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.

6. Chapter 6 SIXTH YEAR

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE LAST CHAPTER, I KNOW IT WAS VERY LONG. ANY FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED BUT PLEASE NOTHING MEAN. I'M STILL A HUMAN BEING WITH FEELINGS. SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF LUNETTE. NOW BACK INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF J. 'S HARRY POTTER. THIS IS MY INTERPRETATION USING NONE OF MY OWN CHARACTERS.

SIXTH YEAR. 24 YEARS LATER

ON THE TRAIN

Lunette hadn't said anything since Rose had spotted her on the platform. It was weird. Rose felt uncomfortable for the first time around Lunette. After half an hour of silence, she saw Wesley McLaggen walk past. She knew that if Wesley was making his way to the prefect compartment before her, then she was really late.

She said a quick goodbye to Lunette, who didn't seem to notice, and made her way to the prefect compartment. There, just like last year, the only free space was next to Scorpius. They scowled at one another then turned their attention to the new Head Boy and Girl.

"Dom?!" Rose exclaimed when she saw the new Head Girl.

"Hi!" Dominique waved enthusiastically. "I'm the new Head Girl! Surprise! Just like my dad was. And I wasn't even a prefect."

Rose grinned "You kept this one quiet."

Dom smiled mischievously. "I know, brilliant surprise right? I just hope I do well."

"You'll be great Dom."

"Thanks, anyway moving on..."

As they were all happily listening, someone spoke up in a groan.

"Why do we even have to do this? It's stupid. No one cares about prefects. I didn't even want to be one!"

Rose instantly assumed it was Scorpius and snapped her head to the left to glare at him but he was already glaring at someone else. Lloyd Parkinson. Rose grit her teeth. What idiot made him a prefect? Last year she didn't seem him at all, that was because he spent most of his time in detention for bullying first years. Her poor cousin Louis got it bad.

Dom glared at Lloyd. But spoke calmly. "You're Parkinson, right?"

Lloyd shrugged, "What's it to you?"

"Headmaster Fairweather is a good man, he believes in people even if they're screw ups like you who the rest of us think don't deserve it. You got in tones of trouble last year so Fairweather thought he'd give you a chance at authority to see it makes you wake up and act more mature. As Head Girl and Boy, we have been given an extra responsibility this year to make you respect fellow students and to obey the teachers. You step one toe out of line and you could be facing expulsion. Parkinson, you have two weeks to prove to us that you can do it or we'll get your arse kicked out of here quicker than you can say quidditch. Do I make myself clear?"

Rose smugly smiled. 'That's my cousin.' She thought proudly to herself.

Lloyd was obviously intimidated by Dom and begrudgingly nodded.

"Jees, no need to be such a bitch. I thought Hufflepuffs were meant to be pushovers." Lloyd mumbled.

Don didn't hear this snide comment but the new Head Boy, John, a Gryffindor boy who was friends with Roxanne, had heard and stepped forward.

"That's strike one Parkinson. You have two chances left, play nice."

Lloyd rolled his eye but still breathed a small sigh of relief for getting away with it. As the rest of the prefects filed out to patrol the corridors, John waited for Lloyd who was the last one out.

"Oh, by the way, as soon as we get to Hogwarts, you've got a detention with Professor Longbottom."

"What?! What did I do?!" Lloyd was outraged.

"No one calls the Head Girl a bitch. How dare you undermine us, we have been chosen specially to represent and be a model to our fellow students."

Albus walked past the compartment Lunette was in, she was staring hard out the window.

"Lunette? Are you ok?" Albus asked softly

"What? Oh, hi Albus." Lunette smiled sweetly at him.

"How was the rest of your summer?"

"Oh, well, I've been thinking very hard about how I feel for you. And it's very frustrating."

Albus felt concerned. "What's wrong? I'm sorry, I've made everything worse. I've ruined this friendship haven't I?" He then proceeded to bang his head on the window.

Lunette stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's not you Albus, I'm frustrated with myself. I don't know how I feel about you exactly and it's making me angry at myself."

"Well, do you know how you want to feel about me?"

Lunette bit her lip and nodded.

"Do you think you might just feel the way you want to?"

Lunette sighed and shrugged. "I don't know Albus, that's what I'm trying to work out." she reached out and held his hand. "Thanks for being patient and thanks for not giving up on me. I know this wait is hurting, but I just need a little more time to think. I don't want to mess up when it comes to you."

Albus forced a smile. "I understand, and I don't want to mess up when it comes to you either. So you take all the time you need."

Lunette nodded and went back to staring out the window. Louis was walking past, now in his third year at Hogwarts. He spotted Lunette and made conversation, Hugo and Lily, both in their fourth year, soon joined them. Lily, being a chatterbox entertained them all, Hugo constantly offered hugs and Louis's naturally cheerful and kind personality all combined to distract Lunette from her internal question about her feelings for Albus. Albus himself managed to sneak out while his cousins cheered up Lunette. He could see that he had been the cause of Lunette's unusual quietness. Albus mentally kicked himself for even bringing up his feelings.

'Why am I so stupid? I've ruined a perfectly good friendship simply because I had to have feelings for the most amazing person in the world.' Albus thought to himself. He thought he understood why Rose wasn't massive fan of feelings, especially those that she couldn't hide and physically made her look upset.

Albus ran into Rose in the corridor, he only nodded at her before moving on. Rose caught his arm as he tried to pass.

"Albus, it's not your fault Lunette hasn't answered yet. She just cares about you a great deal and wants to make the right decision."

Albus nodded and muttered. "I know."

FIRST DAY

Professor Neville Longbottom, Head of Gryffindor and herbology teacher, was handing out the new school year timetable to each student. Rose and her roommate Phil were just moaning about the fact that they were stuck with Slytherin for potions and care of magical creatures, when James and Lorcan suddenly popped next to Rose.

"Hey there cuz!" James said cheerfully.

His cheerfulness, especially since it was morning, and the fact that he was hugging her, irritated Rose. She scowled at him. James took the hint and let go of her.

"So, dearest cousin, ready for quidditch tryouts next week?"

Rose shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Awesome!" Lorcan grinned

"Please tell me that you're taking this seriously Rose, You know that quidditch is the only thing I can't joke about."

Rose smiled and patted James on the shoulder. "It's alright, you'll be happy to know that I'm actually nervous about the tryouts "

James sighed with relief and was about to speak again when he heard his little sister shouting.

"I said piss off arsehole! I've said no about a thousand times and I'm not about to change my mind after a few minutes." Lily was shouting at a fellow Gryffindor in her year. She stormed off and sat between Roxanne and Hugo and opposite Rose.

"Are you ok Lils?" Hugo asked as he gave her a hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that this guy and his friend keep on asking me out. I mean, it's only our first day and they're asking me out?! I mean, they never even noticed me before. What's changed? Have they suddenly become idiots?..." Lily began to waffle on about nonsense while Rose finished her toast, not really paying attention. It was like that with Lily, she would ramble on and you only really needed to listen to her first few sentences to know what was going on. Rose looked at each of them, James was staring at his ex girlfriend Lucile, Hugo was nodding along but it was easy to tell that he was think of something else and Roxanne was looking at Lily but not listening. Lorcan seemed to be the only one actually hearing what she was saying. Rose knew this because, unlike the rest of them, he was nodding at the right times.

"Lils, if I might interrupt here." Roxanna spoke up. "I think I know why they're asking you out. You've gotten a lot hotter over the summer."

"Excuse me?" Lily was confused.

James got uncomfortable, hearing people talk about how hot his sister was, was not something he liked. He stood up awkwardly and had to physically drag Lorcan away from Lily, but once he explained that he wanted to shout at the guys that had bothered Lily, Lorcan was quite ready to help. Hugo felt uncomfortable too and made an excuse to go and talk to Scorpius and Albus on the Slytherin table.

"You're hot Lily!" Roxanne continued. "And guys tend to notice these things. You've grown taller, your hair is longer and you've, you know, filled out more."

Lily laughed until she realised that Roxanne was serious. Rose could see what she meant, Lily looked older and more mature.

"Lily, you're turning fifteen soon right? You're really coming into your teenage years, and by the looks of things, these years might just be very kind to you."

Phil looked Lily up and down and added. "Lunette is the prettiest girl in school right? She's one quarter veela, well you're almost as pretty and you've got no veela in you. You, Lunette and your cousin Dom are the prettiest girls in school right now. You're going to be getting a lot of attention. Ugh, I envy you-"

"Ok, how about you stop talking Phil." Rose said quickly with a smile to shut her friend up, seeing how Lily was scowling at Phil. Lily wasn't a massive fan of Rose's roommates Phil, Mel and Anna.

