette banged her head repeatedly against the wall. Rose finally came to her senses and pulled Lunette away and led her outside to the courtyard.

"Rose," Lunette lay on her back on a cold stone bench. "Albus can't like me. I've never been good in relationships and I don't want to hurt Albus, he's too, well," Lunette shrugged. "He's too Albus!"

Rose squinted in confusion. "So, is this your way of saying that you'd like to go out with Al?" she asked slowly.

"He's the most wonderful, funny, sweet, charmingly awkward person I've ever met. I liked him the moment I met him. He's going to make some girl very happy someday." Lunette sighed.

"So why not you?" Rose was still confused. "If you asked him out, he'd say yes in a heartbeat. And if you're single for much longer, he may even get enough courage to ask you out."

Lunette sat up and but her lip. "I know. Which is why I need him to stop liking me."

"It's not like he can just turn it off."

"But he has to!" Lunette started pacing. "I don't want to be the girl that hurt him. I'm no good, I'm not perfect."

"Al knows you're not perfect, but he doesn't care."

"If I'm his friend, I'm not hurting him right?" Lunette wasn't really listening or directly talking to Rose.

"You're hurting him by going out with other guys." Rose mumbled then spoke louder for Lunette to hear, "You know that it will hurt like hell if, I doubt he ever will, but if he gets over you and goes out with someone else."

Lunette stopped pacing and stared at Rose. "Merlin, it will won't it?" she slapped her forehead. "Then what do I do?!"

Rose took a seat on the bench. "To be honest Lunette, I have no idea. I mean, what are you meant to do if someone who is special to you dates someone else? You can't tell them. That would be anarchy-" this time Rose was more talking to herself.

"But Albus isn't dating anyone."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I was thinking of someone-thing something else." Rose's ears turned pink. she sighed and looked at lunette. "I guess you can just hope that one day they won't be special to you at all."

"well, I don't want that."

Rose shrugged. "Then I really don't know what to tell you."

Lunette sat next to Rose and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Tinker!" Someone shouted loudly as they passed.

Lunette sat up quickly and looked around.

"Oh, hey Macmillan." Lunette gave a small wave to the sixth year who came striding towards them.

Rose recognised him, he was Elliot Macmillan, a Hufflepuff prefect in the year above. He and James had 'frienemey' relationship. They got along until quidditch season where their competitiveness took over.

"Tinker, ready for practise?" Elliot looked her up and down realising she was not in her quidditch robes.

Lunette shot up. "Merlin! I forgot! Ok, I'll be down in just a bit Elliot! See you Rose!" She sprinted inside.

Elliot chuckled slightly as he watched Lunette disappear. "She's a fun one isn't she."

Rose eyed him carefully. "I guess."

He sat down next to her, uninvited. "She's single right?"

Rose's eyes narrowed but she nodded. "Why? Are you gonna ask her out?"

Elliot shrugged and grinned. "I'm quidditch captain and an older guy, do you think she'll say yes?"

"Not sure. Perhaps she likes someone else and it doesn't matter to her whether you're quidditch captain or older."

Elliot shrugged again. "I think I like my chances. Plus," he sighed as his smile widened, "She is hot."

"Is that why you gave her a place on the team."

"It was a strong contributing factor, maybe the main factor."

Rose stood angrily and left. Elliot frowned in confusion after her but soon got back his smile as Lunette returned.

OCTOBER

It was Hufflepuffs second quidditch game and it was against Slytherin . Lunette and Elliot had started dating just two days before and within an hour of her saying yes, the whole school knew about it.

Rose woke up early and raced downstairs. Some younger kids got in her way in some of the corridors and she may have been too harsh on them as she was grouchy. She hated mornings. And judging by the fact that her hair was two times as fluffy as usual, mornings hated her. She new it would flatten down later on in the day unless it was foggy, raining or humid.

But she knew waking up early would be worth it as all the quidditch players woke up early to eat breakfast together before going to the changing rooms. Rose spotted Lunette on the end of the Hufflepuff table, not able to eat her toast.

"Rose." She sighed with relief as she saw her friend. "I am freaking out a little bit here."

"Where's Macmillan?"

"Oh, he's already down at the changing rooms, some of the team were already finished their breakfast so he went with them."

"He didn't wait for you?"

"He's just being a good captain."

Rose sat opposite her, she was glad that the rest of the team were far enough away that they could speak.

"Look, I thought you were really good last time you played. A great seeker."

"Thanks." Lunette smiled. "But Gryffindor still beat us, I didn't find the snitch in time."

"I was watching, there was like a second between you and Wesely spotting it. Anyway, today you really need to up your game, you're already good but today you need to win and wipe the floor with those Slytherins!"

Lunette sighed, "Is this because Scorpius is still ignoring you and you're desperate to get any of talking to him and getting things back to usual? Because, teasing him about losing won't help."

"No! Well, it's not just being able to rub in his stuck up face. But Macmillan told me that the main reason you're on the team is because you're hot."

Lunette clenched her fist around her butter knife and slammed it on the table. People started looking her way as she ground the blunt knife into the table. "That git!"

Rose placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "So you know what you have to do right?"

"I have to find the snitch and 'accidentally' crash into Elliot on my way down before making a perfect land while he falls flat on his face."

Rose smiled. "You've spent too much time with me. Your plots for revenge are getting good."

Lunette sighed and managed a smile. "Thanks for telling me. But I actually like Elliot, he's so adventurous and quirky. And he's so passionate about quidditch!"

"So you're still going to go out with him?" Rose couldn't believe her ears.

"I think so, I mean, he's really interesting, plus he's friends with Roxanne and Dominique, so he can't be that bad."

Rose shrugged, "If you say so." she looked over to the Slytherin table where Buchan was sitting between Scorpius and Albus. She had one arm linked loosely with Scorpius's but she was talking and giggling with Albus, who was ignoring her with a fixed grumpy expression.

Rose scowled. Scorpius briefly looked up and saw an angry Rose, he quickly ducked his head down and drained his tea.

"I've got to go." Scorpius mumbled.

"Oh, bye." Holly said absentmindedly without looking at him.

Albus quickly stood up, Holly pouted in disappointment, and followed Scorpius out. "Good luck today." he said when he had caught up.

"Thanks, who are you going to be cheering for?" Scorpius teased.

"Slytherin of course."

"But the love of your life is on the opposing team." he smirked.

Albus lightly punched him in the arm. "She's not the love of my life." he sighed.

"Yes, she is. I know we're kind of too young, but she's definitely someone special to you."

"I'm telling you, she's not- well, I don't know." Albus lost all fight in him and carried on in a hopeless tone. "You're right. I think. I'm not sure. I've never felt this way about anybody, and yes I've never really had a crush before but Lunette- Lunette is- she's- she's something special, just like you said." Albus shrugged and let out a small chuckle. "I'm sorry if that doesn't make any sense. Have you ever felt this way about someone? Their just so special that you can't let go."

Scorpius didn't answer, his mind was unwillingly fixed on a certain fluffy redhead. He shook his head to clear his mind. "Umm, I think so."

Albus nodded but didn't pry. They walked quietly outside.

When Phil and Mel had eventually come down, Rose walked with them to the quidditch pitch. They were passing the greenhouses when Rose noticed someone balancing on the glass roof, walking only on the wooden bars in between each windowpane.

It was professor Longbottom and he seemed to be grabbing at something in thin air. Rose tilted her head and looked at him, confused.

"Umm, I'll catch up with you guys in a bit." She waved off Phil and Mel who had wondered why she had stopped.

Rose strolled closer to the greenhouse, she found a spot that, if she stood on tiptoes, she could see professor Longbottom.

"Er, Uncle Nev- I mean professor Longbottom, I'm not sure it's any of my business, but what in Merlin's name are you doing?"

Longbottom looked startled at the sound of someone's voice and almost toppled off the roof.

"Oh, Rose, it's you. Do me favour will you? Lift up that tin bucket so I can pop something in."

Rose frowned in confusion but complied anyway. Moments later something flew off the roof, Rose stepped sideways to catch it in the bucket.

"Sorry if that was a bit too much to your left- oh you caught it!" Longbottom looked down. "Ready for me to pass down some more?"

"Err, sure?" Rose finally looked down into the bucket, it held three leaping toadstools.

"Right handful they are. A couple of second years accidentally let them loose and now they're hoping all of the place." He grumbled as Rose darted back and forth succeeding each time to get the toadstools into the bucket. "How many are there now?" he sat up and looked down.

"Ten all together sir." Said rose peering once more into the bucket.

Longbottom sighed and began his dissent. "I suppose that will have to do for now, wouldn't want to miss the match!"

Rose grinned. "No sir, wouldn't want to miss it. Louis and Albus were very amusing with their competitive teasing yesterday."

Longbottom laughed. "Yes, I heard about that. And Teddy- I mean professor Lupin is trying not to seem biased, but we all know-"

"He's backing Hufflepuff." Rose grinned. She slid the bucket into the greenhouse and strolled down with one of her favourite teachers, he was dear friend of the family and practically an uncle.

Hufflepuff had not scored a single goal and Slytherin had 50 points before Headmaster Fairweather announced that Tinker had caught the snitch and Hufflepuff had won the game.

Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors all cheered. Even professors Lupin and Longbottom joined the head of Hufflepuff, professor Nye, in a little celebratory jig.

As soon as the players landed Elliot wrapped one arm around Lunette and raised his broom in the air, cheering with the majority of the crowd and with his team. He kissed Lunette and she grinned with him. Rose saw that Lunette had proven Macmillan wrong and had forgiven him.

Rose looked for Albus in the crowd, he had started walking towards the changing rooms to meet Scorpius. Holly was hanging round him, Albus was desperately trying to ignore her. Rose was furious with Buchan. Not only was she the reason Scorpius ignored Rose and was only dating him to get Albus's attention, but she wasn't leaving Albus alone. Both Scorpius and Albus were miserable around her, but for some reason, Rose couldn't work out, Scorpius didn't dump Buchan. This irritated Rose. And that fact that it irritated her, irritated her even more. She let this slip to Lily that night.

Lily couldn't help but smile. "So you're irritated because you're irritated?"

Rose shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I hate Malfoy, why should I care whether or not he dumps some girl who clearly makes him miserable and doesn't really like him."

"Because you care about him."

"No I don't!" Rose gently hit Lily's forearm.

They were sitting on armchairs in the corner of the Gryffindor common so that no one would hear them. Although they could probably be standing in the middle of the common room and shouting their conversation loudly and still no one would hear. James and Lorcan had set off a mini firework display of the ceiling, Mel, Phil and Anna were gossiping with top volume by the fireplace, Sulli, Wesley and Grant were playing exploding snapdragon and Hugo was teaching Roxanne and her friend Mabel to play wizard chess.

"You can deny it to yourself and everybody else, but I know you Rose. Deep down inside you know Malfoy is special to you. And besides, you were friends for quite a while despite family differences. You went through alot together, you can't just switch that off."

"Well," Rose said grumpily as she crossed her arms and slumped in her chair, "when you say it like that, it makes sense. But I don't like what you're saying so I'm choosing to deny it." Rose added sarcastically.

Lily laughed.

"Hey Rose!" James can bounding up to them. A few girls behind him seemed disappointed that he had left them. "Hugo says you're not half bad at quidditch and Uncle Neville-"

"Professor Longbottom." Rose corrected him.

"Yeah, whatever, he said that he was throwing stuff off the roof and you didn't miss a single thing. I didn't believe him."

Lily looked at Rose, shocked. "No way. Our clumsy Rose is good at quidditch!"

Rose shrugged. "I wouldn't say 'good'. I'm ok. I wouldn't believe a word Hugo says though, he always tries to suck up to my around my birthday if he's got me a terrible present."

James laughed. "Be that as it may, I want to see you at tryouts next year. I think you're a bit of a dark horse my dear cousin." He eyed her in mock suspicion and back away slowly.

"So how good are you?" Lily jumped straight in.

Rose chuckled. "you know what, I'm going for a quick walk before bed."

Lily rolled her eyes as Rose stood.

Rose strolled out the common room and ended up outside the library where she heard hushed voices.

"Ugh, he hasn't even noticed me. I'm starting to think dating Scorpius isn't worth it." Holly Buchan scoffed.

"Well then stop dating him and just ask out Potter!" Rose recognised the shrilly voice as that of Mae Bliston.

Buchan huffed. "You'd like that wouldn't you? You don't even care about my love life, all you want is Scorpius to yourself."

"Well it's not that different from you! You don't even care about Scorpius, all you want is Potter. And I don't even know why! He's so awkward to be around and he never says anything to anyone but Scorpius."

"Yeah, but he's hot."

"Not really."

"Well, he's not bad looking. But anyway, you can't pretend that you suddenly care about Scorpius."

"But I do care!"

"No you don't! You flirt for the exact same reason as I do, you think he's hot."

Blinston sighed. "Merlin he's hot. And so dark and mysterious."

"Ugh, I don't know. I find him boring."

"Then dump him!"

"No! I think Albus is starting to acknowledge my presence."

Rose had heard enough and she stomped back to the common room. She wasn't looking where she was going and walked straight into James and Lorcan. She fell over and they peered down at her.

"Whatcha doing down there?" Lorcan grinned, he offered Rose a hand but she batted it away and jumped up.

"Look where you're going Rose. Why are you so distracted?"

"Because I'm trying to think of a plan."

They were suddenly very eager.

"What kind of plan?" James asked in hushed excitement as he and Lorcan guided her to the empty windowsill.

Lily saw them and shot Rose a confused look, Rose brushed her off with a simply wave so she joined Hugo in a game of wizard chess.

"An evil plan? Smart plan? Stupid plan? Masterful plan? Revenge plan? Prank plan?" Lorcan tried to guess.

"Revenge plan." Rose muttered.

"Ah, for Mr Malfoy, well we thought you might come to us. So we brainstormed a little something the other day that might just-" James paced a little in front of her.

"Not for him." Rose said quickly.

"Then who?" Lorcan was confused.

"Yeah, who do you hate more than Malfoy?"

"I thought, you know since he was kind of ignoring you, you would come to us for some big prank to get him back to normal." said Lorcan

"Normal?" Rose was amazed that someone else had noticed.

James shrugged, "Ever since he started going out with that girl he's been, I don't know, different. Plus Al hates her."

Rose only nodded. She stared out of the window, thinking to herself. She had it. A brilliant idea. She hopped off the windowsill and ran out of the common room shouting to a very confused James and Lorcan.

"Thanks guys!"

"What did we do?" Lorcan asked James.

"I think we helped a poor soul get revenge."

"I'm so proud of us." Lorcan hung an arm on James's shoulders.

"We're such lovely people, all this charity work we do and all." James slapped his friend on the back.

"What are you up to?" Fred caught sight of their wide grins.

"Why ever would you think we were up to something?" James asked with mock innocence.

Fred rolled his eyes and slumped off to his dorm.

THE NEXT DAY

After about a month of relative quiet in the corridors, it was startling for the students and teachers alike to hear a sudden outburst of rage when students left their final lesson of the day.

The fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins had just had potions together. Many teachers and curious students head towards the dungeons to see what Rose and Scorpius had gotten themselves into.

Professor Stockett happened to be near.

"Malfoy! Weasley! What are you up to-" She was shouting but stopped once she realised that it was neither of the usual suspects. "Who are you?"

The student in question punched her bag three times before answering. "Holly Buchan, professor."

"Well what's going on?" Stockett asked briskly.

"My bag keeps on jumping away from me." Buchan angrily spat.

Professor Stockett looked down at the bag. It wasn't moving at all. She looked behind Buchan to the the rest of the Slytherin and Gryffindor class watching innocently, although a few Gryffindors were sniggering. Stockett noticed the absence of a certain Weasley and marched into the classroom.

"-but sir, I don't think there's anything I can do." Rose was trying to reason with her potions professor.

"I'm sorry Weasley, but part of the new Potions O.W.L is teamwork and partnership, I can't change that and- Oh, professor Stockett, may I help you with something."

Stockett's eyes narrowed on Rose. "Professor, has Miss Weasley been in here with you since the end of lesson."

The potions professor thought the question an odd one but answered anyway. "Why, yes. She came to me as soon as the lesson ended."

"Hmm." Stockett was still watching Rose, "Then would you mind telling me where Miss Buchan sits?"

The potions professor pointed to a desk closest to the door.

"And where does Weasley sit?" Stockett smiled, she was sure that she had Rose and even though there appeared to be nothing wrong with Buchan's bag, Stockett was also sure that Rose had done something to upset her.

"Right here, by my desk." the potions professor gestured to the closest desk. "I keep her and Malfoy near the front, that way I can keep an eye on any misbehaviour." He sat up straighter in pride. "And I think it's working, I'm sure you have noticed they no longer argue-"

"That's because he doesn't even acknowledge me!" Rose interrupted. "Sorry professor, but I cannot complete the partnership part of the O.W.L if my partner does absolutely nothing. If I didn't do the work, then nothing would happen at all!"