Rose stood and dragged Phil off to their first lesson. Herbology. They were dealing with more dangerous plants than ever in Herbology but at least Longbottom allowed them to swear loudly if the Venomous Tentacula seized them unexpectedly from behind. He had sworn multiple time in front of the students, now it was their turn.

When Rose and Phil were gone Lily mumbled to Hugo. "I don't want to be noticed because apparently I'm suddenly pretty. I want to be smart like Rose."

Hugo hugged her again. "I know how you feel."

Lily laughed.

"Well, kind of. I mean, I want to be as smart as Rose but I think I got my dad's brains." Hugo shrugged.

Later that afternoon, Phil ran off to meet up with Mel who was still having a crisis as to whether she should hang out with Phil and Rose, her real friends, or Anna and Robin, the two girls that ignored her and only cared about boys.

Rose went to the library. She saw Scorpius and sat three tables away, they were both doing the same homework for History of Magic, they saw each other's textbooks. If it were anyone else in the world, they would be working together.

"Ventus." Scorpius muttered and a small gust of wind blew Rose's parchment around. As she frantically picked up her parchment, she heard Scorpius sniggering and knew instantly that it was on purpose.

Rose rolled her eyes and whispered a jinx back. "Flipendo". This jinx was meant to knock over the recipient but as Scorpius was sitting down, he and his chair simply toppled to the side. Rose hid a grin as the librarian eyed them suspiciously.

Scorpius was about to jinx Rose back when both he and Rose dropped their wands without meaning to. Their heads spun to where the disarming charm had come from. Lunette was grinning mischievously at Rose and Scorpius from the other side of the room. They rolled their eyes and went back to work. Lunette was working so hard, otherwise she would have joined them, or made her two friends sit together with her.

The sound of giggling and quiet chatter irritated Rose and Scorpius so much that they both looked over to the windows at the same time. A bunch of third years were staring and gossiping about someone.

They were looking at Lunette.

"She won't be single for long after we leave Hogwarts." one of them said not so quietly.

Her friend scoffed. "Are you kidding? A girl as pretty as that, there are two possible outcomes. Either she falls in love straight away or she's single forever and dies an old maid."

"Why would she die an old maid?"

"Two reasons. One, because she thinks she's too pretty and too good for anyone or two, because no one dares ask her out because they think she's too pretty or too good for them because that's how pretty but stupid girls think."

Lunette had heard. She held back tears, scooped up her belongings and ran out of the library. The annoying third years just laughed more and continued.

"I tell you, if the second reason is true, then only the good for nothing cocky guys will talk to her and she might just have enough sense in that pretty little head to not go for them."

"Ugh, it'll be a shame to see such a pretty face get old and lonely-"

"Merlin's beard! Shut up!" Rose and Scorpius found themselves standing and shouting at the two girls at the same time. They scowled at one another but decided their hatred could wait.

"How dare you say such things about a close friend of mine? Lunette Tinker is not just 'another pretty face'! She's kind, generous and a genius at potions! Despite what others may think." Rose scowled.

Scorpius turned to her, momentarily forgetting the other girls and that he hated Rose. "She's good at potions?" he asked in a normal tone as if he were speaking to Albus. "Oh, I didn't know that."

Rose nodded. "She's brilliant, better than either of us, talk to Al about it." Rose almost smiled, their brief discussion about Lunette made her also forget that she hated him.

"Lunette doesn't judge anyone and the least the rest of us can do is not judge her!" Scorpius went back to shouting at the girls.

"And besides, why does it even matter whether she may or may not marry?! Why are you assuming that she even wants to be married? Who put it into your tiny brains that all girls ever think about is marriage or dating?"

"Exactly! Lunette is talented and she's a people person! She has a bright and successful future ahead of her and all you lot think about is if she's pretty enough to get a man!"

One of the girls scoffed and rolled her eyes in a very stereotypical teenage way. "Jees, don't get your knickers in a twist. Ugh, we were only talking anyway, you shouldn't be so rude, listening into other people's conversations."

Her friend nodded in agreement and replied in a very annoying and whiny tone. "Yeah, like, whatever we want to talk about, is, like, none of your business."

Rose grit her teeth and clenched her fists, she turned around and told herself to breath and be patient. Scorpius raked his hands through his hair in frustration. These third years were just too irritating.

"It's our business because she's our friend!"

"Yeah! Go and gossip about your own petty lives and leave our friend alone. She deserves better than your pathetic assumptions based on her looks."

The third year boy standing behind them and looking bored finally spoke. "Wait, she's your friend? As in, Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley-"

"Granger-Weasley!" Rose interrupted but was ignored.

"You guys actually have the same friends. So you're actually friends too? Ah, this is great, Chris is gonna die when I tell him! Malfoy and Weasley actually like each other." He began laughing, until he noticed the angry faces of Rose and Scorpius had just got ten times scarier,

"We are not friends! I hate her!"

"I would never be friends with this twa- with him!"

"And so what if we're both friends with Lunette?! What's it to you?" Scorpius had gone back to raking his hands through his hair

"Lunette is amazing enough to be anyone's friend! Stop judging people that you're not lucky enough to know."

"Now get lost or it's a detention with Professor Stockett for all of you!"

Once the third years had literally ran away, Rose and Scorpius were told to leave. Amid all the shouting, they hadn't heard the librarian trying to shush them. As soon as they marched out, Rose sharply turned to Scorpius.

"You can't threaten them with detention! They technically didn't break any rules."

"I don't care! Lunette is our friend and I would've gotten angry with them whether or not they were gossiping about one of my best friends. But you wouldn't, all you care about are the precise rules."

Rose snorted in disbelief. "Oh right, because you're so moral." she mocked sarcastically. "If it were me they were gossiping about, you would just join in or let it slide! So don't act all high and mighty, whether you like or not Malfoy, you know I'm right." Rose poked him in the chest.

"Oh yeah, and what if they were bad mouthing and making assumptions about me?! You would just join in too!" Scorpius poked her arm back.

"No, I wouldn't Malfoy! But I would probably just ignore it."

"Ha! I win!"

"At least I'm honest, you wanker!" Rose stormed off.

Scorpius kicked the wall in frustration and stared out the nearby window.

"Are you ok?" A soft and apprehensive voice drifted towards him

"What?!" Scorpius said a bit too forcefully. He spun around and saw it was Katie Webb. "Oh, sorry, yeah I'm fine. It's Webb right?"

Katie nodded. "You can say it you know, I know that everybody calls me that."

"Huh?" Scorpius hadn't really been listening. He had never had a proper conversation with Katie but on the rare occasion when she did interact with other people, normally Katie would only say a few words before moving on to the library. "Call you what?"

Katie shrugged and went slightly red. "I know people call me the friendless Ravenclaw. I'm a nobody and an outsider. Only Rose and Albus have actually talked to me."

Scorpius nodded and stared out the window again. He didn't want to talk about Rose.

"You know," Katie broke the silence. "I heard you and Rose defending Tinker. That was a nice thing to do. She must be as great as you guys say."

"She really is an awesome person and a great friend."

"No, I mean yeah, but Tinker must be a really good person and a really close friend to both of you. I mean, she has to be, otherwise you and Rose wouldn't have come together in agreement so quickly."

"Yeah, Lunette's one of my best friends and she just so happens to be Weasley's too. I don't actually think either of us mind that we have to share her. So much as I hate Weasley, she's not bad at being a friend if you deserve it." for some reason talking about Rose was actually calming Scorpius down. He had been sure it would only anger him further.

Katie smiled. "You should know. I remember back in first year when you guys and Albus were inseparable."

"That was a long time ago. But you're her friend right? So you're not the so called 'friendless Ravenclaw.'."

"Yeah, she's great. She even gives up her Hogsmeade weekends to hang out with me if she's too busy during the week."

"What?" Scorpius had never heard about this before.

"Umm, yeah, I thought you knew. Pretty much, if you don't see Rose in Hogsmeade, she's hanging out with me in the library. We don't talk much, but from what I gather, she'd rather be inside and away from people. Come on, you must have noticed that she isn't there sometimes?"

Scorpius nodded slowly. "I have, but I assumed she was avoiding me."

Katie chuckled. "You guys argue everyday, I'm pretty sure you seek each other out just to fight. I don't think either of you are trying to avoid each other."

It dawned on Scorpius that Katie might just be right. And it scared him.

"I'll see you around Scorpius." Katie waved goodbye.

"Yeah, see ya. Maybe I'll hang around with again Katie, you're not so bad."

"And you're not so bad yourself Scorpius."

QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS, END OF SEPTEMBER.

Rose felt sick with nerves. It was the day of the tryouts. She was ready, she had been practising all summer, she knew she was amazingly good but her nerves were still getting to her. Hugo, Lily and Lunette forced her to eat some toast before she left. It was too early, Mel wasn't awake yet and Phil was also too nervous to wish Rose luck.

As Rose and Phil approached the changing rooms, she heard James talking miserably to someone. She stopped and listened, not wanting to intrude. She told Phil to go ahead and wait on the pitch.

"But, Lucile, I really like you. I've always really liked you. I may have dated other girls-"

"Tonnes of other girls!"

"Yeah, but you were always special. I break up with people all the time and it means nothing to me, but when I broke up with you, it hurt like hell. I really, really like you Lucile. "

"And I really really like a good scone with jam and clotted cream, but I'm not going on a date with it." Lucile retorted.

Rose heard James laugh a bit. "You see Lucile, even though you're hurting me by saying no in a ridiculous way, you still make me laugh. How is it you can make me desperate and heartbroken but still make me smile?"

"James! We tried going out a few times and it never worked."

"One more chance Lucile?" James pleaded.

"How many times are you going to say that? If I give you this chance and we mess it up again, I don't think either of us could go through a break up again. We're leaving this year James, let's just be friends for our last year."

"Lucile, please-"

"No. I can't do it again. Look, I think you're pretty special too but I think it's time we grew up and found other people. I'll always like you James, but we have to move on from petty little school romances that will mean nothing in the long run."

"Nothing? I meant nothing to you-"

"No! Ok, that came out wrong. But I think that when you find the lucky lass who's going to stick with you forever, I'll just be a distant but happy memory. And the same goes for me."

"Well good luck today." James sounded defeated.

"Thanks James." Lucile kissed him on the cheek. "I hope I'm good enough to stay on the team."

"So do I." James sighed and Lucile walked out.

Rose quickly ducked out of sight so Lucile wouldn't see that she had been listening in. She left it a few moments before making her way into the changing rooms to give James a chance to leave, but he didn't, so she just barged in.

"You heard all that right?" James said as soon as he realised it was Rose in the room with him.

Rose dumped her bag under one of the benches pushed along the walls and nodded. "Yep."

James sighed and slumped on bench. "Well there you have it, evidence that James Sirius Potter has a heart. He is not just an awesome prankster."

Rose sat beside him and sympathetically patted his arm. "I always knew you had a heart. Remember, you are practically an older brother to me."

"I don't know what to do Rose."

"Well, neither do I. But I do know what you're going to do right this second. You are going to go out on to that pitch and be the best quidditch captain that we all know that you are. You are going to be encouraging and fair. You will show people that James Sirius Potter is not just an awesome prankster, but an amazing organiser who is passionate about quidditch too."

"Thanks Rose. I hope to have you on my team this year." He patted her on the back as he stood. "But are you up for the competition? Everyone who turns up to these tryouts are serious and determined to get on the team."

"Oh I am ready for it. Bring it on."

Rose was brilliant on the quidditch pitch. She tried out for keeper and shocked everyone. The very fact that she could stay on a broom with perfect balanced was a surprise to most, but the fact that she was better than all of those trying for keeper was amazing. But, after reflection, most students knew that they shouldn't have been too shocked. Rose seemed to excel in everything she did.

Once all the students trying out had landed safely on the ground, James announced to them all that the list of those who made the team would be in the Gryffindor common room in a couple of hours. All were very anxious. Most of the usual players wished Rose luck and that they hoped to be playing alongside her.

Rose spotted Albus on her way back to her room and stopped to chat.

"How's it going Al?"

Albus shrugged. "Have you seen Lunette? I feel like she's avoiding me."

"Well, it is quidditch tryout day. I'm assuming she's waiting around for the Hufflepuff tryouts in a little bit. I'm surprised you're not there, I would have thought that Malfoy would be trying out now and you watching him."

Albus shrugged again. "I was there for a little bit but I decided to go for a walk."

Rose placed a hand on on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "Albus, are you sure you're ok?"

Albus shrugged to get her off of him. "I'm fine Rose, I'm just going to go back to the pitch. I should be cheering on Scorp. I'm not being a good friend."

"Well, in my opinion Malfoy doesn't deserve as good a friend as you."

Albsu gave a weak smile and trudged away.

LATER THAT NIGHT

The list was up in the common room. Everyone was crowded around it after dinner while James sat smugly my the window. He was very proud of his decisions and of his new team. He had three new players, including Rose, and he hoped that they would be up for the challenge. He already had a written down schedule for practises and a couple of strategies he was hoping to work out with the team. His smile widened when he heard the excited shouts of those he had picked for the team.

James Potter….Captain/Chaser

Lucile Pond….Chaser

Roxanne Weasley….Chaser

Lorcan Scamander….Beater

Philomela Abel-Roy….Beater

Rose Granger-Weasley….Keeper

Ben Rome….Seeker

James's smile, however, disappeared as soon as he heard a very loud Grant Hathaway, who had tried out for chaser for the third year in a row, started complaining that James only ever chose his friends and family for the team. Lorcan sat next to James and was about to thank him when Grant went on a rant. They both rolled their eyes and James stood on the windowsill to make announcement to the whole common room.

"Oi! Fellow students! I chose the players for this years Gryffindor team because they were the best. Ok, so it's true that two of my cousins made the team, Roxanna and Rose, and yes neither of them have ever made the team before. That's because Rose has been, for years, too stubborn to let her talents be shown. And Roxanne has been a sub for any player that might not be able to play on the day of the match for three years. She just really proved herself to be better this year. Also, Lorcan and Lucile are on the team again, yes they have been my great friends for years, but they're amazing at quidditch. If you don't believe me, just watch us wipe the floor with Ravenclaw in a couple of weeks. If you didn't make the team, it means that you weren't good enough and need to practise more, or it was because you are incapable of working in a team. Thanks for listening, or whatever." James jumped down from the windowsill and saw Lucile smiling at him. His speech had let her know that he was ready just to be a friend for their last year.

James spotted Phil and high-fived her. "Abel-Roy, good work keeping up with Lorcan last year. And from your tryout this year, I expect you to do just as well this year too."

"Who's Ben Rome?" Rose asked Phil and James.

"Some kid in your year who I never noticed before." James said as he pointed to the tall dark haired boy in the corner.

Rose decided to go and introduce herself.

"Hey, it's Ben right? Well, I don't think we've ever spoken before. I'm Rose-"

"Yeah, I know you. We've been in a lot of the same classes since first year."

Rose's ears went slightly pink. "I'm really sorry, I guess I just never noticed you before."

Ben gave a wide grin. "It's cool, most people didn't. I grew loads over the summer and now people can't really ignore me. I think it's because I was never friends with the popular guys like Grant or Wesley."

Rose nodded. "Probably, I mean, those guys just always steal the spotlight. They're twats aswell so it's probably best that you weren't friends with them." She turned and they both watched as Grant and Wesley were sulking in the corner. "Crap, you're not friends with them now are you? Have I just slagged off your friends? Because I meant every word, but you don't seem to be the same as them."

Ban laughed. "No, not at all. They kind of bullied in our first and second year. But you were friends with Slytherins so you weren't around a lot to see."

"If it helps, I'm not friends with Malfoy now." Rose smiled.

Ben laughed again. "That is a tragedy, for him. You seem like a really great person."

"Thanks. I'll see you in class." Rose waved and made her towards Phil but Hugo intercepted her.

"Rose, there's someone who wants to talk to you." He said, his eyes flickering between her and the portal covered by the fat lady.

Rose didn't understand why her brother was acting so weird.

"Who?"

"Well, someone who's name I don't think would be very well received if I said it too loud."

Rose rolled her eyes, there were only a few people it could be.

"They're outside the common room?"

Hugo nodded. Rose sighed and trudged out, when Phil asked her where she was going Rose only said 'prefect duties.'

Rose pushed open the fat lady portrait and looked around the corridor. It was cold and dark around the walls where the candlelight did not reach. There she saw Scorpius, staring out of a window.

She cleared her throat to notify him that she was there.

"Weasley?" he asked, not bothering to turn around.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Rose sounded grumpy, Scorpius was beginning to regret coming. Rose joined him at the window, the stars were beautiful as always.

"Waiting for Lunette's answer is driving Albus mad." Scorpius finally said

"I've noticed, poor guy."

"Is there anyway, and bare in mind that I wouldn't be asking you of all people for romantic advice if I had any other options. But since you know Lunette better than me-"

"You want to know how to make Lunette realise her feelings quicker by getting Albus to show her that he's the guy for her?"