"We've spoken about this on multiple occasions, I cannot change who your partner is, it's too late for that now. Partners are expected to work together despite disputes and other-"

"But it's not a dispute sir," Rose continued. Neither noticed professor Stockett backing away. "He's directly ignoring my presence and not contributing to the work. A dispute would be better! At least when we were disputing he did his equal share of the work load."

The professor stood and sighed. "I can speak to him miss Weasley, but part of the curriculum is for partners to work out their disputes-" he corrected himself when Rose's eyes narrowed at the word, "work out their problems together and collectively contribute to their overall grade. I promise I will speak to Malfoy, meanwhile you need to come up with a way to sort out your problem, try being his friend for a change."

"We were once." Rose mumbled bitterly. "I think I know what I have to do sir." Rose nodded and left. She smiled and thought 'And thank you sir for giving me a perfect alibi. Stockett will not forget our argument too quickly.'

By the time she got out of the classroom, the corridors had cleared except for Buchan who was chasing her leaping bag, whenever she got close to picking it up again, the bag would use her face to bounce off of.

Rose snorted with laughter and quickly ran to the common room.

"Al!" Rose excitedly called to her cousin when she saw him in the Gryffindor common room with Hugo. "What are you doing up here?"

James wrapped Albus in a headlock and ruffled his hair. "Those dungeons are driving him mad I guess. Or he really missed his big brother."

"Get off." Albus was slightly irritable, he pushed James off who laughed and strutted off with Lorcan "Hey Rose, Buchan was being worse than usual and I had to go. Scorpius can deal with her."

"What has she done now?" Rose sat between Hugo and Albus.

"Her bag keeps on jumping away from her and she can't work out why. Every time it jumps she attaches herself to my arm and says that she's scared. Then, of course, Scorpius gets pissed off because she's with me and not him."

"So, he's jealous?" Rose asked uncertainly.

"Not really, he doesn't blame me. But it's a bit embarrassing when his own girlfriend runs to another guy for help. Parkinson keeps on laughing at him."

"Why doesn't he dump her?" Hugo asked.

Albus shrugged. "He said that he has his reason and besides, with Buchan around, Blinston has stopped flirting with him and actually become a proper friend, but I think she's just waiting for them to break up so she can start flirting again."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Well, it's nice to have you around Al."

"Thanks, I'm going to play chess with Hugo if you want to help me win." Albus gave a cheeky grin.

"Actually I've got to write an essay for two people, so I'll be a while."

"Why are you doing someone else's work?"

"It's that potions homework, the one we have to do in pairs, but Malfoy ignores me so for the past few weeks I've had to do all the work."

"Well," Albus thought for a second. "Why don't you make Scorpius do the essay instead? I actually think he'd happy to have something to do other than hang around with his girlfriend who keeps on complaining."

Rose bit her lip. Albus understood.

"You're doing it on your own because you think he might mess it up?"

Rose sighed. "Well, I have been doing all the work, so I know what to write. And I don't want to loose anymore marks. If I do the essay well enough, it might make up for the fact that I'm not working with him."

Albus chuckled. "Alright, I'll see you in a bit. Oh! Rose." Albus stood in excitement "Teddy said that he'll be teaching the patronus charm in defence against the dark arts after Christmas!"

"I have my defence classes with Ravenclaw."

"Yeah, but I'm still excited, aren't you?"

Rose smiled. In truth she was excited, she had spent many nights pouring over the few pages in her text book that wrote about it.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Rose's birthday had been and gone, it had been great. She stuck to her word and when her family sat in a circle in the Gryffindor common room, Dominique and Louis had made sure that Lunette went with them.

Holly Buchan's bag was still hopping and it would only take her a few hours to find out why.

Scorpius had just finished quidditch practise and was walking back to the castle with Albus. Holly had been watching the practise, but only so that she could sit beside Albus. Buchan was trying to catch up with them but her bag kept on trying to get away from her and bounced off of her.

"Albus! Wait for me!"

Albus groaned, Scorpius rolled his eyes but they kept on walking at their usual pace.

"Please, please, dump her." Albus muttered. "I don't think I can stand it for much longer."

"I know what you mean. I was going to a week ago-"

"What happened? Why didn't you?"

"I couldn't. She wouldn't let me speak, she kept on whining about her bag. I've tried to fix it on multiple occasions but nothing sees to work."

"What in the name of-?" Albus strolled off towards the greenhouses and Scorpius followed.

Longbottom waving his wand around like a mad man.

"Sir? What's going on?" Scorpius asked. "Is it those toadstools again?"

"Hello there." Longbottom smiled and waved. "Yeah, two of them ran away about a month ago. The weather is fine today so I thought I'd look again."

"Er, ok sir. We'll see you on Monday for class, then, I guess." Albus said slowly.

"Right you are." Longbottom wasn't really listening as he was waving his wand around again.

Holly ran towards Albus and Scorpius had been. "What did they want?" she demanded.

Longbottom didn't hear.

Holly rolled her eyes and almost shouted. "Sir! What did they want?"

"Miss Buchan, that is no way to speak to a member of staff!" Longbottom snapped. "Now, can you see any leaping toadstools around your feet? Two of them hopped away a couple of weeks ago, now I'm pretty sure one is one the roof again." he grumbled to himself.

Holly's bag jumped again, she tried to chase it around the greenhouse but Longbottom made a dive for it.

"What have you done to your bag?" Longbottom asked suspiciously.

Holly growled. "I didn't do anything, someone else did."

Her bag jumped again, but this time it made a loud pop.

Out jumped a leaping toadstool.

"Young lady, I could give you a detention for stealing supplies- hang on," he looked closer at the foot of the toadstool. "Someone used a semi-permanent sticking charm on him." Longbottom laughed. "You students and your antics never cease to amuse me." He passed Holly back her bag. "You'll be wanting this."

"When I find out who did this..." Holly spat as she stormed angrily off to the castle.

Rose had been listening around the corner and saw her chance.

"Hello sir." She waved to Longbottom.

"Ah! Rose, I need your help, I think my bucket full of leaping toadstools has hopped off towards the castle, do you mind fetching it for me?"

"Or course sir." Rose almost skipped away and found the bucket just inside the main entrance. Holly was walking along the corridor just above and was getting closer to the stairs. Rose spotted who she needed.

"Malfoy!" Rose ran and smacked into Scorpius, they both toppled over, Rose landing on top of him. Rose had been carrying something hard, heavy and cold and it had hit his knee. A few people laughed. "You know you owe me?" She said quickly.

Scorpius stood and dusted himself off.

"I helped you with that charm last year and now you owe me, right?" she was speaking even quicker and kept on glancing over her shoulder.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "I guess." This was the first thing he had said to her in a couple of weeks.

"Good." Rose almost smiled. "Hold this for a few minutes then give it to professor Longbottom." She shoved, with much force, a tin bucket at his chest, then she ran off again skidding around the corner.

Scorpius, still in mild pain, looked down at the bucket which was full of leaping toadstools. He scowled in confusion but stuck to his word and held onto in. Albus peered over his shoulder.

"What in Merlin's name is this for?" Albus was just as confused as Scorpius.

"I have no-" He didn't finish. Someone was screaming at him from the top of the stairs.

"YOU!"

It was Holly Buchan.

"HOW DARE YOU HUMILIATED ME LIKE THAT! WE ARE THROUGH MALFOY!" and she stormed off to the Slytherin common room. Her friends trailing behind her, trying to comfort her. Except for Mae Blinston who was grinning from ear to ear. She blew a kiss at Scorpius, flicked her hair and skipped after her friends.

Scorpius stood stunned for a few moments and then turned to Albus, still holding the bucket.

"What just happened?"

Albus shrugged.

"This is kind of good right?" Scorpius asked weakly.

"I think so."

They sighed and said together. "No more Holly."

NOVEMBER

Scorpius was still slightly confused as to what had happened with Holly, but Albus advised him against thinking too much.

"Seriously, if you go down that road, I don't think you'll like what you find."

Scorpius and Rose were back to arguing and hexing each other in the corridors, yet no one, except Lunette and Lily, knew why Rose couldn't help but smile as she walked away, even with buck teeth or a book that bites.

One day after Albus's birthday, he and Scorpius were in the library trying to complete a muggle studies essay. Lunette and her boyfriend, Elliot Macmillan were sitting quietly near them doing their own homework. Albus kept on glancing at her, she didn't seem upset but she was definitely not her usual self.

As Lunette was writing, Elliot looked up at her and stared with narrowed eyes as if he were sizing her up. They had been dating for almost a month.

Lunette noticed Elliot staring and gave him a small smile. Elliot did not return it. Lunette frowned but brushed it off by standing to get a book. Elliot followed her and gently led her out of the library. Albus heard him say.

"-talk for just a second."

Albus frowned at the back of Elliot's head.

"Well that can't be good." Scorpius mumbled.

Albus leant closer to Scorpius and whispered. "Why do guys keep on breaking up with her? I mean, was is it about her that they don't like? She kind, funny, pretty, hardworking, a talented seeker and she's a metamorphmagus! Am I the only one who thinks that's awesome?"

"Well, she doesn't really show or tell people. But you're right, it is pretty cool."

Lunette angrily burst into the library, scooped up her books and marched out again. Before she stepped through the doors, she stopped herself, took a deep breath and calmly made her way back to her common room.

"Well that really can't be good." Scorpius remarked as they both watched Lunette leave.

Albus stood quickly and followed her without a word to Scorpius, but he knew what was going on.

Lunette thought her heard someone following close behind her, she took a sharp left and pressed herself flat against the wall. Albus came around the corner as Lunette stuck her foot for her follower to trip on. Albus fell face first on the floor.

"Ow." groaned Albus as he sat up a little and rubbed his nose.

Lunette crouched down beside him and helped him sit up properly against the wall. "Sorry, I thought it was someone else following me."

"Who did you think it was?"

Lunette shrugged. "There's some Slytherin in the year below who bullies everyone and I really don't want to run into him right now."

"But why did you trip me?"

Lunette again shrugged. Albus chuckled.

"You've been spending too much time with Rose. So how are you?"

she raised her eyebrows. "I'm assuming you figured out what happened with Macmillan."

"No longer on a first name basis?"

"You could say that."

"Why? I just don't get it. Any guy would be lucky to date you, so why are these ungrateful guys dumping you?"

"You really don't want to know." Lunette said with a sigh and stared at the floor. "You're my friend Albus, I don't want you to think any less of me."

Albus gently lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "There's nothing you could ever say that would make me think ill of you."

Lunette's hands became hot and her cheeks turned red. She quickly stood up. "Good night Albus." she sounded slightly flustered but Albus assumed she was upset about Elliot Macmillan.

Scorpius piled up his and Albus's books and carried them all back to their dormitory. The books were partially obstructing his vision, but as it was almost curfew and try few students were in the corridors, he wasn't worried about knocking into someone.

This was a silly assumption.

Rose was on prefect duty and walked right into Scorpius. Books flew everywhere. They were both quick enough to cast a freezing charm on the books at the same time, they hung in the air. Rose and Scorpius both held in a smile. Their similarities were sometimes very obvious but they were enemies now and did not want to acknowledge any common factors. Rose stood up and brushed off her robes.

Scorpius kneeled grabbed all the books the stood watching Rose expectantly.

"What?"

He raised his eyebrows. "No apology Weasley? You just pushed over a fellow student. tut tut. As a prefect, you should be setting an example." Scorpius grinned slyly.

Rose took a deep breath, she was not going to shout at him, that's what he wanted. She stuck a hand to help him up and put on a sarcastic sickly sweet voice. "Naww, you poor boy. Let me help you up. We wouldn't want the innocent little rich boy getting his robes dirty now would we?"

Scorpius gripped her hand too hard as she pulled him up. But she ignored it and continued. "Now, that stack of books looks to heavy for a delicate flower like yourself, your noodle arms must me tired. Do you want me to carry some of them all the way down to the dungeons?"

Scorpius winked "I'm fine thanks Weasley, I'm a big boy now. I can do it all by myself."

"Well done Malfoy!"

Rose's ears suddenly turned pink as she realised that Scorpius was still holding her hand. She dropped it like a hot potato and they both looked anywhere but at each other. Wesley McLaggen was coming around the corner. He frowned at the awkward pair.

"Why is it that whenever the corridors are empty and it's almost past curfew, I find you guys together and not arguing?" He asked suspiciously

"Mind your own business McLaggen." Scorpius growled, he finally looked at Rose who was staring at an empty wall. For some reason he wanted to see her blush at the ears again. He was irritated at himself for thinking along these lines. "And you never know, we might be secretly snogging and you've just interrupted us."

He got what he wanted, Rose's ears were bright red.

"McLaggen, hold his books."

Wesley hesitated.

"Now." she said more forcefully and Wesley quickly took the stack of books out of Scorpius's arms. Rose kicked Scorpius in the crotch and he almost crumpled to the floor.

Still groaning, Scorpius found his stack of books being handed back to him as he watched Rose storm off with McLaggen following her.

Once back in his dormitory, Scorpius found Albus banging his head repeatedly against the bedpost. This wasn't an unusual sight so Scorpius simply went about separating their books, putting his away and trying to find his pyjamas. He was tucked into bed when he talked to Albus.

"Lunette again?" he guessed.

Albus nodded then flopped head first onto his bed. "I'm stuck in the friend zone for all of eternity. The universe hates me."

"Nope."

"Yes it does."

"Maybe Lunette just isn't the one for you. I mean, she's only the first girl you've really had a crush on."

"She's the first girl I've ever told anyone that I've had a crush on."

Scorpius's brows knit together in confusion, so did Albus's

"That made more sense in my head."

Scorpius smiled.

"Look, Scorpius, I don't really tell anyone if I have a crush on someone. But I know what a crush is and I know that Lunette is different."

Scorpius sighed and snuggled into his bed. "Alright, if you say so. I believe you mate."

"Thanks." Albus got under his covers.

"Um, Albus, you're still in your robes."

Albus let out a long and suffering groan. "Today I have decided to sleep in my robes."

"Can't be bothered to change?"

"There is literally no will power to get up and change."

Scorpius laughed and rolled over. He stared at the ceiling, his hand still felt slightly warm from when Rose had held it.

"So you're secretly dating Malfoy?" Wesley laughed as he and Rose walked back to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"No you idiot, he just said that to piss me off."

"Yeah, sure." Wesley scoffed incredulously.

Rose punched him in the arm.

"Merlin! That actually hurt!"

"That's because it was meant to. Don't piss me off McLaggen." Rose marched into the common room leaving Wesley to whimper and rub his hurt arm.

Once inside, Rose spotted James slumped on an armchair, he was completely alone.

He sat up and looked between Rose and Wesley.

"You punched him?" he guessed.

Rose nodded and Wesley rubbed his arm again.

"That's my girl." he grinned at Rose.

Wesley sulked up to his dormitory and Rose sat beside James. She was silent for a while and watched him as he fiddled with the corner of a cushion.

"Why are you up so late, why are you feeling depressed and where's Lorcan?" Rose finally spoke.

James sighed. "Am I that obvious."

Rose gave a encouraging smile. "You're my cousin, I know you well."

"Do you remember Lucile? Well, she's going out with some Ravenclaw guy. She's the only girl I've dated more than once."

Rose's eyes narrowed as she sized him up. "You really liked her don't you?"

"Yep, I was like some love-sick fool. She didn't feel the same way and she hated all my pranks. She called them childish."

"Well you are in sixth year."

"I know, but it's fun. And I hate to sound bigheaded, but me and Lorcan are legends now. Up with those like the Marauders and Uncle Fred and George."

Rose had no idea what to say.

"No pearls of wisdom?" James raised his eyebrows.

"If you want that go to Dom or Lucy, I've got nothing." Rose shrugged. "But, I know what it's like to have someone you like beyond all reason and despite everything, go out with someone else. Merlin, even Albus knows what that's like."

"Really? Al has experienced this? My little brother has a love life?"

"I wouldn't say that. But he has experienced this heart shattering, gut punching pain a few times. And even now he's going through it. You should talk to him, neither of you may be able to help each other, but at least you understand each other's pain."

James nodded. "Any other of our cousins having love life problems? Or is it just me and Al?"

Rose thought for a second. "I know there might be something going on between Roxanne and the Ravenclaw quidditch captain."

"Oh, Mosi Smith? I love that guy, he's pretty badass." James chuckled. "He's one of the guys that Roxanne and Dom hang around with. I think it's pretty obvious when a guy likes a girl."

"Umm, no it isn't."

"Umm, yes it is." James imitated her tone. "Like when that Hufflepuff guy liked you, that was overly obvious and that other guy kept on trying to defend you from Malfoy. Ooh! And Malfoy keeps on hexing you."

"Malfoy hates me and I hate him."

"You can keep on saying to yourselves, but I don't believe it." He stood and didn't allow Rose a chance to argue with him. "I will say this though, he is very good at hiding his feelings from everyone else. I mean the majority of students think you truly do hate each other." and he quickly disappeared up to his dormitory before Rose could correct him.