"How did you know-?"

"I've been thinking about the same thing for weeks too. Lunette likes someone she can be easy and confident around. Someone she can talk to about family issues, quidditch, potions and general stuff that would seem boring to anyone else but is actually important to her. She likes to be sure, confident and loved enough by the person she is with to know that she can use her Metamorphmagus powers without feeling judged. Her favourite colour is purple, she loves hot chocolate and she likes Albus a lot more than she realises, even on the verge of love."

"What? So she must know how she feels about him already?"

"Damn, I don't think I was supposed to say that last one." Rose smiled smugly.

"But why hasn't she talked to him?! Why aren't they already living happily ever after?!"

"Because Lunette values friendship above everything. And Albus is a friend she is not prepared to let go of yet. She fears that they'll break up within a couple of weeks and their friendship will never be the same again."

"She's right, if they break up, their friendship is over. And not because either of them are bad at being friends, but because-"

"Because they like each other so much that their feelings will never completely go away." Rose finished his sentence.

They both sighed at the same time then sent a small but awkward smile to one another.

"Oh, you owe me two Galleons. I told you they wouldn't be together over the summer."

"Ah, true, but you did say start of September, well it's the middle of September now. So neither of us won."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I was the closest so I win, you owe me."

"Nope. Neither of us were right."

"Fine, if you want to be let off on a technicality." Rose teased.

"It's not a technicality! They're not together-!" Scorpius realised that Rose was just trying to wind him and stared at the stars again. "Right, I see. Well five Galleons says they'll be together before Albus's birthday."

Rose shook her head and held out her hand. "I say after Al's birthday but before Christmas."

Scorpius shook her hand. He looked around the empty corridor and held onto her for a little while longer. Rose's ears turned red as she realised what he was doing. But she didn't let go. For several minutes, either one of them could have let go. But they didn't. They stared out at the stars, holding hands. The intimacy was comforting after such a stressful day of quidditch trials, failing to cheer up Albus and impatiently waiting for the quidditch team announcements.

The sudden appearance of James and Lily as they burst through the fat lady portrait, startled Scorpius and Rose into letting go. And each wondered why on earth they had held on for so long. Scorpius slipped into the shadows and silently made his way back to the Slytherin common room before James and Lily could see him.

"I said no! There is no way that you're dating him!" James shouted.

"Oh yeah? And who are you to say who I can and cannot date?!" Lily retorted.

"I'm your brother! I've an obligation to be protective of you!"

"No you don't!"

"Oh, so you can be protective of me and hate every girl I've ever dated, but I can't give a tiny bit of advice when it comes to your first boyfriend?!"

"But it wasn't a tiny bit of advice was it?! NO! You shouted at him for even talking to me, ordered me not to date him, screamed at me when I tried to tell you to bugger off and mind your own business, and then dragged me out here!"

Rose cleared her throat.

"Great!" Lily beamed. Rose noticed that even Lily's smile was more radiant and inviting than usual, no wonder guys were falling over her. "Would you please tell James that I can date whoever I want and it's none of his business!"

"No! Rose, can you please tell Lily that she's being unreasonable and she can't date Cecil!"

Rose frowned with confusion. "Which one is Cecil?"

James rolled his eyes and folded his arms. Lily scowled at him and huffed. "Cecil Pond, Lucile Pond's little brother. He's in Lily's year and rarely speaks to her or Hugo. He's one of the popular fourth year kids and he's no good!"

"Oh, shut up James! Just because you like Lucile, doesn't mean that I can't date her brother-"

"Merlin's beard." Rose mumbled and rolled her eyes. "Shut up both of you! James, she can date whoever she wants and it's none of your business unless she gets hurt. Lily, don't date Cecil-"

"But-" Lily tried to argue.

"As a friend, I say don't date Cecil because I heard he tells his friends everything and even makes up a lot of stuff. And as your cousin, I know you well enough that I'm pretty sure that you would never date the brother of the girl that your brother likes. Does that make sense?"

Lily shrugged, she turned to James. "I was about to say no to him, but you interfered and that pissed me off. Look, I know that you like Lucile a great deal and Rose is right, I would never do anything to ruin your chances with her."

"You think I have a chance with her?" James asked sheepishly and Rose held in a chuckle.

"I hope so, she's the only girlfriend that you ever had that I kind of liked."

James hugged Lily. "Thanks Lils." he gently punched Rose in the arm in an affectionate way. "And thanks Rose."

END OF SEPTEMBER

It was the last lesson of the day. Gryffindors had potions with the Slytherins. Rose and Scorpius glared at one another as they entered the room. But both were glad that they wouldn't have to work together this year and they were each keen to prove their talents to the professor, baring in mind the train wreck that was the previous year.

The overpowering smell of rain, new parchment and freshly cut grass wafted into Scorpius's nose as he walked past the simmering caldron on the professor's desk. 'Ew, stupid potion stinks like Weasel.' Scorpius thought and was starting to tell Albus but the professor started the lesson.

"Hey Albus, don't you think this potion stinks like-"

"Now, can anyone tell me what this potions is?"

Rose's hand shot up, Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Yes Miss Weasley?"

"It's Amortentia sir. The most powerful love potion. The smell is different to each person and smells of what attracts them the most."

Scorpius turned very pale, more so than usual. Albus noticed and gave him a confused look which was ignored.

"Very good. Do you mind giving an example of what you can smell? You don't have to if you don't want-"

"I smell, peppermint and old books," Rose's dreamy smile dropped. Her eyes widened and her voice was just above a whisper. Her heart thumped loudly and quickly in her chest. "An-a-and rain, a muddy pitch after a rainstorm..." Rose's voice trailed off as her ears got redder and redder. She sat up quickly and spoke in a hurried voice. "Do you mind if I go to the toilet sir?"

Before the professor had even finished saying the word 'yes', Rose shot out of the classroom to splash her face with water. She tripped on her bag twice while exiting the door.

Albus looked at Scorpius, who was staring at the door. Albus put on a sly grin and nudged Scorpius. "So what were you going to say?"

"Oh, um, nothing." Scorpius croaked. "What does it smell like to you?"

Albus leaned closer to the potion and smiled. "It smells exactly like what I thought it would."

"And what's that Mr Potter?" the professor spoke loudly as Scorpius and Albus's conversation kept on interrupting him.

"Oh, sorry sir." Albus quickly stepped back next to Scorpius.

"No no, I want to know. I understand that this is a personal experience but you said that it smelt like you thought it would. Care to share with us?"

Albus went bright red. "Oh right, well, to me, to me at least, it um- it um smells like hot chocolate and, um, the seaside and candy floss and well, the smoke from a bonfire."

Scorpius's eyes widened. But he was stopped from asking questions as Albus was repeatedly hitting his head on the desk.

"Why did I do that?" he asked Scorpius who was trying to stop him from hitting his head again.

Scorpius shook his head, he didn't know why. He spent the rest of the class staring at the door, Rose did not come back. Scorpius wondered what could have freaked her out so much that it made her not come back to class. 'Then again,' he thought to himself, 'I'm so confused that I'm not even making notes.'

After class he whispered to Albus, "So you really think Lunette is the one huh?"

"Yeah. I really do."

Rose couldn't think for the rest of the day. She tried doing a history essay but kept on getting distracted by the faint smell of peppermint, old books and rain, a muddy pitch after a rainstorm. They didn't all come at once, but the memory of what she had experienced drifted back and forth. It confused her to no end. And when something confused Rose, it made her irritated. She eventually gave up in the library, said goodnight to Katie Webb and made her way back to the common room. Rose wasn't in the mood for talking to anyone, she couldn't concentrate on what they were saying, so she went to bed early. While getting dressed she stubbed her toe twice and tripped while putting on her pajama bottoms before eventually flopping onto the bed with an open book resting on her chest. Even The Hobbit wasn't enough to keep her from getting distracted.

It was around midnight when Phil noticed that Rose was still not asleep. When she, Anna and Mel had gone to bed, Rose had been staring at the ceiling and didn't talk to them so Phil left her alone. But the fact that Rose hadn't moved started to worry her.

"Rose?" Phil whispered. Rose answered with a groan. Phil crept out of her bed and sat on the end to Rose's. "Rose, what's wrong?"

Rose suddenly sat up straight and whispered back. "What did the Amortentia potion smell like to you?" Rose was deadly serious.

"Oh, um" Phil was taken back by her bluntness. "Well, it smelt like, you know, freshly brewed coffee and coconuts and mangos, that sort of thing. I didn't really have a proper whiff of it. After you ran out of the room all flustered, the professor thought it best to put it away and we had to sit there and make notes about it." Phil shrugged then looked properly at Rose. "Why? Did the smell remind you of anyone?" she leaned in very interestedly as if someone had a new piece of gossip dangling on a fish hook right in front of her.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh never mind, I don't know why I even asked. Look, it's just a bit weird don't you think?"

Phil shrugged again. "Rose I'm a muggle born. My mums are muggles, my brother is a muggle, I checked and my biological dad is a muggle. To me, all of this is weird. But I love it and I try not to get too worked up over stuff like the smell of a potions, no matter what it says about what you're attracted to. Because I know there'll be something new and just as weird come Monday morning."

Rose nodded. "You're right, I need to stop thinking about it, it's just a very small thing in my life. I need to focus on other, more important, things."

Phil smiled and hopped off Rose's bed. "Goodnight."

"Yeah, goodnight."

The next day was very ordinary. Rose and Scorpius woke up, hid their confusion over the previous days potions lesson and tried to act normal. They each had breakfast with their friends and hexed one another as they exited the great hall at the same time. While Scorpius went to quidditch practise, Rose went to visit Hagrid. And after that she went to her quidditch practise, Rose saw Scorpius leaving the changing rooms and sent a hex that made him sneeze constantly. She smugly grinned as she hid behind her fellow teammates.

The only thing that had been different was the distinct lack of Lunette showing up during the day. She often made a point of leaving her Hufflepuff friends for a couple of hours and talking to Scorpius and Rose as they were her best friends.

Lunette was having a pretty bad day. She got up late, like she did every Saturday, and instantly her thoughts went to Albus. This made her feel quite happy until she realised that she couldn't talk to him. On her way to breakfast Lunette saw Albus, he briefly turned around and Lunette went to him to have a chat but her mouth went dry, she squeaked and ran back to the Hufflepuff common room. She looked at the notice board and saw that she didn't have quidditch practise until the following day. So Lunette made a plan to spend the whole day in her room and only sneak out to go to the kitchens if she was hungry. Lunette was a people person and usually quite cheerful, so her roommates noticed that something was up.

After dinner, Lunette successfully snuck into the kitchens. She sat on the very low down table, surrounded by elves that were happy to see her. She just just about to ask for food when someone slid a huge hot chocolate her way. Lunette looked up to see a smiling Albus.

"Hi."

"Hey." Lunette took a sip of the hot chocolate and smiled.

"So, you're not your usual self today?" Albus sat beside her.

Lunette shrugged. "No, I'm pretty much my usual self as always." She took another sip of hot chocolate

to hide her face.

"Lunette, I like to think that I know you pretty well. Just like I know Rose pretty well and she told me that she hasn't seen you at all today. And I think that's unusual. You see, because you are a people person, Lunette, you like to talk to your friends and if you don't have time for all of them on the same day, you shuffle things around and find time to be an amazing friend. Rose isn't a people person, in fact she doesn't like people as a general rule. But she's just a loyal friends as you are, if she doesn't seem to have time for those she loves, she makes time for them. So I think it's pretty unusual that the two of you haven't spoken let alone seen each other today."

Lunette sighed. "I'm just having an off day."

Albus placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, butterflies filled his stomach. "What's wrong."

"I'm just trying to figure everything out. I'm over thinking everything and it's making me miserable."

Albus smiled. "I have an idea, once you finish your hot chocolate, I'll show you something."

Lunette frowned with confusion, but one look at Albus's shining face wiped away all her questions. She downed her drink in one, slightly burning her tongue, and stood.

Albus thanked the elves then turned to Lunette. "I'm going to show you how over thinking everything can be fun!" He took her hand in his and the ran out of the kitchen.

First he took Lunette to watch James and Lorcan setting up a prank. They were placing ten Weasley Wet Weather (tall glass jars with an umbrella-shaped lid that contained an enchantment that created artificial rain) around a statue of a gargoyle. Lunette was confused again and Albus simply grinned.

"Wet Weathers." Albus whispered so that Jame sand Lorcan wouldn't see them. "Behind that statue is a staircase which leads straight to Headmaster Fairweather's office. Tomorrow morning, he'll be drenched from head to toe. They've been planning it for months."

Lunette giggled and Albus pulled her away before James and Lorcan noticed them. Next Albus took her to the Gryffindor common room where, as usual, Lily and Hugo were playing chess and Hugo, as usual, was winning. Then they went to watch Hagrid talking to a few Nifflers who only looked at him curiously. And finally to the library where Katie Webb was studying like crazy with Rose, who occasionally offered her a piece of chocolate or a toffee with a smile.

Albus and Lunette finished by pulling into an empty corridor, he still had a hold of her hand and he dropped it, embarrassed at himself for making Lunette come all this way for nothing. Lunette smiled at him.

"So, how did our little tour teach me that over thinking can be fun?"

"James is meticulous when it comes to planning pranks, but Lorcan is more into the having fun part. Hugo overthinks every move he makes in chess and wins, Lily only plays because she thinks the pieces smashing each other is funny and because Hugo loves playing. Hagrid just sits and talks to animals, he tells them stories of when he was a student and of all the creatures he's owned, and they sit and watch him back. Katie Webb spends all day in the library, overthinking everything she writes and it pays off because she gets good grades, but also because she prefers studying with people rather than being in a social situation. And Rose is often there to lighten up the mood. Lunette, what I'm saying is, it's ok to overthink things every now and then, as long as you have someone to underthink everything and help you enjoy yourself."

Lunette hugged him. "Thanks Albus."

Albus's heart thumped loudly in his chest as he hugged her back. "Any time." He let go of her and tried to hide his very red face. Lunette saw it anyway and tried to hide her giggle. "So, let's get you back to the kitchen, you didn't actually eat anything I noticed."

Lunette shrugged and walked beside him back to the kitchens. Albus resisted the urge to hold her hand.

OCTOBER, ROSE'S BIRTHDAY

Rose could barely sleep that night, she had been too excited. She finally fell asleep around 3am only to randomly wake up 4am. And she couldn't get to sleep again. Rose quietly groaned and made herself get up and dressed. Rose hated mornings, but somehow it being her birthday, the morning didn't seem quite so annoying. She tripped on her way to the bathroom, Anna had left her hairbrush in the middle of the floor and Rose's left hand landed on Mel's hair straighteners which she had left on all night. Holding in a scream, Rose hurried to the sink and ran her hand under cold water for a while. Once her hand was feeling marginally better, she picked up her toothbrush and frantically looked around for toothpaste. It was empty. Anna had used it all again without asking. It was only a small thing but it irritated Rose as she borrowed some of Phil's toothpaste. She then waited for Lily, who was always the one to get her early on the morning of her birthday and drag her downstairs for presents with the cousins.

However, Lily didn't turn up until 6:30am and Rose spent half an hour trying to find her wand in the bottom of her trunk only to realise that she had left it in her school bag and then she found that she couldn't read a book as she had left in the great hall after dinner the day before.

Presents with her cousins was ok and it cheered her up a little bit, but her hand still hurt so Lily and Hugo had to open the gifts for her. Albus wasn't there because some Slytherin prefects wouldn't allow James to get him and Lunette had to explain that Dominique couldn't come because she had not finished an essay due in later on in the day.

During breakfast Rose spilt most of tea tea down her robes as a singing birthday card from Molly (Percy's eldest daughter) startled her. And nothing had arrived from her parents. Rose had always thought it impossible for her wonderful parents to ever forget her birthday, and yet here she was, without so much as a note.

Rose was late turning up to Herbology as she had to get changed. The first lesson of her day was spent in the cold greenhouses, as the rain hammered the students could barely hear a word professor Longbottom was saying. They were dealing with Snargaluff pods.

Long, prickly, bramble-like vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. Lunette wasn't helping much as she was, like always, thinking about Albus. And Mel was freaking out, she had no idea what to do and wouldn't stop apologising to Rose about the hair straighteners. So Rose was left to deal with the Snargaluff on her own. She managed to catch a few vines in her right hand and knotted them together, a hole opened in the middle of all the tentacle-like branches; Rose then plunged her left arm bravely into this hole, which closed like a trap around her elbow. Professor Longbottom suddenly noticed Rose's struggle, he did not realise that her hand was in double pain thanks to the burn from earlier that morning, he tugged at the vines, forcing the hole to open again and Rose snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod.

Rose was panting and exhausted after that lesson but she had to continue on to the her next class which was potions. She barely had a chance to speak to Albus or Phil before the professor ushered them all in and she was forced to sit beside Scorpius and be irritated at him for no reason and had to listen to Mae Blinston laughing behind her while the professor droned on about Golpalott's Third Law. Only at lunch time, when Rose had a chance to get to bathrooms did she realise why Blinston had been laughing. Rose was having a bad hair day adding to her already bad day. It was twice as fluffy as usual but it also stuck out at unusual angles. There were also random leaves and a few clumps of mud at the ends from when she had wrestled with the Snargaluff.