Rose rolled her eyes and went to bed. she rolled over and stared at the stars. She couldn't help but think about what James had said.

DECEMBER

It was a Hogsmeade weekend and Rose wasn't sure that she wanted to go. Phil and Mel would not be there as they had both been given detentions for not completing their history essays despite Rose telling them repeatedly that they had to get a move on and start them, she had even offered to help. But Phil and Mel had both developed crushes on Wesley McLaggen and Grant Hathaway.

The only person who managed to pull Rose out of the library, away from a book about planning revision and make her put on a coat gloves scarf and hat was Lunette.

"Oh, come on Rose, it's our last Hogsmeade weekend this year! We have to go. Besides, my Hufflepuff friends won't stop asking me why Elliot broke up with me so I need to get away from them for the day."

Rose sighed. "Fine then. I'll see you later Katie." She waved the Katie Webb, she was a Ravenclaw girl who seemed to always be in the library and Rose often joined her to study. She didn't talk very much and she was always ready to help, she and Rose got along well.

"And I haven't had much time to hang out with you either! What with my quidditch practise and you stressing over O. which aren't for quite a few months."

"I said fine! I'll go. Just let me grab my coat."

Rose ran up to her dormitory while Lunette leaned against the wall beside the portrait, smiling smugly. The portrait of the fat lady started talking to Lunette and they both got along quite well.

Rose and Lunette shuffled in the snow until they reached the wizard town. Lunette suggested the Three Broomsticks to get out of the cold and Rose readily agreed. Lunette spotted Albus and Scorpius in the corner of the inn and dragged Rose over to them. Scorpius and Rose scowled at each other as Rose cautiously sat beside Lunette.

"Well, this is nice! I was just telling Rose that I haven't spent enough time with my best friends recently." Lunette grinned hugging her hot chocolate.

"You consider us your best friends?" Scorpius forgot Rose was there briefly.

"Definitely." Lunette wrapped one arm around Rose's shoulders. "You three were the first friends I ever had in England. Some people in my old school thought I was strange because of being a Metamorphmagus, even my friends only hung out with me with the condition that I didn't change. I know you won't repeat that to anyone, I trust you. Thank you so much for accepting me."

She smiled sweetly at them and raised her mug. "Rose, you're the greatest friend I've ever had, Albus you're the sweetest friend I've ever had, and Scorpius, I don't know you very well but I like you."

"It's not your fault you don't know him very well." Rose muttered.

"Oh shut it Weasley, just because you're so quick to judge-" Scorpius growled

"How dare you!" Rose interrupted. "I tried didn't I? You don't exactly make it easy-"

"Well maybe I didn't want you hanging around-"

"Well maybe that's the one thing I do know about you! I was just spare luggage that you couldn't wait to throw-"

"You always just assume the worst of people!"

"Well I wasn't wrong about you!"

"Are you asking me to hex you or something?!" Scorpius stood

"You know full well that I could do a lot more damage-" Rose pushed out her chair and stared him dead in the eyes

"Ugh! You're such a pillock Weasley!"

"Oh, says the gormless twat!"

"Prat!"

"Bell end!"

"Daft tosser!"

"Areshole!"

"Woah!" Lunette grabbed the shoulders of both Scorpius and Rose, making them both stop arguing. "I thought you guys used to be friends! Please, just for now, can you stop arguing?" she looked between them both. "Please, for me?"

Rose sighed. "Of course Lunette. For you and only you." Rose took a long sip from her butterbeer, glaring at Scorpius.

"Sure, and I would love to get to know you better." Scorpius nodded at Rose.

Their usual truce seemed to have been called. They spoke to Albus and Lunette, but that was it.

Lucy and Fred walked past the Three Broomsticks. Lucy had her head stuck in a checklist of things to do as for Head Girl duties but she noticed when Fred, her cousin and best friend, had stopped walking beside her and was peering into the inn.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked him.

"Shhh." Fred beckoned her over to look through the window. "Is that Rose and Malfoy sitting at a table together and not arguing?"

Lucy squinted. "I believe you're right. You know, Molly will love this." Lucy wrote a small note on her parchment.

"Why's that?"

"She always liked Malfoy. When the rest of us kind of stopped talking to him because of his spat with Rose, Molly still talks to him."

"Molly always sees the good in people. And does Lunette Tinker, I think. Look, she's in there with them. She must be the one holding the peace."

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

It was Christmas morning at the Burrow and everybody was awake. Most of the grandchildren were scattered around while the parents and grandparents were helping with the cooking and cleaning. Grandma Molly Weasley was bustling in the kitchen and attempting to get her pregnant granddaughter, Victoire (the eldest daughter of Bill and Fluer) to sit down and relax.

"Teddy!" the older Molly Weasley shouted for Teddy Lupin, the husband of Victoire and the godson of Harry.

"Yes Mrs Weasley?" Teddy had been flying above the house and he swooped down to hover by the open back door.

"Please help me to convince Victoire to sit down. She keeps on offering to do the carrots and won't take no for an answer!"

Teddy grinned at Victoire who was sneaking chopped carrots off the pile Mrs Weasley had been making. "Something tells me she's not trying to help."

Mrs Weasley spun around and caught Victoire with a handful of carrots. Victoire grinned and spoke with an innocent tone. "You know what, maybe I will go and have sit down in the next room."

Mrs Weasley chuckled and shooed her off, Teddy helped his wife off the chair and into the living room.

Rose, Louis and Albus were getting rid of gnomes in the back garden.

Lucy and Fred had been reading a book but stopped to chat to Teddy and Victoire as they sat opposite her. Dominique and Roxanne were playing exploding snap dragon. Ron was playing chess with his son. James and Lily were racing around on their new brooms with Ginny.

George and his wife Angelina were given the duty of shovelling the garden path but were more interested in charming snowballs to hit each other and occasionally Ginny if she flew too near them. Hermione, her father, Harry and Bill were helping Mrs Weasley in the kitchen. Mr Weasley was cleaning the hallways with Charlie, Fleur and his granddaughter Molly.

Rose grabbed another gnome by it's ankles and started swinging it in circles as she spoke. "So, do either of you know why grandma is making us clean up so much?" She let go of the grouchy gnome and he flew over the hedge. "I mean, I know we de-gnome all the time and I know grandma always cooks too much, but today she's cooking more than usual and for some reason she's making granddad Weasley clean the hallways. When do we ever clean hallways?"

Louis shrugged. "I know what you mean, when I went in earlier she dumped a cold wet cloth on my face because a had a tiny smudge of mud on my nose. That's when Victoire couldn't stop laughing."

Albus grinned. "You know, it's not just grandma, I think Aunt Hermione is a bit nervous. Her hair isn't as fluffy today."

Rose chuckled. "She tried to use Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, but these days her hair needs a lot more than it used to. She kind of gave up because we were running late."

Albus and Louis frowned.

"You were the first to arrive!" Louis said as he picked up another gnome. Albus laughed and dropped the gnome he was holding, it ran back to it's hole but popped it's head up straight away.

"How thick could you get?" said Rose is disbelief as she grabbed a gnome who was running straight at her.

There were only a few gnomes left when the three of them heard a loud pop and then excited voices. The three of them sent each other confused faces, they saw Ginny land and walk back to the house while James and Lily landed beside Albus.

"What's going on?" Lily asked.

"I think there's someone here." James said. "Did you hear that faint pop? Well, they told us in apparition classes that that's the noise you make when you're actually successful."

The five of them sneaked up to the kitchen window to peer inside. Whoever had just arrived were not in there anymore.

"Must be in the living room." Louis whispered to his cousins.

They began crawling to the living room window when Rose suddenly stood up.

"Well this is stupid. Let's just go in!" she rolled her eyes and marched to the back door.

Louis, Lily, James and Albus looked at each other and shrugged before running off after her.

"Why is she always the voice of reason?" Albus groaned. "Can't she ever, just for once, be wrong about something."

"Well if she's ever wrong, we'll know it's an imposter." said a soft voice coming from the living room door.

They sharply turned to their left and saw Lunette standing there, smiling brightly at them. Her hair was green and had red and gold stripes throughout. She wore a yellow top with a big silver bow on it, a long blue coat and grey jeans tucked into blue boots, one with yellow laces and the other with silver laces.

Albus had lost all ability to speak at the sight of her. Lily gave her a hug while James and Rose gave her pats on the back.

"So how come you're here?" Lily asked excitedly.

"Well, my grandparents in France are having an argument at the moment. Last time we visited during an argument, the house almost burnt down. But luckily back then we were still living in France and we ran home. We were going to spend Christmas just the three of us but Mrs Granger-Weasley introduced my parents to your grandparents and we were invited for Christmas day."

"I wish you all the luck in the world." Said James rolling his eyes. "We're all mad here."

Rose grinned at him.

"What?" James looked suspiciously at Rose, then groaned. "Oh no, did I just quote something without realising again?!"

Rose's grin grew wider. "Yep, the Cheshire Cat tells Alice that 'we're all mad here'. I used to read Alice in Wonderland every summer," she suddenly frowned. "but then Hugo lost it."

Lily's eyes narrowed, she knew the truth was that Hugo had given it to Scorpius.

"Hey Albus." Lunette gave a small wave and smiled sweetly at him.

"Er-er-um-h-h." was the only nice that came out of his mouth.

Louis started to giggle so James dragged him and Lily out of the room.

Albus coughed and managed a complete sentence. "How long are you staying?"

"Well, my parents are going home tonight, but" she turned to face Rose, "Your Mrs Granger-Weasley said that if you don't mind me staying in your room, I can stay at Rose's house until the 27th."

Rose's eyes widened with excitement. "That would be so much fun! I never really had sleepovers, when I was at muggle primary school nobody was allowed to come over just incase they saw something and now I'm at Hogwarts I pretty much have sleepovers with my Gryffindor friends every night."

"So will you be visiting Rose's house?" Lunette asked Albus.

"Well, actually, Boxing Day I usually visit Scorpius."

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Oh, well then we better spend as much time together today!" Lunette linked arms with Albus and Rose. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, the garden still needs de-gnomeing." Rose winced.

"Gnomes! I missed out on doing those, you guys did them in first year right?"

Albus shrugged. "I think so."

"This is exciting." Lunette grinned and made her way outside.

Albus and Rose looked at each other and spoke at the same time. "Is it?"

Albus was about to run after Lunette but Rose grabbed his arm. "You're loving this."

"Aren't you? One of our best friends is here."

Rose smiled. "You know what, I think grandma might want me to help her with something else, you go ahead and deal with the gnomes, Lunette will happily help."

Albus knew what she was up to, "Rose, we're just friends."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You like her a great deal more than that, and now she's single."

"No Rose, I can't. I love being her friend-"

"But not as much as you love her."

Albus slumped on the nearest chair and hit his forehead on the table. "I can't Rose, I can't ask her out. I'll risk losing her as a friend. I'd rather suffer in silence then to not speak to her at all because I opened up about how I feel. Besides, I'm only sixteen, I don't know what love is."

"Well, neither do I. But I'm pretty sure this is it." Rose put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Al, you do what you think is right. Sorry, I just really think that you guys would make each other happy. Like Mr Bingley and Jane Bennet."

Albus sat up and squinted. "Book characters again?"

"Yep, Pride and Prejudice. They are both very agreeable characters and, as Mr Bennet says, 'I have not a doubt of your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income'."

Albus rolled his eyes. "You need to stop reading so much."

Rose scoffed and said sarcastically. "Fat chance of that ever happening."

Albus joined Lunette in the freezing cold to rid of gnomes while Rose was put on messenger/spy duty. Her grandma wanted to know that everybody was doing what they were asked to do and that they were doing it properly. Rose took great pleasure in getting James told of nearly every five minutes and Victoire was told off every now and then because she was trying to help her Aunt Ginny mend an old clock.

After dinner, Rose and Albus would normally sneak out and hangout in the garden, but she couldn't find him anywhere. Rose plopped down on the sofa beside Teddy and smiled at him.

"So, professor Lupin, apparently we're doing patronuses when we get back."

"Don't call me professor when we're not at school. Come one Rose, I've known you since you were born. I was even allowed to babysit you once."

Rose chuckled. "Yeah, once."

"Yeah, I think I taught you the word 'mine'. Your mum was not impressed."

"Anyway, Teddy, do you have any tips for creating a patronus?"

He thought for a while before answering. "The key to a patronus is a good happy memory, I would suggest you spend a while really thinking about it."

"Thanks-"

"Rose!" Albus called from outside. "Come on, we've been waiting for ages."

Rose quickly stood. "See ya Teddy!"

She ran outside and grabbed a broom out of the shed. She couldn't see Albus or Lunette and decided to circle the house a few times. No one could see her as she kept out of view of the windows. At last she spotted them sitting in a tree watching her. Rose rolled her eyes and went soaring towards them. Suddenly something came flying in her direction, Rose tried to grab it but the charmed snowball melted in her hand. She frowned with confusion but continued to make her way towards the tree. This time multiple balls, not snowballs this time, came flying her way. She caught a few one handed, hit some of them away from her using both her arms and the end of her broom and even managed to throw most of them back at the tree. None of them went passed her, she hit or caught every single one.

When the throwing finally stopped, Rose landed by the base of the tree and climbed up to join Lunette and Albus.

"What in Merlin's name was that for?" Rose snugly wedged herself between two branches.

"Why aren't you on the quidditch team?" Lunette was shocked.

Rose shrugged.

"Please Rose, promise me something. Promise me that next year you will, at least, tryout for keeper."

"But James is the quidditch captain, I don't want to get a place on the team simply because he's my cousin."

Lunette raised her eyebrows. "Seriously Rose, after what we just saw, there is no way that anybody could question why you were put on the team. In fact, you're normally so clumsy, most people would probably not believe how well you handle a broom."

Rose sighed. She turned to Albus. "Did you put her up to this?"

Albus grinned. "She didn't believe Hugo when he said that you have never fallen off a broom. It was Lily's idea to throw stuff at you."

Rose scowled. "Where are those two now? I'd like to give them a piece of my mind."

"Hugo thought you would say that, so they decided to stay inside so you couldn't blame them." Lunette explained.

"And Lily said, that if you tell them off, Hugo will tell everybody that you're good at quidditch and embarrass you by making you fly in front of everybody." Albus grinned.

"Fine." she said grumpily. "Sixth year, I promise I will tryout for keeper."

"Yay! The powers of peer pressure." Lunette laughed and they joined in.

JANUARY

"Today, we move on to patronuses, something I'm sure many of you are excited for." professor Lupin announced to his Gryffindor and Ravenclaw class.

Excited gasps and whispers filled the room.

"Alright! Settle down. This very advanced magic and probably one of the hardest charms you will ever face. A patronus is a kind of positive force and, for the wizard or witch who can conjure one, it becomes like a shield or a messenger. It will protect you from those such as dementors. Now we spoke about these creatures last lesson, so you all know how important a patronus charm is. Everybody stand and place your belonging at the back of the class."

The class obeyed and Teddy flicked his wand a few ties making the desks and chairs fly to sides and leave a space in the middle of the room.

"For now I want silence except for the muttering of the patronus incantation which is expecto patronum."

There were mutters around the room as the students copied the words.

"Do not try to conjure it yet. For this to work I would like you to get into your own space, away from any distracting people. And on you're own you need to think of a memory, a very happy memory, a very powerful memory. Now close your eyes," his voice became softer. "concentrate. Take your memory, allow it to fill you up, lose yourself within it and then, when you're ready, speak the incantation. Do not be too hasty. Take your time."

Deep breaths could be heard from each and every student. Mel did not quite understand and kept on opening her eyes. Lupin saw her and silently guided her out of the classroom and into his office to explain to her once more.

"Do you understand?" he whispered.

Mel nodded.

"Very good, now if you still don't, just silently come to me and I will help you."

A few Ravenclaws spoke the incantation, but nothing was happening. Rose was finding their muttering slightly disrupting. She needed to immerse herself in her happy memory. She took a deep breath and thought about going to the beach with Albus.

"Expecto patronum." she spoke at last. Nothing happened, she could feel in her wand that nothing had happened. She opened her eyes to see that nobody had been successful yet.

"Everybody open there eyes. I didn't expect any of you to do it the first time, don't worry about that. That would have been extraordinary. As a matter or interest, does anybody want to tell me what memory they chose? You don't have to, I know that sometimes they can be quite personal."

Rose's hand shot up along with a couple of Ravenclaws.

"Yes Weasley?"

"I thought of the beach and family holidays."

"Hmm. Anyone else?"

Katie Webb answered. "When I first read a charms book knowing that I was witch."

Lupin only nodded. "Mr Leyton, what about you?"

Daniel Leyton had been whispering to his friend on the corner when Lupin had asked him.

"Oh, my first date with Rose." he said in mock triumph.

Rose scowled and spun on the spot with her wand out ready to hex him when Lupin jumped in the way.

"No need for that Weasley!"

Rose reluctantly lowered her wand.