Her eyes also had massive indicators at the lack of sleep and her brows were fixed with a permanent frown. Rose felt like crying or screaming or punching a wall or all three. But Rose stared into the mirror and told herself to carry on and try and turn the day around.

However, she was not successful. She had double Care of Magical creatures which was held outside, where slipped and fell in the mud. The class was also cancelled halfway through as it began to rain again, most of her fellow classmates made it inside just in time, however Rose got drenched. She missed dinner as she was trying to get dry. And her hair was only flat for a little while before it puffed out to double the size than it usually was again, when Phil had finished with the hair dryer, there was a reason Rose never used them and had tried to stop Phil from 'helping'. Despite the rain, some small clumps of mud still refused to wash out.

After everyone came back from dinner, Rose realised that she had a couple of essays that she wanted to finish. Rose would have done them in her room but Anna was loudly gossiping with Mel. And she would have gone to the common room but James and Lorcan were loudly boasting about some prank they had played on Headmaster Fairweather. She eventually had to swallow her pride and go to the library. Rose tried putting her hat on, it was already quite big to be able to fit over her hair, but as today seemed to hate her, even the hat wouldn't fit. On her way to the library, Rose happened to pass Mae Blinston who shoved a paper bag at her while laughing.

"Nobody wants to see you ugly face Weasel, I thought the bag would help but there's no way it'll fit over your trashy hair."

Rose growled, set the paper bag on fire and stormed off telling herself that Blinston was not worth the come back. But she did have to wonder why Mel was randomly carrying around a brown paper bag. Rose also saw Scorpius, she wasn't going to start a fight but braced herself incase he hexed her. But to her surprise, Scorpius took one look at her, his expression one of concern, and walked straight past.

'Is my hair really so bad that even Malfoy pitys me?' Rose thought bitterly to herself.

She finally slumped down at a table in the library and pulled out her books. First she noticed that Katie Webb was nowhere to be seen, this was very rare, but sometimes Katie did spend an afternoon relaxing in the Ravenclaw common room. Next Rose looked down at her books, a jar of ink had spilled in her bag and everything was covered.

Realising that Rose was having a bad day and not wanting to miss it, Mae Blintson, Holly Buchan and a few of their other friends followed her into the library. Once again laughing their heads off at Rose's appearance and then again at the disaster that was her text books.

"That's what you get for being a stuck up, big headed Weasel." Buchan laughed.

"Hey guys, we should help the poor, bushy, ridiculous thing." Blinston said, a twisted smile curling at her lips. "Aguamenti!" Blinston pointed her wand at Rose.

Rose rolled her eyes and just took it. There was no way of stopping it. A weak jet of water trickled out of Blinston's wand, Rose chuckled at the pathetic attempt. The chuckle only made Blinston angrier and the much stronger jet of water shot out all over the desk which Rose was sat at. It had done the job, soaked all of Rose's books and her robes were once again wet through. But there was no way of stopping it, literally. Blinston couldn't work out how to stop the charm and it began to soak everyone and a lot of books.

Madam Prince screamed and hurried everyone out. She put an end to Blinston's mistakes and glared. Rose tried to slip out along with the rest, but the librarian stopped her.

"THAT'S IT! I WILL SEE TO IT THAT YOU BOTH HAVE TO CLEAN ALL OF THIS UP! EVEN IF IT TAKES ALL NIGHT!"

Rose could have screamed as well. Somehow she had managed to get detention on her birthday despite not doing anything wrong. She looked towards the door and saw that Scorpius had been stood watching the whole thing. Rose scowled at him. It was his friend who had done this to her and yet he said nothing. Not that Rose really expected him to, it was just irritating that he was still friends with Blinston.

Professor Nye came in and tried to teach Mae and Rose how to use the hot air charm successfully enough not to burn the books. Rose picked it up straight away but Mae only made things worse. So Mae and Rose were put on the duty of stacking the books without magic, after Nye and the librarian dried them.

It was around midnight when Nye looked at his watch.

"It's the middle of the night! Madam Prince," he spoke softly to the librarian. "I know we're not finished here yet, but these students have got classes in the morning. Why don't we let them go with the agreement that they come back tomorrow after dinner to clean up the rest, luckily they only soaked this quarter of the library rather than the entire room."

Madam Prince didn't like this, but she saw the logic and allowed them to go. As soon as they were out of the door, Mae began shouting again.

"This is all your fault Weasel!"

"My fault?!" Rose was trying to hold back her anger and frustration built up over the day which was kind of the only thing she was successful at for the entire day. Yes she was shouting, but Rose wanted to shout louder and hex and/or punch Mae. "You were the one who actually made the mess! I just happened to be your target! Stop blaming everyone else for your mistakes and idiotic behaviour, you stuck up half wit!"

"None of this would have happened if it weren't for your stupid face!"

"My stupid face?! Is that the best you've got?!" Now Rose was ready to hex Blinston into the oblivion, but she slowly loosened her grasp on her wand and began to shout. "You know what Blinston, I've had a crappy day and your existence has made it worse, but your bitching, bullying and inability to accept your own failings has officially made today a living nightmare. And you know what? I'm angry, I'm irritated and I want to hurt you so badly that you'll be stuck in the hospital wing for a month, because that might just cheer me up. But I'm not going to, because you're not worth my time or energy!"

"How dare you speak to me?!"

Rose grit her teeth, clenched her fists and marched off towards the Gryffindor common room. As she turned away from Blinston however, she could have sworn that she saw Scorpius again.

She told herself that she didn't have time to think about Scorpius, Rose had yet to complete her essays. She ended up only getting four hours sleep as she was sat up doing them in bed.

It was late by the time either of them go to their common rooms. Mae was angry and went on a usual rant about how stupid and ugly Rose was. Most students had gone to bed, But Albus and Scorpius were still up. They were used to Mae's whiny bitching about Rose, but some reason Scorpius snapped.

"And I mean, she's such a pig-headed know-it-all. She's nothing but the ugly spawn of a mudblood and a muggle lover. And she thinks that she's better than everybody! Ha! That soulless bitch would never get a guy in a hundred years-"

Scorpius stood and raked through his hair in frustration, and shouted at Mae, most of the students left in the common room quickly left knowing what Scorpius could do when he was annoyed, that had seen it on Rose daily.

"Shut up Mae! I've had it with your bitching! Weasley isn't that bad! Yeah, she's smarter than most and yeah her hair is different, but is that really interesting enough for you to complain about every night?! Look, I don't like her, she's irritating and competitive and we always fight. But I'd rather spend a day with her than listen to you drone on about Weasley for another second. Yeah she's my enemy, but you are quite possibly the worst person on earth. Surely even a selfish half wit like yourself could see that she was having possible the worst day of her life! No one deserves the sort of crap you say about her. You need to get over yourself, grow up and see what an amazing person Rose Weasley is!"

Scorpius took back his seat opposite Albus and sat with a thump. Mae pretended to cry but Scorpius didn't care so she huffed and stormed up to her room, the group of friends following her. Albus stared open mouthed with shock. Scorpius took a deep breath and finally looked up at Albus.

"Did I just say-?"

"Yep."

"Merlin." Scorpius's eyes were as wide as Albus's.

"Yep."

They were silent for a while.

"Did you mean it?" Albus asked skeptically.

"Would you believe me if I said no?"

"No."

Scorpius shrugged and sighed. "Then there's your answer." he nodded and picked up his book, but paused. "This stays between us right?"

Albus pointed behind Scorpius "Yeah, just between us and the other students still milling around."

Scorpius turned to see a couple of students from his year, fifth years and seventh years. But he only shrugged. "Even if they do spread it around, Weasley would never believe I said that. I don't even believe that I said that. But she trusts you so don't say a word."

Albus smiled. "Secret is safe with me Scorp. And um, thanks for defending my family like that. I can't believe my aunt Hermione still gets called a- a- a, you know." He was referring to the insult of mudblood.

"It's disgusting, I know. You would have thought that the war lost by those who believed in 'pure-blood' would have put an end to it all."

"I knew Blinston was a horrible person, but I didn't that she was like this."

"Neither did I." Scorpius smacked his head with his book. "I mean, of course she's like this. Her parents were some of the people that believed in you-know-who's ideals but never became death eaters for fear of the ministry. So they never got caught. And I was so stupid as to think she was different and I actually thought of her as a friend."

"You can't change people Scorp, and you're not that stupid-"

"I am. I knew, deep down I knew that she was cruel and manipulating but I ignored it for some reason."

"Because you believe in people. You don't want to be known for your family and their allegiance during the wars, you want a second chance to clear the name of Malfoy. You were trying to do the same for Blinston. But not everyone is as kind as you."

TWO DAYS LATER

Rose's weekend was only marginally better than her disaster of a birthday had been. She woke up late, was annoyed at herself for wasting half the day when she could have been doing homework. Phil tried to convince her that it was good thing that she slept in as she had had barely any sleep the night before. Luckily her hand was feeling better and she received a letter from her parents explaining how the family owl had to be used for an emergency at Hermione's work and so was unavailable to deliver presents. But they promised to send them the following day and that they were going to visit next weekend while the students went to Hogsmeade.

Rose smiled. She couldn't wait to see her parents. For the first time in a while, Rose felt like she really needed a hug from her mum and dad. She just hoped that they wouldn't feel too bad about the present mix up, she really didn't care too much, it was enough to know that they loved her enough to remember. She had no idea how precious she was to Hermione and Ron.

Rose then tried to do some homework in the library but Madam Prince shouted at her and banned her for the week. So she had to do her homework in the hall. Lunette and Lily sat on either side of her as countless guys came and flirted with them while Rose was simply ignored in the middle. It wasn't that she wanted them to flirt with her, she was just annoyed at not existing. Rose figured that as long as she was hanging out with Lily and Lunette, their beauty would inadvertently and make her feel invisible.

After a couple of hours, Rose was fed up and muttered some lame excuse before going to the the common room and distracting herself with a book. The feeling of being intimidated by both of them was getting irritating.

On her way, Rose saw Scorpius walking very quickly away from Mae Blinston who was shouting while fake crying after him.

"Scorpius, you ignoring me is getting very old very quickly! Come on! We're friends!" Blinston stopped fake crying when she saw Rose, her expression was pure hatred. "What do you want Weasel? You've already ruined everything!" And she stormed off in the opposite direction of Scorpius.

Rose thought she heard a noise from around the corner and followed it. There she found Scorpius was hiding behind a tapestry, sighing with relief.

"Thanks Weasley." He gave a cocky grin when he saw her. "Who knew that you could be useful?"

"Excuse me?" Rose growled but tried to keep her calm.

"It's a compliment, you're a good Blinston repeller."

Rose huffed and rolled her eyes. "Glad I could be of help." She mumbled. Rose spin around to head to the common room as planned, but not without sending a leg locking jinx at Scorpius.

When she got to the common room, Rose was feeling almost depressed. She hurried to her room and stared at the mirror. She hated the way she looked. She hated her hair, she hated her freckles and she thought she looked fat. Rose didn't normally worry about these things, she was usually one to care about what's on the inside or care about how smart she could get. Rose felt self conscious and self loathing surged through her. She spent the rest of the day in her room reading, wishing to look like any other girl and comparing herself to them.

She knew of a few spells and potions that would make her feel prettier, Rose decided against it. 'If I change my appearance, people will know that I care. And I don't want to care. If I wear something like makeup people will know that I'm self conscious and I'm too proud to let them know that.' Rose thought to herself. She knew that wearing makeup didn't mean that you were insecure, most women wore it because they just wanted to and enjoyed putting it on, but Rose wasn't like that and her family all knew it. They would instantly know that something was wrong.

Rose realised that burying herself in books in her room probably wasn't helping either. But she didn't have any motivation to do anything.

Only after dinner did Rose convince herself to move. She sneaked out of the common room and made her way to the kitchen. There she ran into Scorpius who was sitting at the long table, happily chatting away to a couple of house elves. Rose was about to turn around and leave but one house elf spoke very loudly and offered her a cup of tea in a very excited voice

"Oh, thanks." Rose said with a smile and say down awkwardly in the seat offers to her opposite Scorpius.

"Weasley." He acknowledged.

"Malfoy." Rose grit her teeth. "So it's not enough for you to enslave one house elf? You have to bother the ones that work at Hogwarts too?" She thought about the Malfoy's house elf Petit.

"Look Weasley, I know some of these house elves. Petit talks about them a lot. And you know that I intend to free her one day."

Rose shrugged. "Empty promises to your poor slave, it's cruel really."

"I care about Petit!" Scorpius was getting angry but kept his voice down in front of the house elves. "She's part of our family and I treat her as such. She's not my slave and I can't wait until I move out and free her."

Rose thanked a house elf who gave her a mug of tea before turning back to Scorpius. "I know you intend to free her, but whether or not you actually have the guts to do so is another thing entirely. Your family's sign of wealth is barbaric. And we both know that's it's not just our intentions that make us who we are, it's the actions too. Actions speak louder than words as the muggles say."

"Are you always this-" Scorpius started to ask before Rose interrupted.

"Pretty, charming, awesome, smart?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes and forced himself not to smile. "I was going to say big headed."

Rose gently patted down her fluffy orange mass of hair, only for it to spring back again. "I have been told that I am that aswell."

This time Scorpius had to turn his head to hide his smile at her cheekiness and sudden change in tone. 'Why is Weasley making me smile and laugh? We're enemies.' "You know, I still haven't got you back for that leg locking curse from earlier."

Rose shrugged then looked at her watch. "Well I guess that's going to have to wait because in five minutes I'm going to be on prefect duty." A house elf gave her a handful of biscuits, she thanked them then left.

As she exited, Wesley McLaggen spotted her.

"There you are! Rose, we're meant to be doing rounds together and you weren't at dinner and your cousin was pissing me off. She may be hot but she worries about you way too much."

Rose took a deep breath and told herself not to hex him for being so obnoxious. "Stop talking." she growled.

Wesley scoffed and shrugged. "Why?"

"Because she's trying very hard to keep calm and not hex you." Scorpius spoke from behind them as he left the kitchens.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, thank you Malfoy, but I think I can talk to idiots without your help." she said sarcastically

Wesley looked confused for a brief moment, his head snapped back and forth looking at both of them until a small cocky smirk spread across his face. "You sound like an old married couple." He folded his arms and raised his eyebrows. "So how come I keep on finding you two together but not arguing or hexing each other?"

"Because you're a genius who found out about our secret meetings." Scorpius said sarcastically in a very dry and monotone voice.

Rose rolled her eyes again and punched them both in the arm.

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Look Malfoy, Wesley doesn't get sarcasm and will probably find it hilarious to tell his little friends all about our supposed 'little meetings'-"

"I actually said secret meetings-" Scorpius immediately wished he hadn't answered because sent him a look that could kill.

"Shut up! Wesley is a cocky, big headed pathetic show off-"

"I'm still here you know." Wesley said timidly but was ignored.

"-who already thinks we're having some sort of secret relationship. Luckily most people know he's an idiot and don't believe him, but if you keep on saying sarcastic and unhelpful things to him, he will keep on telling his equally pathetic friends and it will be harder and harder for people to ignore them."

"Glad I could be of help Weasley." Scorpius smirked and strutted away.

Rose looked at Wesley who was grinning ear to ear like a gleeful child who had just been told a big secret and wanted to blurt it out to everyone. Wesley hadn't listened or understood a word of what Rose had said, he only believed that Rose and Scorpius were having secret meetings. She rolled her eyes, realising what Scorpius had done. She contemplated running after him, but as Scorpius turned the corner, he popped his head back to speak to her again.

"That, by the way, was-"

"Pay back for the leg locking, I know." Rose growled.

Scorpius grinned. "Have fun on your patrol."

Wesley spent the rest of the patrol asking Rose if she and Scorpius were actually going out.

Rose spent the rest of the patrol thinking of all the hexes she could use on him the following day.

NOVEMBER

The first Hogsmeade weekend finally came and Rose and Hugo made their way to their uncle's shop together. Roxanne met them there as her dad, George, was visiting with Hermione and Ron.

"Mum! Dad!" Hugo cheerfully greeted his parents with a hug as soon as he saw them.

"Hey freckles! How's it going?" Ron ruffled his son's hair after a hug.

"Great. Except that guys keep on flirting with Lily, somedays I can't get a full conversation with her because some guy interrupts."

"It'll be alright, Lily is a sensible girl, I bet she's been turning guys down left and right."

"Oh yeah," Hugo smiled. "She's gotten more sarcastic and sassier with each guy she turns down."

Hermione grinned. "My guess is that she's been spending too much time listening to our Rosie." She then turned and hugged Rose. "I'm sorry about your birthday. But we're here now and we brought gifts. And this will not be a regular thing."