"We are meant to be happy in here, one more remark like that Leyton and it will be a detention for you. Now none of these examples are good enough, not nearly good enough. These memories have to be strong."

Rose thought of a new one, closed her eyes and allowed it to fill her.

"Are we ready to try again?"

Rose muttered to incantation few times more. So did the rest of the class. Rose opened her eyes and really concentrated on herself. Lupin saw that something was happening.

"Keep trying Rose." He muttered encouragingly as he walked past her on his way to circle the room. "Say it stronger, be firm."

She took his advice and a small blueish silver ribbon that looked like smoke came from her wand. Excitement burst in her chest, something was happening.

"A full bodied patronus is the most difficult to produce, but a shield form and still be useful against a variety of opponents. Stay focussed, only then can your patronus protect you."

Students all had their eyes open now and were concentrating like never before.

Rose thought once more or her memory. "Expecto patronum." She said with more authority and out burst a fox from her wand.

"Brilliant!" Lupin exclaimed from behind her as he was helping another student.

A few other students had their patronuses burst out too.

"Don't worry if you can't do it today, I'll be available all week if anybody wants to pop in and have some help." Lupin made his way to the front of the class. "Everyone to the back of the class please." Once they all obeyed her moved the desks and chairs back for them to sit and listen him for the last couple of minutes of class. "Weasley, you were the first to produce a patronus. For those who didn't see it, can you tell us what animal it was?"

"A fox, sir."

Lupin smiled. "And what was the memory you used?"

Rose's ears turned red and she stared at the desk.

"No worries, sometimes these happy memories can be personal and we must respect each other's privacy." He picked up a book from his desk and flicked through the pages. "This is a muggle book I found very useful, it lists characteristics and facts about animals. Ah, here we go, the fox. Wisdom, intelligence, adaptability, calm, mysterious, prone to stand out and mischievous." he grinned at Rose.

The patronus class with Slytherin and Hufflepuff followed along the same lines.

"Malfoy, concentrate harder! More authority in your voice!" Lupin could see wisps coming from Scorpius's wand.

Within moments of a raven soaring out of Scorpius's wand, a rabbit popped out of Lunettes. While the raven soared above the heads of all the students, the rabbit hopped in circles around Lunette's head twice before it bounced off to Albus and jumped through his legs. Albus and Lunette laughed together at the funny little patronus.

"Now Potter!" Lupin saw how happy Albus was a knew that if he could just concentrate for a few moments, the patronus charm would succeed.

Albus nodded, took one quick look at Lunette who was still grinning at the rabbit now chasing her wand, and muttered to himself the incantation. What looked like a small stripy horse, just shorter than Albus himself came bursting forth.

Lupin clapped and laughed in astonishment. "A zebra! Well never have I seen a zebra patronus. Potter, as always, you are full of surprises."

THE NEXT DAY

Scorpius couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Would you please just put that book down for a few minutes? I'm trying to eat my lunch here."

He watched as Albus ignored him and turned yet another page.

Scorpius sighed. "I never thought I would be saying those words to you."

"Well listen to this, a zebra's stripes act like fingerprint, each individual's pattern is unique. Foals recognise their mothers by the pattern of their stripes, as well as by scent and call. Interesting, does this mean that I'm unique?"

"Very." Scorpius mumbled and slammed the book for him.

"Rose!" Albus spotted his cousin leaving the hall and beckoned her over.

"What is it Al? Are you ok?"

"What was your patronus?"

She beamed as she answered. "A fox."

Scorpius scoffed. "Typical."

Rose scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"You're a loner." Scorpius said disinterestedly.

"Just because I don't like you, doesn't mean that I don't like everybody else." she retorted.

"Here it is! Foxes show great caring, adaptability and intelligence when raising their young, they protect their families with surprising loyalty. Ooh, did you know that in May 2009, a fox pup was caught in a trap in for two weeks, but survived because its mother brought it food every day. Foxes are known to be friendly and curious."

Rose gave a smug huff in Scorpius's direction, then turned to Albus. "What are you reading?"

"That muggle animal book Teddy- professor Lupin was reading. He leant it to me. Did you know that rabbits are a symbol of self sacrifice, humility and luck and are often playful. Mother rabbits in the wild spend only a few moments each day with their babies in order to avoid drawing attention to them from predators. The babies grow quickly and continue to live together as a family. Isn't that sweet?"

Rose's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who has a rabbit patronus?"

"Lunette." Albus replied dreamily.

"I thought as much." Roses nodded and grinned. "Well I'm off to-"

"Ravens are a symbol of creation and destruction, wisdom through intelligence, observation and challenge. Despite their mischievous nature, ravens seem capable of feeling empathy. They remember birds they like and will respond in a friendly way to certain birds for at least three years after seeing them. Although a flock of ravens is called an 'unkindness,' the birds appear to be anything but." Albus looked up at Rose's confused face. "Scorpius has a raven patronus. Hmm, foxes and ravens don't seem that different." he grinned "Funny that."

Scorpius finally looked at Albus and scowled before he realised that Rose had the same expression.

"Both intelligent, often alone, symbol of wisdom, mischief and loyalty." Albus continued.

Rose and Scorpius started defending themselves by shouting at Albus over one another, insisting that they weren't alike.

Albus folded his arms and laughed at them both. "And zebras can be seen as capable, have the ability look at opposing viewpoints and to work through problems. That's probably how I managed to stay friends with both of you at the same time."

Rose's eyes widened with excitement. "Your patronus is a zebra?!"

Albus nodded.

"That's so cool! You have to show me some time, but right now I've got magical creatures class to go to."

"That doesn't start for ages." Scorpius muttered.

"Actually, arsehole, it starts in about five minutes and I know that it takes awhile to get down to the forbidden forest."

Scorpius hurriedly scooped up his belongings and ran out of the hall.

Rose scoffed and strolled off in the same direction, sending a tripping charm at Scorpius. Albus laughed and started eating his toast which was cold as he had left it for too long.

"Albus!" Lunette plonked herself next to him and grinned. "You've got a free period too?"

Albus's eyes widened at the sight of her and spoke with his mouthful. "Yeah I do, do you have a free period?" Albus realised how silly he sounded just moments later.

"Umm, well yes." Lunette said in an awkward and uncertain tone. "I just asked if you had one too, I assumed that you understood that I was implying that I also-"

Albus closed his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, no, I got that. I was just-" he shrugged. "I'm- oh, ugh- sorry." His cheeks were getting reder.

Anna Gardener, a Gryffindor who shared a dormitory with Rose, was strutting past but stopped as soon as she saw a very embarrassed Albus. She scowled at the presence of Lunette. Anna had had a crush on Albus for a long time, it was never anything serious but she did enjoy flirting with him even if he never picked up on any of her hints.

"What have you done to him?" Anna demanded, storming up to Lunette. "You're such a tease Lunette, you flirt with Potter and then you go out with a hundred other guys! And I bet you think you can get away with it because you think you're so pretty and you think you're so great. Well most girls don't even like you! You just date all the good guys and then drop them after a week or two! Leave Potter alone. You don't deserve him!"

"Anna, you're being rude! First of all, my friendship with Lunette is none of your buisness and second of all, how dare you say that to her! You're simply in a bad mood today, we all know that Earls broke up with Robin and now she's grumpy and that's making you grumpy. Just because Robin is making you feel crappy, doesn't mean you can take it out on Lunette." Albus was standing now. "She's a great person and an amazing friend, lots of people love her and she doesn't deserve this sort of abuse-"

"Albus, I can't stand up for myself." Lunette stood and pushed him back into his seat. "But he is right, my life is none of your business! You seem to hate me because I'm friends with Rose who you claim to have stolen your best friends even though they say that you pushed them away. And you hate me because you're just jealous, Albus hasn't taken a second glance at you in the last five years and now I'm here and within minutes of knowing him, he's one of my best friends." Lunette was stern.

Anna scoffed. "Jealous? Of you?! Are you kidding me?! How could I be jealous of some stuck up tart who won't even accept a sweet guy trying to stand up for her. Albus was being nice and you just shot him down-"

"What did you just call her?!" James had heard the argument all that way from the Gryffindor table and had made his way behind Anna. "I'll have you know, that I look out for my family. Now Lunette may not be technically related, but she's close enough to all of my cousins that she might as well be. So you better leave he alone."

Roxanne, Dominique and Lorcan had appeared behind James with crossed arms and hard faces. Anna backed off slightly.

"There's nothing wrong with Lunette standing up for herself and dating the occasional guy, it does not warrant you the right to call her a tart or a tease."

"And don't you dare go spreading any sort of nasty things about our family." Dom warned.

Lunette smiled gratefully at them then turned to Albus who was swelling with pride at the sight of his cousins and brother calling Lunette family. Anna scowled and strutted off. Lunette sighed and gave a grateful nod to James, Dom, Lorcan and Roxanne. She turned to Albus.

"Do you want to do some studying in the library?"

"Oh, sure." Albus readily agreed.

Once in the library, Sulli Earls was smiling at Lunette. She got up to retrieve a book and Albus watched Earls take his chance to talk to her. Lunette smiled and spoke lightly, obviously flattered by his flirting. Albus knew very little about Sulli, but he didn't have a bad reputation of mistreating girls or getting into trouble. He hung around with the two biggest flirts in Gryffindor, (excluding James and Lorcan) Grant Hathaway and Wesely McLaggen. Sulli was an average student who didn't stand out in anything, but he seemed nice enough. As he watched Sulli chatting up Lunette, Albus could imagine Earls making Lunette very happy and perhaps this relationship would last longer and he would have time to get over her. Not that he thought ever getting over Lunette was possible, but it was marginally easier when she wasn't single.

Lunette giggled, Albus couldn't watch them anymore. He sighed and tried to concentrate on his muggle studies book but something caught his eye. Lunette had been doing some sort of work for potions, he peeped over at the slip of parchment hanging out of her potions book. It read 'Additional and Advanced Work for the More Talented Witch or Wizard. O.W.L. Administrated and Approved by the Wizarding Examinations Authority.' Albus frowned in confusion and tried to pull the parchment out but the textbook flew open. Scribbled on the pages Albus saw mini notes written in elegant handwriting. Albus's dad had told him of one occasion when a student was smart enough to correct the textbook, in fact he had the honour of bearing Serverus Snape's name. Albus didn't have time to contemplate whether or not Lunette was some kind of genius as she was coming back to their desk, a wide grin on her face. Albus slammed the book shut with the parchment in the right place, Lunette didn't notice.

She sighed dreamily as she sat down. "Do you know Sullivan? Is he nice?"

Albus shrugged. "I don't know him that well, he seems alright."

"I think I like him, I noticed him in history of magic class a few weeks ago but Rose said that he was dating Felix Stirling's sister. But they've been broken up for a while now and I think he might ask me out." Lunette was positively beaming but Albus couldn't help but see a slight hesitation in her eyes. But he ignored this and thought it was probably just wishful thinking. "Do you think he will ask me out?"

Albus looked up and searched her eyes. "Well, why wouldn't he ask you out? Any sane person would. Anyone can see that you're amazing but only some have the guts to say anything." He was mostly muttering bitterly to himself about his own cowardice and fear of rejection and losing a friend.

Lunette noticed something was up. She rested her hand on his forearm gently. "Albus-"

"I mean, what is wrong with the guy who can't ask you out? I'll tell you, he's a coward who doesn't deserve you. Lunette, you're so sweet and smart and hardworking-"

"Albus, please don't!" in panic, Lunette raised her voice above a whisper and the library shooed both of them out.

Once outside the library Albus spoke again.

"Lunette, what would you say if someone you saw as only a friend asked you out?"

Lunette gulped and stared at the floor. "Umm, err, well, I don't- I think-." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't know, but I do know that I care very deeply for my friends," she finally looked him in the eye, "some I care about a great deal more than others. But I know that my friends will stay with me forever, whereas guys I'm in a relationship with normally get bored- I mean, they realise we're not compatible after a week or two. I know that when a guy dumps me, my friends will always be with me to help."

"What if they were your friend first. Like, for example, if I-"

"Albus please stop." Lunette pleaded. "Please don't finish that sentence." She dropped her books and hugged him. "You're one of my best friends Albus and I appreciate your kindness and acceptance of me."

Albus felt deflated, as if someone had plunged a knife in his heart, another in his gut and one more in the side of his head. He managed a weak smile when Lunette let go of him and nodded.

"So, where do you want to go now?" Lunette asked cheerfully. "We've both got work to do. Or we can go back to our common rooms to do work and I'll see you later?"

"I would suggest we work outside but it's been raining all week. Actually, I can walk with you to your common room and on the way I want you to explain something to me." Albus gave a smile grin. He buried his hurt, he was not going to let anything get in the way of being Lunettes friend. He didn't want to hurt her because that would bring him pain beyond anything imaginable.

Lunette narrowed her eyes with suspicion then picked up her books. "What do you need explained so badly?"

"Does 'Additional and Advanced Work for the More Talented Witch or Wizard. O.W.L. Administrated and Approved by the Wizarding Examinations Authority.' sound familiar to you."

Lunette's hair turned a very pale pink to match her embarrassed cheeks. A first year Slytherin walked past and frowned at the colour change that Lunette hadn't noticed or done on purpose. She quickly changed back to her normal multicolured highlights.

"Where did you read that?" she asked quickly.

"It was hanging out of your potions book." Albus shrugged

"Ok, but you can't tell anyone. The potions professor said that my work recently has been so good that he gave me some extra work which will secure me an O for Outstanding in my overall grade in potions, and it as it is very rare, the Ministry may notice it and I will have a better chance of getting any job I want in the future."

Albus's eyes widened. "That's amazing! You're a genius!"

"Only in potions, I'm hopeless in Herbology, just ask Rose."

"Well you're better than Rose and Scorpius combined at potions! Why aren't you shouting this proudly?!"

Lunette frowned at him. "Because shouting proudly like an arrogant prat is something you know that I would never do."

"I know that, I didn't mean literally shout. But why am I being sworn to secrecy? Why can't anybody know about your talent?"

Lunette stopped walking and faced Albus. She spoke softly and seriously. "Because Albus, I have spent a long time trying to be normal and average. Most people are good or average at most subjects apart from the occasional one which they are simply hopeless at. And most people think I'm exactly like that, average with the exception of Herbology. If Rose and Scorpius weren't always fighting, they'd still stand out because they're so smart. I was teased when I was at Beauxbatons, I was constantly teased about being a Metamorphmagus and when I moved to England I decided that I was going to be normal and not stand out."

"But, the multicoloured hair-"

"It's really not as unusual as you think. If you look, a lot of muggle girls have blue or purple hair and besides, people look at me for a few seconds and then carry on because some teenage girl with colourful hair isn't that surprising."

Albus sighed. "I just- I don't- I don't understand why you of all people would want to hide who you are. I mean, I guess your reasons add up, but I find you so fascinating and wonderful because I do think you're different from other people."

Lunette gave a small smile. "See Albus, you know me better than most."

They had arrived at the Hufflepuff common room.

"I'll see you tomorrow Albus." Lunette said gently then tapped on a specific barrel.

Albus nodded and gave a small wave. "Sure, tomorrow."

FEBRUARY

There was a bold knock on the door. Neville stuck his head out of his office, his eyes narrowed, there seemed to be no one about. So he closed the door and went back to his desk. There was a knock on the door again. Longbottom rolled his eyes and slowly made his way back to the door while shouting.

"James Sirius Potter, if this is your idea of a practical joke, I'm afraid you've run out of ideas and you need to go back to the drawing board- oh hello Rose."

"You know sir, I find it quite insulting that you could mistake me for my prat of a cousin."

Longbottom chuckled. "Well then, I'm sorry. Come on in Rose." He stepped aside to let the messy ginger girl in. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, the thing is sir-"

"We're not in class right now, you can call me uncle Neville."

Rose grinned. "Alright uncle Neville, the thing is, I'm worried. You see, our O.W.L exams are coming up in just a few weeks-"

"Few weeks! Rose, exams don't start until the end of May! You have ages. Try not worry about them now. I know you very well and I know that you study hard all year. You've never gotten lower than an E for Exceeds Expectations in any exam. I think you'll do alright. As long as you keep up with all your work and deadlines-"

"No, I mean, thank you. But the thing is," Rose stood and started pacing with worry. "I've finished all my homework and deadlines. It's saturday morning and I've got nothing to do! I've read all the books I brought with me and I've written to mum to ask her to send some more. But I won't get those until at least tomorrow morning!" Rose flopped back into the chair. "Uncle Neville, I'm worried that I have nothing to do! There must be something extra for me to do!"

"Have you asked teachers for extra work?"

"Yes! And that's why I'm here. No one will give me anymore homework. And I was going to visit Hagrid, but he's feeling ill and didn't want me catching it."

Longbottom made a mental note to check on Hagrid later that evening. "Well, I'm sorry Rose. I've got no extra work for Herbology. How about just hanging with your friends?"

"They're all doing homework because they left it until the last minute. I said I would help but Phil said that the constant hovering over her shoulder made her feel nervous and irritated."

Neville shook his head and smiled. "You remind me of your mother. Anyway, why don't you do what other normal teens do to relax? Like, playing chess or flying a broomstick."

Rose shrugged.

"Oh come on," Neville smiled encouragingly. "I heard there's a rumor going round your family that you're good on a broom."

She sghed. "Oh, I don't know." she stood and headed towards the door. "Well thanks for talking to me anyway uncle Neville."

He waved. "Anytime."

Rose was outside the quidditch pitch in just after an hour. She had managed to sneak James's broom out of the Gryffindor tower with anybody noticing. She looked around the empty grounds and sighed, her breath forming wisps in the cold February air. Rose was just about to mount the broom when she heard a mocking chuckle from the changing rooms. She recognised this sound and angrily marched over to where it had come from.

"What's wrong Malfoy? Finally looked into a mirror?" Rose grit her teeth.

"Weasley, you can't walk in a straight line sober and now you're trying to fly a broom?" Scorpius snorted. "I did not want to miss this."

"I'm not going to be underestimated by a twat like you." Rose raised her eyebrows.

"Underestimate? I estimate you'll fall flat on your face and I'll laugh my head off."

"Malfoy without a head," Rose shrugged. "Can't be a bad thing. Maybe you'll even start thinking a little bit more before you laugh at a Weasley. Every Weasley, with only a few excepts, has played quidditch at Hogwarts and have absolutely ruled at it. My aunt Ginny even played professional."

"Alright, are you up for a little challenge Weasley?" Scorpius smirked.

"I'm up for making you cry any day."

Scorpius disappeared into the changing room for a brief moment then returned holding his own broom and the chest that held the quidditch balls.

"Alright, first one to find the snitch wins."

"Deal."

Rose and Scorpius shook hands.

"What are we playing for?"

"Loser has to wear the winner's house colours all week." Scorpius suggested.

They shook hands again. It began to heavily rain, catching the snitch was going to be even harder. The snitch was released and they rushed to the pitch. Scorpius was alarmed at how quickly Rose mounted her broom and how she shot off the ground with such confidence. Only when she reached a great height, did Rose look behind her. Scorpius was still on the ground in awe of her skills.

"Oi, wanker! Give me at least a bit of a challenge." Rose laughed as she saw his worried expression.

Scorpius grit his teeth and pushed off the ground. He was not going to be beaten by some Weasley. Their individual competitiveness and determination made the two rivals race around the pitch for over ten minutes before Rose spotted the snitch. It gleamed below her, Rose dove downwards, straight after the snitch and Scorpius followed. She stretched out her arm, getting closer ad closer to the snitch as she grew nearer to the muddy ground.

"Weasley!" Scorpius shouted as he pulled up and hovered watching Rose get dangerously close to crashing.

Rose, on the other hand, knew exactly what she was doing. She clutched the snitch in her hand and, at the last minute, steered her broom upwards and elegantly flew in circles around Scorpius's head waving the snitch in his face.

Rose laughed. "Oh Malfoy, you didn't think that you would actually win did you?"

They landed beside one another as it continued to pour down with rain. Scorpius looked sharply to his left, he thought he had heard someone. Rose was off her broom and very close to Scorpius before he knew it. It was odd, his face turned a pale pink. He could smell the rain mixed with Rose's familiar scent of new parchment and freshly cut grass.

As Rose charmed Scorpius's tie, Slytherin crest, scarf and prefect badge red, she also became aware of how close they had gotten. She didn't dare to look up otherwise he might have seen that her ears were red. Rose found that she could still smell his peppermint breath and his scarf smelt of old her charms were done, Rose hopped back and slid around and almost feel into the mud but Scorpius grabbed her hand to stabalise her. Rose lightly squeezed his hand back before dropping it.

They didn't look at each other, the rain was a little lighter. Rose threw the snitch at Scorpius, he quickly caught it and they began to go their separate ways. Scorpius to the changing rooms and Rose to the castle. But a tall figure shouting at them, stopped them in their tracks. Professor Longbottom had caught them. They were in big trouble.

"This is irresponsible on both of your parts! I expect more from the top students, and prefects no less!" Longbottom shouted at Rose and Scorpius in his office, both still soaking wet from the rain.

"Sorry sir." Scorpius mumbled.

"Sorry sir, our competitiveness got the better of us. It won't happen again." Rose was mortified that she had made Longbottom shout at her.

"Let's hope so. You two have been argueing and hexing each other in the corridors for over a year now, teachers have even given up punishing you. But that is only because you do not injure yourselves or other students. But this, this incident had pushed the tolerance too far. You will both receive detentions, you will report to me every Saturday for the rest of this month at 6pm. Detention starts today. I will see you later."

The disappointment in Longbottom's tone got to both Scorpius and Rose. They both felt truly ashamed. Once out of his office, Rose and Scorpius stood and faced each other, but still refused to look one another in the eye.

"We went too far."

Rose nodded in agreement. "Our usual truce for the next week?"

"Agreed, except that we do need to speak to one another in potions."

"Agreed." Rose finally looked at him. Scorpius was just as cold and damp as she was. "You don't have to wear the Gryffindor colours."

"But that was the deal-"

Rose shook her head. "I think defacing your house crest and colours will just add to the mess we're in."

"Alright then, but you still won Weasley and I owe you something."

"No, I just want to forget this. Professor Longbottom is like an uncle to me, and to have to hear him telling me off is just bringing up too much guilt." Rose drew close again and charmed his clothes back to their usual colour.

"Thanks." Scorpius whispered while Rose was still quiet.

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, nodded, then parted ways.

When their friends asked where they had been, both answered the same way.

"Got in an argument, now I have Saturday detentions for the rest of the month." Then sulked in their rooms until 6pm.

Professor Neville Longbottom's office was situated near the staff room. So when Rose and Scorpius paused to call a truce, most of the their teachers heard it. Neville joined his colleagues as they were discussing their two best students.

"I think this is absolutely ridiculous. And you're all foolish to involve yourselves in the petty lives of students." Professor Stockett announced loudly to them all as she helped herself to three spoonfuls of sugar for her cup of tea. "Ah Professor Longbottom, you'll agree with me. You're a smart and sensible man."

"What's going on?" Longbottom asked interestedly.

Headmast Fairweather answered him. "Oh, wel, Professor Lupin here has bet me five galleons that Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy will be dating by seventh year. I say by the end of next year, ou should have seen them together in the library last year on Valentine's Day! And Nye here thinks-"

"I think that you are being too hasty, they'll find others that truly love them and do not constantly argue wit. They'll marry different people, not everyone marries whom they went to school with."

Longbottom and Teddy Lupin looked at each other and grinned.

"I did."

"I did." Neville chimed in.

"Both Malfoy and Rose's parents did."

"My parents did."

"Well, then I guess there are exceptions. But that's beside the point, they argue too much. Yes they maybe be similar, but that is not always a good thing."

They all had to agree with Professor Nye with that one.

"Alright, but I still think they'll end up together." said Headmaster Fairweather cheerfully

"So do I!" Lupin agreed.

"Same here, I'll go in on this bet." Longbottom joined in. "But they're both stubborn," he thought about it carefully. "I'll give them five years to get together."

"Five years!" Lupin laughed. "You're on."

Professor Stockett rolled her eyes and tutted before added another two spoonfuls of sugar to her tea. "I thought you were a sensible man Neville."

He shrugged. "I'm just as sensible as you are. Would you like some tea with your sugar?"

MARCH

The reason as to why Rose and Scorpius had detentions every Saturday in February stayed reasonably quiet until around the middle of March, when the person who had actually told on them blurted it out. Finley Norwood had told a few people about the competition in the rain, but nobody seemed to believe or care what he said. News travelled fast around Hogwarts, but the news that Lunette was dating yet another guy seemed to be more interesting. However, when the rumour finally got to James and Lorcan, they cornered Rose on her way back to the common room after Ancient Ruins one day.

"Is it true?" James excitedly asked. "You competed, in the rain, against Malfoy to catch a snitch and won?!"

Rose sighed and shrugged. "I guess, but we got in trouble and Neville shouted." she didn't notice her cousin's excited tone and was only thinking of the disappointment in herself and from Longbottom.

"You're amazing! We didn't even know little miss clumsy could stay on a broom!" Lorcan joined in the enthusiastic face of James.

Rose shrugged. "I'm not bad on a broom. I'm also not bad at stealing brooms."

"What?" James as confused.

"Oh, my dear sweet cousin." Rose put on a mockingly patronising voice. "You think you're the trickster, the master pranker, the sly thief of the family when in fact I'm just more stealthy than you."

James was still confused.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I stole your broom James and you didn't notice." she said in a flat tone.

James wasn't angry or upset, he looked genuinely proud. "You have to try out next year of the quidditch team!" James hugged Rose then turned to Lorcan. "Next year can't come soon enough!" he suddenly became serious and looked Rose dead in the eye. "Promise me you'll try out?"

Rose sighed. "Sure, James. Actually, I've already promised Al and Lunette that I will."

"That sly brother of mine didn't say anything to me!" James and Lorcan then stalked off in the direction of the Slytherin common room.

Rose caught sight of the back of Lunette's head around the corner and ran to catch up with her.

"-well, probably." Rose heard the end of what Lunette was saying.

"Oh, come on. It'll be fun and we can finally get away from your Slytherin friends." a male voice replied, which Rose guessed to be her new boyfriend.

"Don't say it like that! Albus and Scorpius are two of best best friends, you need to accept them."

"But they're Slytherins!"

"So? You're a Ravenclaw, what has our houses got to do with any- Rose! Hi!" Lunette suddenly noticed her friend slowly approaching. "You don't know Jack that well do you?" She gestured to her boyfriend and Rose and Jack shook hands.

"Hey Lunette, how everything going-?"

She was interrupted by Jack's annoyed sigh.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Rose said sarcastically. "Is my talking interrupting your sighing?"

"Rose, please be nice." Lunette mumbled desperately.

Rose decided to be nice, but only for Lunette. "I'll let you guys get back to yourselves."

"Oh, ok Rose." Lunette seemed a little disappointed to be left all of a sudden. "We'll talk tomorrow."

Once they thought Rose was out of earshot, Jack spoke again.

"So are you coming or not?"

"Look, I've really got to get my Herbology grades up so I might not be able to."

Jack sighed again. "If you don't want to go out with me, just say-"

"No, it's not that-"

"You just want to hang around with that Potter anyway."

"He's just a friend! Look, Jack, I've just got to keep up with my work. If I get it all done, of course I'd love to go to Hogsmeade with you. But-"

"Yeah, whatever. I'll see you or I won't." Jack called from over his shoulder as he strutted off the the Ravenclaw tower.

Lunette sighed and turned slightly. "You can come out Rose, I know you're still there." she announced to the seemingly quiet corridor.

Rose popped her head out from behind a corner and placed a comforting hand on Lunette's shoulder. "Why are you going out with him if he's acting like that? You should be treated better."

"He's nice, he really is. But I guess I'm just used to it now. Relationships can't stay happy all the time and I've come to accept that every now and then a boyfriend might be pissed off at me."

"But- but Lunette, we're 16 years old and still in school. Our studies should always be first."

"No, he's right to be like this, I haven't been spending much time with him-"

"You've been going out a week." Rose raised her eyebrows.

"I know but-"

"You're still in the so called 'honeymoon phase' he should be more grateful that he's dating you."

"well...,-"

"Why don't you just break up with him? The ungrateful git."

"Look, Rose-"

"You're fun, pretty, great and loyal. What's his problem?"

"Rose, every guy has broken up with me for the same reason. And it's a reason that haunts me every time someone gives me attention. My friends are the only ones that I can trust will love me forever for who I really am. And until I meet the guy who can treat me right, I guess I'll just keep dating for short periods of time-"

"That's not the right attitude to have!" Rose was desperate to make Lunette confident and happy.

"Then what is the right attitude Rose?! Huh?!" Lunette raised her voice, she was mad at herself and Rose happened to be caught in it. "It can't be whatever attitude you have! You date clingy guys in an unhealthy relationship for way too long! You dump guys for cheating on you and you don't even seem angry or upset! You pretend to act like no guy is good enough for you when in fact you don't think you're good enough for anybody! And you've started some stupid rivalry with the one guy who would be perfect for you!" Lunette's hair had turned fiery red, her cheeks and clenched fists matching the colour. "You're hypocritical advice isn't going to help me now Rose!" She stormed off the the Hufflepuff common room, feeling the instant regret of shouting at her best friend simply because she was a bad mood.

Lunette slumped on her bed, screamed into her pillow then lay there staring at the ceiling, crying her eyes out. She had overreacted, shouted at a friend for no reason, realised that every boyfriend she'd ever had had the common habit of not appreciating her.

There was a small knock on the door and a sympathetic and comforting voice drifted through.

"Lunette? Are you in there? One of the girls you share a room with is worried that you're not ok, you missed dinner."

It was Dominique.

Lunette ran to the bathroom and splashed her face a few times.

"Umm, I'll be ok." Lunette answered, she couldn't hide the shakiness of her voice.

"If you say so, but Lunette there's someone outside the common room who needs to talk to you."

"Oh, well tell Jack that I'm busy and I'll talk to him tomorrow."

"It's not Jack."

Lunette frowned in confusion and opened the little round door of her room. "Who is it then?" she asked once face to face with Dominique.

Dom smiled. "Come and see."

Lunette stepped out into the the corridor by the kitchens to see Scorpius slouching against the wall. He gave a small smile when he saw her. Lunette turned in time to see Dom scowling at Scorpius as she closed the door and Louis doing the same from further within the common room.

"Hello Scorpius, what can I do for you?" Lunette tried to sound cheerful.

"I thought you could use a friend." He pulled something out of his inner robes pocket. "And Albus sent a can of cola he's had in his trunk since summer. He thought it might cheer you up."

Lunette laughed and thought about when she met Albus at Hunstanton and later on in the evening he covered them both in cola. She took the can and grinned. "He really knows how to cheer me up."

"Yeah, sorry he isn't here. Albus has left his muggle studies literature homework until the last minute again."

Lunette smiled and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. Scorpius joined her.

"I'm guessing Rose told Albus what happened?"

Scorpius nodded.

Lunette sighed. "I overreacted. I was just in a bad mood."

"I know what that's like. You accidentally take it out on a friend."

Lunette eyed him suspiciously, she had an idea that he may have been talking about Rose. "What was it like when you guys were friends?"

Scorpius knew exactly who she was talking about and answered straight away. He didn't ok at her, but stared at the wall opposite. "It was great. We still had disagreements but we got over them pretty quickly. I just took out my jealousy on her. I kept on criticising her and starting arguments. I didn't realise how much I was hurting her until she stopped hanging out with me and Albus."

Lunette thought for a moment. "But Albus stayed your friend, I never understood that. He and Rose are each other's favourite cousins and have been best friends since forever, yet he stuck with you and Rose seems fine with it."

Scorpius gave a long sigh. "You don't have to remind me. I split up those two, they were practically twins joined at the hip. But Albus is such a good guy that he's somehow managed to split his time between the two of us evenly. He never takes sides even though his whole family did."

"It's a shame, his cousins are awesome people."

"I know, and they all liked me at one point. Now they don't talk to me." he looked at Lunette and forced a smile. "Feeling better?"

"A little but. But you know what will make me feel back to normal?"

"What?"

"I need to apologise to Rose. I'm sorry to say it Scorp, but I'm not making the same mistake as you. I can't lose Rose. She's my best friend."

"Luckily for you, Albus said that Weasley thinks it's her fault and is trying to give you space before she apologises."

Lunette drained the can of cola in one gulp, stood up with determination and charged into the kitchens. Scorpius was left looking bewildered at the painting of the bowl of fruit. When Lunette emerged a couple of minutes later, she was holding a mug of hot chocolate. She handed it to Scorpius.

"Give this to Albus, tell him thanks for the cola. Now I'm off to get Rose."

APRIL

"Bloody hell, you're a git Malfoy!"

Rose could be heard shouting throughout the castle.

"Oh, I'm the git? You twat!"

And Scorpius could be heard shouting back.

Their truce had lasted longer than planned, both had been ashamed of their competitive rule breaking which made Longbottom, their favorite teacher, shout at them. But eventually they grew tired of not having a good shout in the corridors and by the middle of April, their feud was back on.

Hexes and jinxes were sent back and forth, Longbottom walked passed, but seeing that no one else was being harmed, he moved on thinking about his bet with Lupin, Nye and Headmaster Fairweather. He was never more certain of his own judgement.

As Rose turned Scorpius's hair red and cast a bat bogey hex and he made her sneeze uncontrollably in turn, Albus stood watching. Lunette appeared beside him, she seemed a bit annoyed.

"What's wrong?" Albus asked as soon as he saw her expression. His best friend's argument no longer occupying his thoughts.

"Just another break up."

"Jack?"

"Yep."

Albus wrapped one arm around Lunette's shoulder and gave her a small sympathetic squeeze. "I'm sorry."

Lunette sighed. "I don't think I can take many more break ups. They all end up repeating each other. Is there something I'm doing wrong?"

"When the right guy comes along you'll know." Albus let go of her. 'If I were the right guy she'd already know.' he thought gloomily.

"Are you ok? You seem suddenly down?"

"Oh, it' nothing. I- I just don't understand why these guys are breaking up wth you. If it were me-" Albus turned bright red. "Umm, err- I mean- no." he ran off towards the Slytherin common room, regretting even opening his mouth.

Lunette watched as he ran off. 'If it were him...? If it were him what?' she thought and suddenly felt like crying 'if it were Albus perhaps I'd be happy. But at what cost? Happy for a week or two before he inevitably broke up with me just like the rest.' Lunette slowly headed off towards the library.

What neither Albus or Lunette realised was that Rose and Scorpius had stopped fighting as soon as Albus ran off. They noticed that their friends were having an issue. And that took priority. Rose and Scorpius lowered their wands, to the growing crowd's astonishment, nodded at one another and ran off in opposite directions. Rose to Albus and Scorpius to Lunette. They seemed to have a mutual understanding to swap friends once they had consoled the one they ran after.

"Al!" Rose was running out of breath after sprinting down four flights of stairs to catch up with her cousin before he disappeared.

"Rose! Oh, hi." Alus was confused to see her. "I thought you were facing your mortal enemy?" Albus tried to laugh but he was still red from embarrassing himself in front of Lunette.

"You're-" sneeze "mo-" sneeze "-more-" sneeze "-impor-" sneeze "-tant." sneeze. "Give me just-" sneeze "-a second." she sorted out her sneezing and looked Albus seriously in the eye. "What happened Al?"

"I made a fool of myself in front of Lunette again. I thought I was past making myself look like an idiot but I guess not." he began to repeatedly bang his head on the wall. "Why do I have to have a massive crush on the most wonderful girl I've ever met?!"

"Al, stop it." Rose pulled him away from the wall so he would stop beating himself up. "I think Lunette is used to it by now. And you've done so well at not embarrassing yourself for so long, that it was bound to come back at some point. And besides, none of us are perfect. You need to relax more around her."

Albus sighed.

Meanwhile Lunette was biting her lip and thinking over what Albus had said while Scorpius laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. "I'm sorry, I'm just thinking about something that would ruin mine and Albus's friendship."

Scorpius nodded. "My guess is he said something along the lines of that and that's why he ran off."

Lunette gave a small nod in return. "Albus is great isn't he? He's just too good a person."

"He's not too good, Lunette. No one is perfect."

END OF JUNE

Most students had two or three O.W.L exams left. The library and common rooms were full of fifth year students with their noses stuck in books. Only a few had finished alll teir exams, those that had early exams and were taunted while everyone else was outside in the sun. Now it had switched around.

Albus and Lunette could be found in the courtyard reading through Divination text books Lunette had finished her exams and was helping Albus revise for his final exam.

"Ok,so you've got one more chapter left. Ooh, it's all about tea leaves. Ok, question one-"

"So, er-um, Lunette. There's- there's something, er, I've been meaning to ask you."

Lunette looked up and smiled at Albus. "My answer is no, you shouldn't join the quidditch team. I know your family are good at it but, you can only just stay on a broom."

Albus laughed with her.

"No I wasn't going-"

"I know. Carry on."

"The thing is, I - um, I actually did have a question."

"Oh." Lunette turned to face him. "Go ahead."

"We're friends right? And I love being your friend, it's given me a chance to really get to know you in a way that I think not many do. And I've really come to like you, you're an amazing person and, if you would just give me the chance-"

Lunette's eyes widened and she jumped up off the bench. "No Albus, please don't. Not you."

"What?"

"Please don't ask me out. I can't- I just can't go out with you."

Albus felt like someone had kicked in him the gut and stabbed his heart. "So other guys that you're friends can ask you out but as soon as I say something, you freak out and refuse straight away?!"

"Those guys are different, I mean, they're all the same, they all ask me out because they think I'm pretty."

"But you are, you're beautiful! But that's not why I'm-"

"I'm one quarter veela! I know I'm pretty, yes I know that sounds big headed." Lunette began to pace in front of Albus as she waffled, staring hard at the ground. "And I know that's why most people notice me and that's why I so often get asked out. But those relationships always end and it really hurts. I've never gotten overly attached to any guy I've dated, I don't trust them. All they see is that I'm pretty and I'm flattered but it's not enough just to find someone good looking. And because I don't trust, I'm not my true self. I've been doing it so long that I'm not sure I even know myself! You want to know why every guy dumps me after just a few weeks? Because I'm a novelty that wears off and they begin to notice that I have no personality. They all break up with me because I'm all surface, and there is no deep inside version of me. They all say I'm emotionally detached, dull and disappointing. I guess they all expected me to be perfect-"

"I know you're not perfect." Albus interrupted. "You can get too competitive and you fake confidence in yourself when in fact you constantly worry what other people think about you. You are hopeless at muggle studies and herbology, but hide your talent for potions. And while we're on the subject of hiding, you're ashamed to be metamorphmagus because, again you worry what people might think of you. The only part you change is your hair, but even that has always stayed the same multicoloured unless you have a sudden mood change that you can't control."

Lunette felt tears coming on. "Is this meant to be making me feel better?! You know it really does hurt every time I get dumped! And I don't need you, of all people, pointing out my flaws-"

"Lunette, I know you're not perfect." Albus gently brought her back to sit on the bench and spoke softly. "Nobody is. And you're wrong you know, you do have a personality, you're not all surface. Just look at what house you were put in. Hufflepuffs are hardworking, fierce and loyal. That is all you. And you're funny, charming, smart, kind, generous, a brilliant friend and usually modest. And think about Rose, the people she instantly dislikes are the people who follow the crowd and don't seem to have any individuality. Yet she knew you were going to be a worthy friend the second she met you. Lunette, I know you're not perfect, I never expected you to be perfect. But, to me, who you are outweighs any imperfections."

Tears did spill over, Lunette couldn't believe that Albus had said what she unknowingly had wanted to hear. "But, bu- you don't find me being a metamorphmagus weird? There were some kids back in France who taunted me, my parents decided to move house to avoid their abuse."

Albus couldn't stop himself from giving her a hug. "You're beautiful in any form. You're still you. You know, I think sometimes we'd all like to be someone else. We all have insecurities that we have to overcome, and sometimes we never overcome them but we have to accept who we are." He pulled away slightly to look at her face.

Lunette was still crying, but smiling at the same time. She changed her face into that of a rabbit. Albus chuckled. "See, the most charming bunny I've ever seen."

"Albus, I can't trust people. I trust you and Rose and Scorpius because you are my friends," she returned her face to usual, "but if we go out, I might retreat to emotionally distant Lunette with a one dimensional personality."

"Then I'll help you be you." Albus sighed. "You are so amazing Lunette and I'm just lucky to be your friend. But I've always found you special, there's something about that makes me want to stay with you forever. I'd like to start dating you so that I can know you better than a friend, but if not, I'll happily remain your friend. I just don't want to lose you."

"I don't want to lose you either, that's why we can't go out!"

"Ok, I understand. Friends it is, and a good friend you are." Albus sighed and gave a weak smile. He stood up and hit his forehead with him hand. "I feel like a complete idiot." He mumbled. "I thought that maybe you felt the same way. I'm sorry."

"You're not an idiot.

Albus stopped dead and didn't dare to look at her. His heart was in his mouth and he couldn't breath. She continued

"You've always been special to me too Albus, ever since we met I sensed that there was something unknown and exciting between us. And that's why I can't go out with you. Because if I screw it up, I'll have lost you." She was sobbing even harder. "And I can't lose you Albus! I don't know what I would do without you."

"You won't lose me. You can't ever lose me." He wrapped his arms around her again, she hugged him back. "If something goes wrong, then we'll, I don't know, sit down and talk through it. And you know that we can always ask other people for help and advice."

Lunette sniffed and stopped crying. "That's true." she whispered mostly to herself.

"So, if I ask you out will you say yes?" Albus said cautiously, pulling away from her again to look into her eyes.

Lunette gave a shaky sigh. "Albus," She held his hands. "I don't know. I really like you and I'll hate myself even more if I screw this up."

He placed one hand gently on her cheek. "Please don't hate yourself."

"Can I give you an answer another time? I need to think about this."

He lightly brushed a stray purple piece of hair behind her ear. "Take as long as you need, I'll take a page out of the Hufflepuff book and try and be patient."

Lunette smiled. "Thanks."

Albus began to pack up his books but Lunette stopped him.

"Wait a second there mister," she said as she dried her eyes and sniffed once more. Trying to get herself back to usual, which was hard considering how much she wanted to yes yes to Albus but her rational mind stopped her. "you've got a divination exam in 2 hours and you've yet to answer the question."

Albus smiled and sat down.

"Come on, I'm bored, I've finished all my exams and I'm trying to help you. Now," she lifted up Albus's divination book and squinted at the pictures. "What happens if your tea leaves look like" she squinted at the picture. "some sort of flower thing?"

Albus chuckled, "It symbolises hope."

Lunette grinned, "Genius. And what if it looks like, umm," She turned the book sideways. "if it looks like what I can only describe as a lumpy anchor."

"Stability."

"Albus," She put a hand on his shoulder. "You are going to pass this exam with flying colours." She made her multicoloured highlights flash and interchange colours.

Albus was awestruck by her abilities. "Awesome."

They laughed as Lunette continued to quiz him.

They did not realise that Rose looked down at them from an open window on the second floor corridor. She smiled as she watched.

Scorpius was patrolling the corridor when he saw Rose seemingly smiling at nothing. He glared and sent a leg locking jinx and her. Rose sank to the floor then rolled to see who it was. She scowled and sent a tripping jinx at him. Scorpius landed on the floor beside her.

"You just hexed a prefect." Scorpius groaned his he picked himself up.

"So did you." Rose reversed the leg locking jinx and popped up.

"Well, I'm on duty."

"Well, I'm watching two of my best friends flirt."

Scorpius rushed to join her staring out the window.

"No way!" he whispered excitedly to Rose with a wide grin.

"Yep, it's finally going to happen, but not yet, but it will happen. She said that she would answer him another time, she needs time to think."

"Then I give it two weeks before they're together."

"No, I give it a couple of months. Lunette may feel the same way about Al, but she really loves being his friend. She'll be weighing up the pros and cons all summer, trying to see if it's worth the risk of loosing Al as a friend if she can date him."

"Months?!" Scorpius looked at her in shock. "There's nothing to weigh up, they'll be dating sooner than we know it."

"Oh yeah, prepared to make a bet?" Rose challenged cockily. "Two Galleons says they don't go out until at least the the end of August or the start of September."

"Alright Weasley, you're on." he shook her hand.

He held on for too long. Rose's eyes widened at looked up at Scorpius, he dropped her hand quickly and turned to watch out the window again. To his surprise, Rose didn't leave. Instead she joined him.

Albus and Lunette had gone inside as it had started raining. The window faced the lake, the grey clouds covered the sun set.

"You might miss the stars tonight." Scorpius mumbled, knowing how much Rose loved to stare into the night sky.

Rose shrugged, "That's alright, I've seen them plenty of times."

"Have you ever seen a shooting star?" he asked interestedly.

Rose looked behind them, most people were studying for exams but she, Scorpius, Lunette and a few other students had finished just the previous day. The corridor was empty and she didn't mind being normal with Scorpius every now and then, even if she did hate him. But sometimes it was as if they were third years friends and nothing had ever come between them.

"Yeah, they often say on the muggle news if there are going to be shooting stars. My parents used to set up a blanket in the back garden, mum would light bluebell flames in jars to stop the blanket from blowing away and dad would make hot chocolate without magic. The hot chocolate would be disgusting, but it was warm, so we would sit there hugging these mugs and staring at the sky." Rose laughed. "That was a long time ago, before Hugo and I came to Hogwarts."

"And before you met the guy who ruined your life at school. What was it you called me the other day?"

Rose laughed again. "Oh, no, please don't."

"A stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking what?"

"Nerf herder."

Scorpius laughed as Rose's ears were pink. They leaned against the wall and spoke as the stared at their shoes.

"What in Merlin's name is a Nerf herder?"

"In Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Leia calls Han Solo a 'Stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking Nerf herder'. It's sort of an awesome but slightly nerdy series of films. There were the original trilogy, then they made some prequels that nobody really liked and then they made some sequels that were pretty good."

"Star Wars?"

"It's awesome. I had a friend at my muggle primary school who was obsessed with these films, Alicia and older brother, Jo, used to make me watch them whenever I went over. I was so excited and tense at one part that I accidentally popped all the light bulbs in their living room and all the cushions started floating. Luckily I noticed the cushions in time and Alicia didn't see."

Scorpius laughed along with Rose, but they both stopped suddenly. There were footsteps approaching.

"If that's Mclaggen he's definitely going to think we're secretly dating." Rose whispered harshly to Scorpius.

"Wait, he actually believed that?!" Scorpius was amazed.

"Shhhh!" Rose glared at him, grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him into a secret cupboard she knew of behind a tapestry.

Whoever was walking their way passed the cupboard. Rose and Scorpius stood very close together for a few seconds more just incase there was anyone else coming.

"What in Merlin's name was that for?!" Scorpius said through gritted teeth as he rubbed his arm, Rose had aggressively grabbed part of him with his sleeve.

"I was helping you!" Rose angrily burst out of the cupboard, hitting Scorpius with the door and the tapestry as they climbed into the corridor.

"Helping? How was that helping?! Only one of us needed to hide, yeah it would have been weird for anyone to see us not fighting, but you could have left me quite happily alone in the corridor."

"Oh yeah, and have the person ask 'Why are you standing like and idiot in a corridor during lunch break?' You would panic and rat me out or make up some stupid excuse that made no sense! You're welcome Malfoy!"

"Oh shut up Weasley! I don't need your help, I never have and I never will!"

"Well that's obviously not true! Just last year you needed help with some charm. And who did you go to straight away? And who helped you with only the slightest bit of hesitation? Me!"

Their peaceful afternoon had turned into another hexing dual. Rose hopped away with buck teeth and one jelly leg while Scorpius scuttled back to his dormitory with spots that spelt the words 'half wit' and had an uncontrollable stream of bats flying out of his nose.

TRAIN HOME

Rose, Phil and Lunette sat in a compartment by themselves, lazily flicking through books and boredly staring out of the window.

"Where's Mel?" Rose asked Phil

Phil sighed and rolled her eyes. "She's trying to divide her time equally between us and Anna, or something like that. She thinks we ignore Anna too much."

Rose nodded. "We probably do." she sighed. "Well, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow."

Lunette looked as though she was contemplating something. "I never liked Anna."

"She never liked you." Phil said with a matter of fact tone. "Thinks you spend too much time with Potter and she's jealous."

"We're just friends!" Lunette defended herself.

Rose eyed her suspiciously but went back to reading her book.

"I know that and you know that. But he has a massive crush on you, if you haven't noticed, and you keep on going out with other guys. Anna thinks you're being a tease."

Lunette folded her arms and huffed. "Well if I am I don't mean to be."

Rose looked at her watch and stood up quickly. "I'll see you in a bit. I've got to go to the prefect compartment then do some patrolling."

Rose managed to trip as she exited the compartment and ran head first into someone then fell flat on the ground. She rubbed her leg which was going to get a bruise as she stood.

"Ow, sorry- oh it's you."

Mae Blinston stood scowling at Rose as if she were the mud on her shoes.

"Wait, was that an apology from a ginger nobody?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't push you over."

"Look Weasel, I'm only talking to your pathetic self to tell you to leave my man alone."

Rose raised her eyebrows and sniggered. "You're man? And who might be your man?"

Mae scoffed. "Well Scorpius of course. Everybody knows that we're going to end up together and I think you're trying to ruin it for me."

"You think? You actually have the capacity to think?" Rose shrugged. "Well, you learn something new everyday."

"I'm serious, carrot top, I saw you with Scorpius the other day. You were laughing and getting along and then you pulled him into a cupboard. I know what you're up to. You fight with him and then flirt when no one's looking. You're just trying to mess him up, trying to mess with his feelings so he's no good to anybody else. Well, you know what, furball, Scorpius is too good for some nerdy, muggle loving, orange bush like you."

Rose gave a cruel laugh. "Oh Blinston, that git is all yours. I don't know what you thought you saw the other day, but I'm not trying to steal 'your man'. You guys are perfect for each other because nobody else wants to date stuck up, selfish arseholes."

Rose pushed passed Mae and angrily marched away. When she saw Scorpius, Rose simply sent him a look of death. For the first time, Scorpius was actually scared at the expression and was at a loos as to what he had done this time to deserve it.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

"Right! Everybody up!" someone was shouting from the fireplace in the living room. It startled all the Granger-Weasleys.

Ron and Hermione raced to Rose and Hugo's room, they kids themselves popped their heads out of their doors only to be forced into their parents bedroom. Ron put his finger to his lips to indicate for silence. Hermione grabbed Ron's and her own wand then they made their way slowly downstairs. Hugo and Rose looked at each other with a questioning look and silently followed their parents.

"Wooah! Woah! Aunt Hermione put the wand down!"

"Merlin's Beard! Mr Weasley please don't hurt me! My mum would never forgive you!"

Rose and Hugo gave a relieved laugh and rushed downstairs. They recognised the voices of their cousin James and Lorcan Scamander.

"Sorry uncle Ron, we're just here to get Rose." James tried to pull Rose into a headlock so he could rub her hair, but she managed to step out of arm reach.

Hugo yawned. "It's 6am!"

Lorcan and James shrugged and grinned.

Hugo rubbed his eyes and scowled in disbelief of their cheerfulness. "On a Saturday, on the first day of the summer holidays! Why are you awake?! Why are you waking us up?!" Hugo spun around and trudged back upstairs. "Why is anybody awake at this time? Why does this time exist on a weekend? Who actually uses this time on a weekend for anything but sleep? Why can't we all just go back to sleep?" he sleepily mumbled questions until they heard his bedroom door shut.

Hermione looked between Rose and James, shrugged and yawned. "So your parents know you're here?"

"Of course they do Aunt Hermione, mum was the one who told me to go and bug some other people this early in the morning"

Hermione smiled. "Well then, I'm going back to bed."

"Have you boys had breakfast yet?" Ron asked.

"Yes sir, James burst into my house around 5am. Dad wasn't happy but mum was cheerful enough to make us breakfast."

Ron gave a short nod. "Then I'm going back to bed too."

"So am I." Rose turned but James caught her arm. She gumbled. "Ah, come on James! You know depriving me sleep in the mornings is hazardous to your wellbeing."

"I know, but quidditch comes first and I want to see how good my cousin actually is."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You can find out at trials like everybody else."

"Please Rose! Lucile was worried that she might not make the team because of you, she said that outloud for the rest of the team to hear and now they're all worried you might replace them."

"But you do trials every year, they should know that the potential for someone to replace is a yearly thing. No one is guaranteed a place." Rose shrugged and slumped in the nearest sofa.

"Rose," Lorcan crouched down to be by her eye level. Rose found this patronising so she gently pushed him and Lorcan fell on his butt before looking up at Rose and continuing. "Rose, everybody knows you're a clumsy genius who can do anything she puts her mind to accept walk down a flight of stairs without tripping. But these two traits kind of cancel each other out when it comes to riding a broom, so technically you should suck at quidditch. But now that there are rumors going around that you've mastered yet another skill, people are going to want to see proof so they're going to turn up to the trials. Can you imagine being on the quidditch team for a couple of years, then BAM some other kid everyone thought didn't have any balance takes your place? Well that's going to be disheartening and everybody will see it and you will never live it down."

Rose yawned, she looked at Lorcan and blinked. "I'm too tired, let me go back to bed."

"Rose, I just want you to prove that you're awesome. Otherwise people are going to think I only put my friends and family on the team." James sighed and slumped on the sofa beside her. "If you're not good enough, I obviously won't put you on the team. But the fact that I even considered you to join the team will still make people think I'm biased."

Rose looked at her cousin, he was serious. "Alright, let's go. Just let me get dressed."

Almost everyday during the summer James and Lorcan would invade the Granger-Weasley home to play Quidditch with Rose. Occasionally Lily joined in, when she wasn't hanging with Hugo, and Albus came to watch. Hugo remained disinterested and spent most of the summer in the town nearby.

"Hey Rose!" Hugo practically came skipping into the living room one afternoon after James and Lorcan had left. He chuckled at the sight of Rose who was face down on a sofa making groaning sounds as her muscles ached. James was determined to obsess over quidditch with her.

"Make it quick, my body might give up and die in just a couple of seconds." Rose grumbled. "Did you know that James was here at 5am! Why do we have to have him as a cousin."

"I saw your old friend Alicia, from primary school, in town today. And her older brother Jo was there too. Man, they have really grown up."

In hearing these names, Rose's head suddenly sprung up. But her neck clicked and she headbutted the sofa armrest again.

A couple of days later, the dreaded exam results arrived. As usual Hugo got 'A' for Acceptable and 'E' for Exceeds Expectations. As Rose opened her letter, she was happily reading through each grade, all saying 'O' for Outstanding in her O. , except Potions. She had only gotten an 'A' for Acceptable. However, she hid her confusion and disappointment until Hug had left, she knew that he would get mad at her if she showed her frustration at the grade that he always achieved.

Hermione noticed her daughter's change in attitude and the fact that she didn't say or eat much at breakfast. But, just like Rose, she decided to wait until Jugo was gone.

After breakfast, Rose ran up to her room. Hermione waved goodbye to Hugo as he went to visit Lily, then followed Rose upstairs.

"Rose? What's wrong?" Hermione slowly opened the door.

Rose was under her duvet cover, laying on her stomach with a pillow over her head. Her letter was on the floor beside the bed. Rose only groaned in reply. Hermione picked up the letter and read all the results.

"Rose, this is great, you've done brilliantly. We're so proud of you dear. I know how hard O. can be."

Rose groaned again. Hermione saw the 'A' and understood Rose's disappointment. For a staight 'O', except Ancient Ruins, student to get an 'A' is just deflating.

"I thought I was good enough." Rose whined. "I thought I was good at Potions. I mean, my Ancient Ruins grade is still higher than the Potions one."

Hermione gently rubbed Rose's back.

"I understand how you feel dear, but you've done so brilliantly at the rest of your exams. You mustn't feel too angry-"

"I'm not angry, I just feel like I've disappointed everyone." Rose gave a melancholy sigh and she sat up. "So much for having my mother's brains. I can't live up to your standard!" She flopped again onto the pillow. "I'm a failure."

"Honey, you are just as smart and as talented as I was at your age. You're sharp, witty, clever, sensible and fun. You did your best and that's all anyone should demand from you. Remember that an 'A' is still a pass, you didn't fail. And by the looks of things, you got an 'O' in the exam and only the teamwork module brought you down a bit. Luckily none of that should be in the N.E.W.T. I'm proud of you Rose. You should be proud of yourself too."

Rose managed a small smile. "Thanks mum." She sighed and looked out the window, it was a sunny day. "I'm going to ride around on my broom for a couple of hours."

"Alright but James isn't coming today, Ginny is making him sit down and do some school work."

Rose smiled. "That's fine, I think I just want to be alone for a little bit anyway mum. I think you're right, I did well on the rest of my exams and so I should focu on them." But Rose thought to herself. 'But if I ever want to have a job that requires Potions, this 'A' will ruin everything.'.

The next morning was end of July, Rose woke up at around 7am. After just a few weeks her body was used to getting up early to play quidditch. Rose listened to her surroundings, it seemed like James and Lorcan weren't there, or they were at least a lot later that usual. She slowly sat up, her leg and arm muscles screaming at her. Rose lazily trudged her way downstairs to find Hermione and Ron eating breakfast and rushing around getting ready for work at the same time. She plonked herself into the nearest chair and yawned.

"Morning. Hugo not up yet?"

"He's gone to Hunstanton with Harry this week." Ron said with a mouthful of toast.

"You just missed him dear." Hermione said as she whisked behind Rose. "I'm off to work, you'll be home alone today Rose." She lifted a mass of ginger fluff off of Rose's forehead and kissed her gently. "So if you o out, there are spare keys in the living room behind the-"

"Behind the Mimbulus Mimbletonia . I know mum, I have been home alone before."

Ron winced. "And be careful around that plant, I keep on getting Stinksap on my shirt when I accidently nudge it with something."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, who was the one who insisted on putting it in the living room?"

Ron shrugged. "I thought it would catch George off guard!"

Hermione rolled her eyes again "I'm off to work." she kissed Rose on the forehead again before turning on the spot an apparating to the ministry.

Ron stood and hugged Rose. "I should probably get going too. See you later Rosie, don't go too near any boys in town. I don't trust them."

Rose laughed. "The only boys you trust are my cousins."

Ron nodded. "Then just stick with those lot." He hopped into the fireplace and flooed over to work.

Rose made herself some toast and rushed upstairs to get a book, she regretted rushing as her legs were still tired.

"Rose!" someone called from the living room as Rose was almost downstairs frowned and wrapped her dressing gown tighter around her.

"Lunette!" Rose grinned as when she saw her friend emerging from the fireplace. "We have got to get better security in this house." Rose mumbled.

"Oh, sorry for bursting in." Lunette bit her lip

Rose realised how tired and worried Lunette looked.

"I can go if you want, I shouldn't have bursted in." Lunette turned back to the fireplace but Rose caught her arm.

"Lunette, you're always welcome here. Sit down and let me get you a drink or something. Have you eaten yet?"

"Oh, um, I haven't eaten in awhile. I seem to have lost my appetite."

Rose rushed into the kitchen and brought out a huge mug of tea and a tray of biscuits. "Lunette, are you ok? What's going on?"

"I'm freaking out Rose!" Lunette sounded desperate. "This whole Albus thing! I'm pretty sure I feel about him in a way I've never felt about anyone but I can't have him and it's killing me."

"Lunette," Rose said softly and hugged her. "He feels the same way, I know, I've seen it in his eyes and he's told me countless times."

"But I've never had a friend like Albus! He asked me out Rose! Now whether I say yes and then we break up or if I say no, there will always be some awkwardness between us."

"It's Al! He's always awkward." Rose said dryly.

"Look Rose, I haven't been sleeping, I haven't been eating. I can't make this decision, you make it for me!"

Rose only felt pure sympathy as she spoke softly. "You know I can't do that."

Lunette started crying, she stretched herself out on the sofa and rested her head on Rose's lap.

"I'm only 16 years old. I shouldn't have to be making these life altering decisions." Lunette sniffed after a while.

"Life altering?" Rose was slightly confused.

"Rose, I'm pretty sure that if it works out with Albus, we'll be together for a long time. That's how strongly I feel about him. I don't know if it's love, I just know that I think about him all the time, he makes me smile, he makes me feel good about myself and I can really imagine a future with him."

"Then why don't you say yes?"

"Because, what if I'm wrong and I end up ruining the best friendship I've ever had? I mean, I'm too young to know what love really is."

Rose didn't know how to answer so they simply sat together in silence for a long time, each thinking about Albus. Eventually Rose knew what to say, hoping that it would be of some help.

"Well, why don't you talk to Albus about it?"

Lunette sat up and wiped her eyes. "What?"

"Lunette, Al is probably just as nervous about what answer you're going to give as you are. He's known how he feels about you since the moment those cans of cola sprayed everywhere and embarrassed him."

Lunette smiled at the memory, but her face was soon serious again as her eyebrows knit together. "But isn't it my decision?"

"Yes it is, but the stress is not treating you well. Albus would be torn up to see you sleep deprived and not eating. He cares so much about you, he would never want this to be effecting you like this."

Lunette stood and nodded with determination. "That's it! I'll just talk to Albus!" she sat down on the sofa opposite Rose and sighed again. "Dear, sweet Albus who would be crushed to see me this way and even more hurt if I said no."

"Talk to him, you'll feel better." Rose gave an encouraging smile.

Lunette nodded. "I always feel better when I'm talking to Albus, even if I'm already in a good mood."

Rose grinned. If this wasn;'t a girl in love, then she didn't know anything. "He's in Hunstanton for the next week."

Lunette slumped. "Great another whole week of feeling like this."

Rose thought for of a plan. "Well, they always get there via floo network in a muggle antique shop run buy an old wizard and his muggle wife. He's really nice and if I write to him and my aunt Ginny, they might be able to arrange a day when you can visit."

Lunette jumped up, sprang across the living room and hugged Rose. "Thank you si much! But you have to came with me Rose, I need your help otherwise I don't think I'll ever get around to talking to ALbus about what I actually want to talk about."

Rose sighed, she knew that Scorpius was going to be there and he was the last person she wanted to see during the holidays. She looked at Lunette's face, a mix of worry helplessness and excitement. "Sure Lunette, whatever you need."

The next day Rose marched into the kitchen with a huge rucksack and dumped it on the table. Hermione and Ron were getting ready for work at the time but stopped to notice their tense daughter.

"What's wrong Rosie? Not looking forward to your day at the beach with Lunette and Al?" Ron asked

"It's not that, it's just that I'm trying to act normal for Lunette but I'm finding it hard. You know Malfoy is going to be there? I don't want to argue with that twat-"

"Language." Hermione warned.

"I don't want to argue with that idiot because it will draw away from what we are going there for."

"So sulking into the kitchen and grumpily dumping your bag on the table is you trying to act normal?" Ron raised one eyebrow.

Rose pulled out the nearest chair and slumped in it before answering. "I'm trying to get all my dread and irritation out before I'm face to face with that git."

"Rose! Language!" Hermione hissed again.

Rose only shrugged. "At least I'm saying it now and not when Lunette can hear it."

Hermione sat beside her daughter. "I think you're being a wonderful friend, Lunette is very luckily and I'm sure very grateful to have you in her life." She kissed Rose's forehead. "I love you and we'll see you later today." Hermione was shouting over her shoulder as she walked into the living room to collect her coat. "And you tell Lunette that if you are back in time she's very welcome to stay for dinner- oh hello there dear. Rose Lunette's here!"

Rose looked at her dad and sighed.

"You can do it Rosie. You're a good friend and you are able of not getting angry at that Malfoy prat for one whole day."

"Thanks dad."

"Ready to go Rose." Lunette's voice shook as she popped her head in the kitchen. Her face a mixture of excitement and fear.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Rose sounded a lot more excited than she actually was. "Are you ready to see Al?"

Lunette sighed. "I'm desperate to see Albus."

HUNSTANTON

"No."

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Scorp, there is no way Mae Blinston asked you out again!"

"Albus, have I ever lied to you before?"

Scorpius and Albus were near the sea, digging a hole in the sand.

"Can she not take a hint?"

"It's not that, she just thinks that when I'm saying 'I just like being your friend' I'm actually saying 'keep trying, we'll be together someday'. I'm actually worried about her, I think she keeps on thinking we have conversations about dating when actually we don't."

"Oh, forgot to tell you, I got an 'E' in my potions O.W.L! Isn't that great? I rarely get Exceeds Expectations!"

"Well done! Great."

""It must've been that module when we had to work in partners. It really helped. Let me guess, you got 'O' is everything again?"

Scorpius grit his teeth. "No, I got an 'A' for Acceptable in potions."

Albus stopped digging to look at Scorpius and work out whether or not his friend was serious.

"What? How come?"

"The partners bit, it counts for more than I realised. Which means my exams can go as well as I like, but the partner bit only gained me a 'P' for Poor. So my exam scores and this one module leveled out at an 'A'."

"Sorry mate, I know that must suck."

Scorpius went back to digging to distract himself. "Yep. I had the worst partner."

"You're not seriously blaming Rose for this?"

"Let's just get back to digging." And they did, for a while.

Scorpius stopped digging for a while and looked at his surroundings. The sun was shining, the water was warm, or as warm as it can get in England, and they were in a hole just deep enough that it was at Albus's eye level. "Mate, why are we doing this?"

Albus shrugged. "Every year I see muggle kids from ages 5 to 17, I figured it must be fun otherwise why would they do it?"

"This is fun?" Scorpius said dryly as he raised his eye skeptically.

Albus shrugged again. "It's keeping my mind off Lunette. Digging a hole beats the agonising torture of thinking about how she's going to break my heart." Albus flopped onto the ground and looked up at the blue sky.

Scorpius didn't join him as the hole wasn't wide enough to fit two people sitting down and Albus was half sitting on his foot anyway.

"Hey, well maybe this would be funner if Lily of Hugo were also digging a hole. We could compete-"

"Stop it Scorp, I know digging a hole isn't fun compared to wizard stuff like quidditch. But we're on a beach surrounded by muggles. This is the best we can do." Albus sounded just as bored at Scorpius was.

There were a couple more minutes of silence. Scorpius was thinking about how to cheer his best friend up while Albus thought about Lunette and how she would love the beach. It was sunny and bright just like her. She would find the muggles interesting and she would love to go to the fair with him. Albus removed these happy thoughts immediately. 'There's no way she's like to do all those things with me. Even if she did, it would only be as friends.'

"If we dig deep enough we can build a tunnel." Scorpius suggested.

Albus looked up at him with an expression that said, 'that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It will be just as boring.' But he thought for a moment then jumped up. "Having a tunnel would be pretty fun." he said brightly and they both went back to work

After an hour or so Lily went out to look for her brother. She was slightly annoyed as Ginny had asked her to do it half way through finally winning chess against Hugo. Well that's what she thought, when in fact Hugo was trying out a new tactic and it was going well, Lily didn't stand a chance.

Lily saw James flirting with a bunch of girls down the beach. She waved at him and he reluctantly agreed to leave the girl's side. A few minutes later Lily spotted a hole sand and rolled her eyes. 'What is it with everyone's dumb obsession with digging holes when they go to the beach?'. But she noticed a very blonde head as she strutted past. She knew who was down there.

"Ugh, Scorp why don't we stop and go back to the tent?" Albus groaned as her stretched.

Scorpius threw his spade down. "I suggested that ages ago!"

"Yeah, well-"

Both boys yelled and scrambled up the walls of the hole as someone dumped cold water over their heads.

"Merlin's beard!" Albus exclaimed once they were finally out of the hole.

"Muggle beach." Scorpius whispered beside him.

They looked up to see Lily and James laughing their heads off and holding empty buckets.

"Come on Al, mum wants us back at the tent." Lily grinned.

Nether James nor Lily even looked at Scorpius.

Lunette emerged from the fireplace and thanked Mr Fugal, he just smiled and waved in reply.

Lunette's stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies as they drew near the forest where the Potter's tent was pitched. She stopped walking and her hair turned white as her face turned green. Rose was focussed on not getting angry at the sight of Scorpius and so she didn't notice Lunette falling behind for a while.

"Are you ok?"

Lunette tried to calm herself with short breaths. "Do I look ok?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Honestly?"

Lunette nodded.

"No, you're hair is white, you look ill. Are you sure you want to do this now? We can wait until we get on the train."

"No." Lunete stood up boldly and concentrated on fixing her hair colours. "I need to do this now and I need you to help me not to chicken out."

Rose smiled and patted Lunette on the shoulder. "I'm here for you." They began walking again. "It's 12:30, aunt Ginny said that if we get to the tent before 1pm we can eat lunch with them."

"How far is their tent?"

"Well, usually they pitch it deep enough in the forest that they can put up protective spells without muggles seeing them do it, but also close enough to the edge of the forest so that the beach is only a few meters away."

Lunette nodded again before panicking... again. "Rose! What am I going to say to him?!"

"I thought you had it planned out?"

"I did! But now it's gone out of my head!"

"Lunette, have you decided whether or not you want to date Al?"

She thought for a while. "No, I haven't decided."

"Then just talk to him normally, treat like the friend he is and then maybe your decision will become clearer."

Lunette spontaneously hugged Rose. "I know you're not a hug person, but I just want you to know how much it means to me that you've organised this and come with me."

"I'd do anything for my friends"

They were nearing the tent, Harry had strategically placed a Gryffindor scarf around a tree near them so Rose would be able to find them. Just then, Ginny suddenly appeared, as did the tent but slower. She was taking down the protective spells to let Lunette and Rose find them.

"Hey Rosie!" Ginny greeted her niece.

"Hey aunt Ginny," She leaned slightly to the left and saw Harry coming towards them. "Hey uncle Harry."

Albus, Lily, James, Hugo and Scorpius had been confused when Ginny and Harry left the tent without saying a word. Then the sound of other people scared them slightly.

"What if the protective spells didn't work?" Albus muttered.

James stood. "Wait here, I'll check."

The sound of laughing confused the remaining four even more so they all left their lunch to investigate. Albus taking the lead.

Lunette grinned at the sight of Albus. She was about to greet him but Scorpius popped out from behind him.

"Hi Lunette." he waved with a confused smile on his face.

"Scorpius, hi!" Lunette smiled, then realistaion came over her and her expression dropped. "Oh, Scorpius is here." she spun around to see Rose who was looked slightly annoyed and looking at anything else. "Oh Rose I'm sorry I didn't know-"

"It's fine." Rose brushed her off, knowing that the only thing important was getting Lunette and Albus talking.

"But you did know? And you came anyway?" Lunette was in awe at how much of a good friend Rose was and hugged her. "Thank you so much."

Rose staggered back at the force of the hug, she felt a bit awkward and patted Lunette's back a few times. "Yeah, well isn't there someone else you'd rather be hugging?"

"Oh, right."

The girls were invited in for lunch and most had a merry time. Lily and James were trying to talk at the same time to Rose while Scorpius did everything in his power not to look at her. But neither Rose nor Scorpius could help but exchange the occasional scowl. Meanwhile Lunette happily chatted away to Hugo, Harry and Ginny. Albus sat staring at Lunette, wondering why she could possibly be there.

'Is she here to answer me? Did she come all this way just to say yes? No Al, you're being ridiculous, why would anyone as amazing as Lunette want to go out with you?' Albus thought quietly to himself. 'But why would she come all this way just to say she only wanted to be friends? Oh, Merlin, maybe that's why Rose is here too. To comfort me when Lunette inevitably tells me that she's never liked me and that being friends will just be too awkward. I'm such an idiot, I shouldn't have opened my mouth.'

"Al, Al, are you ok?" Rose whispered to him as the two of them were left to do the washing up.

"What?" Albus was pulled out of his own thoughts.

"You haven't said anything since me and Lunette arrived."

"Oh," Albus turned to see Lunette playing chess with Scorpius as Hugo helped her and James, Ginny and Harry talked about quidditch with her. "Rose, why is she here? Not that I don't want Lunette here, it's just a bit sudden."

Rose shrugged. "She wants to talk to you. But she's got to hurry up because we're leaving via floo network at Mr Fugal's shop before 6pm."

"But what does she want to talk about?"

"I don't know Al." Rose sighed. She wished she had a proper answer for her favourite cousin, to put his nerves at ease.

"Rose, you must know-"

"I said I don't know!" Rose spoke in a harsh whisper. "If I knew I would tell you. I don't think even Lunette knows what she's going to say. All I know is that you guys have a lot to figure out before she answers your question."

Albus sighed as he dried up the last plate. "I like her so much Rose, this is killing me."

She wrapped one arm around his shoulders. "I know Al, I know."

"Hey, Albus." Lunette said quietly as she approached them. "Do you think we could go for a walk?"

Albus gulped. "Yeah sure Lunette, let me just um, er g- um-"

"Grab your shoes." Rose finished his sentence for him.

"Yes! Sh-shoes." Albus sighed with relief before whispering to Rose. "Thanks."

As Albus jumped away Rose leaned towards Lunette. "Go easy on him and exercise patience, he's nervous and more awkward than usual."

Eventually Lunette and Albus left, James went to flirt with girls again, Lily and Hugo had gone exploring the beach and Ginny and Harry decided to go into town to get a few more supplies for the rest of the week. Rose and Scorpius were left waiting in a hot and stuffy tent for Albus and Lunette to return.

They were silent. They sat on opposite side if the tent. They didn't look at each other.

Scorpius stood and grabbed a book from his bed before returning back to his seat. Rose watched him out of the corner of her eye as he sat and read. A couple of minutes later Rose stood and rummaged through Lily's trunk and pulled out a magazine. It wasn't exactly what she was looking for, but come mind-numbingly dull magazine was better than staring at her feet.

Scorpius looked up as Rose slumped back into her chair, she looked back, they glared at one another before settling down and reading.

It took Rose only a couple of minutes to read the magazine from cover toe cover. Annoyed, she stood again to search Lily's trunk. All she found her magazines. She huffed as she threw herself back into her chair and flicked harshly between the pages, not really looking at them. As much as Rose loved her family, she wanted nothing more than to get away from Scorpius. She felt that anymore time spent near him and she would explode and argue with him for no reason.

The silence was irritating Scorpius. The flicking of the magazine pages was irritating him. The fact that he couldn't talk openly with an old friend irritated him. Everything about the situation he was in, was putting him on edge.

There was a sudden BANG and Rose looked up, shocked. Scorpius had slammed his book shut and was glaring at her.

"Yeah, there is someone else in this room!" he stood and took a step closer, irritation in his tone and movement. "While you keep on flicking through your crappy magazines, making loud noises, some people are trying to read! You should try it some time, it might boost your grades up to something decent."

Rose couldn't help herself, she stood and matched his irritation. "Oh shut up Malfoy, you're just bored! Stop being such a spoilt git and get over yourself."

"Why are you mad at me?!" Scorpius was nearing a shout.

"Oh, can a straight 'O' student like yourself not work it out?"

"Why are you bringing my grades into this?! We're not at school." Scorpius was really confused, which irritated him even more.

"I didn't bring grades into this, you did! Stop shoving your stupid grades in my face! The only reason neither of us did as well as we usually do in potions is because you decided to ignore me during the teamwork module!"

"You can't blame me for that failure!"

"Oh, but you can blame me?!" Rose raised her eyebrows "I hate you Malfoy, but I always thought that maybe you were decent enough to pull together and ignore our rivalry for the sake of our grades! But apparently not! You ruined both of our futures." Rose dumped the magazine on the chair and stormed out of the tent.

Scorpius was still angry and followed her out.

"Hey! This isn't all my fault!"

"Yes it is! I was ready to work with you! To save my grades I asked to change partners or even do the work myself!"

"So you were just looking out for your own grades? So who was the one not working as a team?!"

"You're such an arsehole Malfoy! I was looking out for myself because I couldn't count on you!"

"Well at least I'm not some stuck up, arse kissing, teachers pet Weasel who only looks out for herself!"

Rose clenched her fists and took a deep breath. "Maybe I had to be a 'teacher's pet' because you couldn't contribute to the work and would rather we both fail! I'm the only reason we didn't get a 'T' for Troll!"

"What did you just say?!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I was simply pointing out that you wouldn't have passed if it weren't for-"

"No! No that's not what you're saying! You a're saying I'm a failure and that I should be grateful to you! Is that not what you're saying?! That you're better than me?! That you're little miss perfect and I'm just some scum you got stuck with?!"

Rose was madder than ever, Scorpius was putting words in her mouth and making her seem like the bad guy. "Maybe that is what I'm saying!" she regretted those words immediately but kept on going as she was too proud to stop. "You let your personal life interfere with our grades and you ruined everything for me! You're not scum, you're just selfish! It's ok for you. Little rich boy just has to run to daddy and ask him to fix everything!" she put on a whiny voice to mock him. "'Daddy, my grades aren't high enough' or 'Daddy, because I almost failed an exam, it spoils my little line of straight 'O's and now no one will hire me because it will prove I can't work as a team. But oh well, we're rich. Can I have some money?'. I'm saying that you have tarnished my future! It's easy for you, you have money and connections. I only have whatever brains I have left. And thank you for reminding me that I can only rely on myself to get me through life!" Rose stormed away along the beach.

"But you admit that you never wanted to work with me?" Scorpius shouted at her and Rose stopped to listen. "You admit that you made everything a lot harder for yourself because you don't trust me. Fine! You're accepting that you think you're better than me? The only reason we failed was because you couldn't be bothered to make an effort!"

Rose was shaking with anger. "You think whatever you want Malfoy. You obviously are incapable of listening. I don't care" she charged on, away from Scorpius.

"So you're walking away?! So I win? That's it! You're accepting that it was all your fault!" Scorpius shouted.

"That's what you think Malfoy." Rose mumbled to herself. "You can take all the blame off yourself and be the spoilt brat we all know you are."

Despite announcing his victory in a very small part of teir rivalry, Scorpius felt horrid inside. He felt like throwing up or screaming into a pillow. He slumped back into his chair but couldn't concentrate on reading. His thoughts were full of how it really was his fault that his grades in potions weren't what he had wanted. He knew deep down inside that he was the one who had slipped up. Not Rose. Rose had actually tried.

Meanwhile Lunette and Albus had been walking in silence for over twenty minutes before Lunette got the courage to say anything.

"I love you Albus, I hope you know that." she said quietly.

Albus nodded, telling himself not to get his hopes up. She obviously only meant it as a friend.

"But only as a friend." Lunette said out loud, but to herself she added 'I think.'

"I know." Albus said. "And I love you too."

"But, Albus, I think the way you love me and the way I love you is very different."

Albus only nodded.

"But how do you know?" Lunette blurted out her burning question.

"What?"

"How do you know the difference in the way you love someone? I mean, I love you and I love Rose and I love Scorpius and I love my parents. And so do you, but how do you tell the difference between how you feel for each person?"

"Umm," Albus was stumped for a little while. "Well, I love Rose because she's family. It's the same as the way you feel about your parents or grandparents. They're family so you have to love them. But you also love the because of who they are and because even if they weren't family, you know they would treat you just the same and you would still love them."

"Right, I see. But how about Scorpius? You love Scorpius right?"

Albus felt extremely uncomfortable. "Well, yeah, I guess. He's my best mate. Yeah- I- I- it's not- I guess I do I love him, in a way. But it's very different to how I feel about you. Scorpius is a best mate, he's always there for me and so is Rose. I've grown up with Rose and I've had to endure prejudice, stereotypes and assumptions based on family history with Scorpius. But when it comes to you, I don't know. It's definitely different. When I look at you, I know that you're the one sit and think about. When I'm with you I feel like I can do anything because you're near. You- you give me strength. You even make me feel less awkward," Albus smiled

Lunette giggled.

Albus continued. "I know it may seem like I'm more awkward around you, but that's just because I'm constantly trying not to let my feelings get out of control and embarrass the both of us in the middle of the corridors. This is what I think is love. Love beyond friendship. But I guess love can only be mutual, so it all depends on how you feel. And deep down inside I think you know that you feel the same way. Lunette, you can take your time. Love is a big thing for a couple of sixteen year olds."

"But what makes you so sure that I feel the same way? I don't even know how I feel! You truly do amaze me Albus," Lunette smiled softly. "You say these wonderful things to me even though we've only known each other for a year."

"Lunette, the first time we met, I did something that would humiliate any girl. But you only laughed and smiled. That showed me that you must care deeply about me. The cola can is even an inside joke now. I have never been so certain about any feeling I've ever had. And you need to decide whether you feel the same. But I don't need answer straight away. You take all the time you need, and I mean it. I can wait for you. I'll always wait for you."

"And if I find that I don't love you this way?" Lunette was almost scared to ask.

Albus sighed. "If I love you enough, and I do, I will find a way to move on. Lunette I want you to have everything that will make you happy, whether or not it destroys me. And I know how good a friend you are, and I would never want to ruin what we already have. But for now, while you take all the time you need, I won't give up on you, on us."

Lunette felt like crying. "But Albus, I'm not some perfect girl! You know more about Rose and Felix going than I do, but from what I heard, he thought she was perfect and Rose knew that no one could ever live up to that!"

"Lunette." Albus stopped walking and placed a comforting hand on her cheek. "I know you're not perfect, I know I'm not perfect. Nobody is and nobody can be. But all I can promise is that I will continue to be your friend, whether you love me back or not."

Lunette's head dropped onto Albus's shoulder as they hugged. She sniffed and tried to tell herself not to cry.

"Thanks for explaining your feelings Albus, you put that really well."

Albus smiled and rubbed her back. "Thanks, I'm surprised I got any of that out. I've been thinking it for months but only now have I had the guts."

When they arrived back at the tent, it was eerily quiet.

"Have they finally killed each other?" Albus whispered to Lunette.

Lunette spotted ginger hair out of the corner of her eye, deeper in the forest. She nodded her head in that direction. Albus smiled and Lunette left him to find Rose. Albus silently opened the tent flap and saw Scorpius sulking in his chair.

"They're leaving right?" Scorpius asked angrily.

Albus answered yes.

"Good. I can't stand Weasley, it's bad enough she ruins my day to day at Hogwarts, now she had to ruin the only thing I look forward to every year."

Albus placed a comforting hand on Scorpius's shoulder and patted him a few times. He didn't have anything to say. Then so called 'them' Scorpius was angry about was his best friend and cousin and Lunette.

Scorpius sighed. "I'm sorry mate, I like Lunette, she's a good friend. But things have gone so badly for me and Weasley that it just makes me mad to see her."

"I know what you meant." Albus felt like he was between a rock and a hard place.

Lunette discovered that Rose had climbed up a tree, and Lunette herself was finding it difficult to reach her After a few minutes of trying, she simply called out for Rose.

"You don't suppose you could come down here could you?"

Rose smiled, somehow Lunette's attempts at climbing had amused her and clambed her down slightly.

Rather than climbing down, Rose simply dropped and landed on her feet to both her and Lunette's surprise. Yet her gracefulness didn't last long and she soon began wobble like normal Rose and had to use the tree trunk to stabalise her.

"Rose, it's only 4pm but if you want to leave now we can. I've talked to Albus."

"I'm only leaving when you want to Lunette, I'm not letting some argument between me and Scorpius get between you and Al."

"But I've talked to Al." Lunette said quickly in a more desperate voice than she meant to.

Rose understood. "You want to leave and think about it."

Lunette knew that Rose had figured out exactly what she was thinking, but she only shrugged and said in a high pitch and unconvincing voice. "Sure, whatever you want Rose."

"Alright, let me just say goodbye to my family and we can go."

LUNETTE'S HOME

Lunette spent the rest of the summer shut in her room, thinking hard about Albus and what she felt for him. When she told Rose this, her friend only smiled and said.

"So you've been thinking about him a lot?"

"Well, yeah. This is Albus, he means so much to me. I want to be sure of my decision."

Rose's smile just grew.