"Absolutely not." Ron nodded. "You should've heard the telling off your mother gave to the poor wizard who accidently used our personal owl for important ministry business."

"Oh Ronald, it wasn't that bad!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Harry said that he cried!" Ron grinned like an excited child.

"Yes, well, I didn't know he was going to do that."

"Anyway, how was your birthday, Rosie?" Ron hugged his daughter.

Rose thought back to what was possibly the worst day of her life, the only good thing that had happened was that she saw most of her cousins together and they gave her thoughtful or funny gifts. The rest of the day sucked. But Rose put on a smile and nodded.

"Well, you know, it was fun." Rose lied.

"Right! Presents!" Hermione announced as she and Ron stepped aside to reveal a small pile of neatly stacked and wrapped gifts.

Albus joined them after a couple of minutes, James popped his head in briefly to say hi, but he had a date so it was literally a second or two. Lily and Louis stayed and chatted with Hermione.

Rose looked out the window briefly and was surprised to see Katie Webb was walking past. She even more shocked to see her with none other than Scorpius, they had become friends. Ron peered over Rose's shoulder and saw Scorpius.

"Is that Malfoy still bothering you?" He said in a quiet but angry tone.

Rose rolled her eyes and turned to her dad. "I think it's more that we bother each other. Dad, I may not like him but the constant arguing isn't all his fault. I hate to say, but it's just as much my fault as his."

"That doesn't change the fact that he attacks my daughter on a daily basis."

"You know what dad, Malfoy's parents could probably say the same thing about me."

"Just as long as you're not hurt."

Rose smiled. "I'm fine dad." When Ron was turned away, Rose open the window and subtly sent a hex that would turn his hair red. She ducked down before Scorpius noticed her.

ALBUS'S BIRTHDAY

Rose waited outside of the Hufflepuff common room very early in the morning after insisting that Dom go back and get Lunette for the family gathering in the Gryffindor common room for Albus's birthday. James had been sent to the Slytherin common room to get Albus himself. Scorpius was not invited but that didn't mean that he might not turn up, something with worried the whole family. But Lunette had to be there, Albus would definitely want her there and so did the rest of the cousins.

When James eventually snuck into Albus's room, Scorpius pretended to be asleep. He knew that Albus would want him at the gift giving thing that his family did, but Scorpius wasn't up for it. He couldn't deal with scowls this early in the morning.

"Rose, I'm not sure." Lunette was practically dragged out of her bed by Dom because Rose had been so pushy. "I mean, Albus hasn't been himself recently and it's all my fault-"

"Neither of you have been yourselves recently. You are overthinking what should have been obvious to you now and he is overthinking what your possible answer is, which, again, should be obvious to him." The made their way towards the Gryffindor tower.

"But-"

"I know, neither of you want to screw up your friendship. But doesn't that tell you your answer?"

Lunette sighed. "I don't know Rose. I love him, I really do. But I don't know if it's in the same way that he loves me."

Rose stopped walking half way up the stairs and turned to Lunette, she waved at Dom and Louis to keep on going to the Gryffindor tower and she would meet them in a bit. "Lunette, today is Albus's birthday. Why don't you be normal around him today? Be his friend. Be like you two used to be. That might help your decision, and it will certainly make his day."

Lunette nodded. "I can do that."

Albus had a great birthday. Lunette was his friend again and she managed to convince Rose and Scorpius to sit together with them at breakfast and not fight. He got great presents from all of his family. Something that cheered him immensely was at lunch, when he was chatting with Lunette and they both spotted Anna, Rose's roommate, coming towards them with a heart shaped card. Lunette intervened and got Albus away from Anna as quickly as possible. He saw the protective jealousy flash in her eyes which gave him hope that one day Lunette could be more than a friend. As Rose and Scorpius had care of magical creatures lesson after lunch, he was left alone with Lunette, hiding from Anna in a deserted classroom.

"I'm so glad we're friends Albus, I know I've been acting odd recently but-"

Albus shook his head. "Don't. Let's not talk about it and just focus on being friends. It's nice to see you being you again."

Lunette grinned. "I'm so glad we moved to England, I finally know what it's like to have real friends."

Albus looked concerned. "Why? What were your friends like in France?"

Lunette sighed and shrugged. "Well, they were a stuck up bunch of girls who only had their heads stuck in the clouds full of boys. I'm convinced that they only became my friends because I'm one quarter veela, guys would hang around me and ask me out. These girls thought that if they hung around me too, more guys would ask them out."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, but you know what's worse? They were my friends with the condition that I don't use my metamorphmagus powers around them."

To her surprise, Albus suddenly hugged her.

"Um, Albus, what-?"

"You should never have to hide who you are Lunette. You are smart, strong and talented. And being a metamorphmagus is awesome."

Lunette sniffed and forced herself not to cry on Albus's birthday. His kindness was overwhelming. "Albus, please get off me."

Albus turned bright red and let go of her instantly. "I'm so sorry, we were having fun and I just ruined it-"

"No Albus, I just don't want to cry and your hug made me emotional."

Albus nodded, still feeling guilty. "Then, I'll do a Rose thing." He stretched out his arm and patted Lunette twice on the shoulder. "There there."

Lunette laughed. That's how Rose found them. She followed the sound of Lunette's laughter.

"Hey Al! How's your birthday been?" She asked her cousin.

Albus looked at Lunette and smiled. "Great, just perfect."

Rose had to hold in a chuckle at his soppiness.

"Well, Mr Birthday boy, how would you like to come up to the Gryffindor common room?" Rose said with a cheeky smile. "You too Lunette."

Albus was confused. "What? Why?"

"Well, because it's not every year that a wizard turns seventeen. You've come of age and James may have planned something a little bit special."

Albus was now alarmed. "James planned something? No! I'm not walking into another prank by my annoying brother-!"

Rose laughed. "Calm down, I helped as well."

"That's not comforting, in fact, that makes me even more worried. The last time you and James collaborated on something, you blew up Uncle Percy's shed!"

Rose's eyes widened. "You know that it was us?!"

Lunette was confused this time. "I'm sorry, what did you do to your uncle's shed?!"

"It doesn't matter." Rose said quickly.

Albus laughed. "She and James were planning some prank involving a portable swamp and fireworks."

"How old were they?" Lunette was surprised never to have heard about this before.

"Old enough." Rose retorted.

"James was ten, Rose and I were nine. Uncle Percy never found out because I covered for them. Blamed it on some old muggle toaster he had laying around in the shed. We never did find out exactly what Rose and James were planning."

Rose glared at Albus. "That's because it doesn't matter."

"You know Uncle George knew it was you two all along."

Rose grinned cheekily again. "I know, he was the one who gave us the idea."

Lunette laughed while Albus looked worried again. "Ok, but seriously, if it's something you and James organised, I don't want to go up to you common room."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Would it help if I said that Dom, Louis and Hugo also organised it?"

Albus nodded and calmed down slightly. "Bearing in mind that they are quite possibly the nicest Weasleys ever to roam this earth, apart from Fred, then yes, yes it would help."

Rose shrugged and dragged them both along to the Gryffindor common room. James opened his arms wide as Albus entered. There was a table full of Albus's favourite things. Form cola and hot chocolate to pumpkin pasties. Scorpius was lurking quietly in a corner after being invited last minute when James and Rose finally allowed Hugo to get him. There was music playing and people milling around chatting or dancing together.

Albus grinned. "This is great guys." He and Lunette headed straight for the drinks table, grabbing a cola and a hot chocolate before greeting Scorpius.

As the party went on, Albus began to notice the small things. The list of the quidditch team with his brother and two of his cousin's names on them. He saw Hugo beating those who dared challenge him in chess, Dom and Roxanne were hanging out with their friends. Grant was trying again to hit on Lunette while Scorpius made fun of him. Odd Weasley products were lying about the room reminding him of his successful uncle George. Lily and Rose were wearing their Weasley jumpers made by their grandma, reminding him his wonderful grandparents who were equally proud of all their children and grandchildren.

Albus looked at Lunette who had turned to talk quidditch with Scorpius. He suddenly felt light headed and slightly angry. Albus slipped out of the Gryffindor common room to breath and to think. He went to the closest window in the corridor and opened it wide. He then sat on the floor, leaning against the banister staring out at the stars.

Rose had noticed that something was up with Albus and followed him out. As soon as she heard his melancholy sigh, she approached. "What's wrong Al?" Rose tentatively sat next to him on the floor.

He sighed heavily again and refused to look at her. "Do you ever feel like a complete," Albus shrugged. "I don't know, like a complete outcast?"

"What do you mean?" Rose's voice wobbled slightly in worry.

Albus snorted and rolled his eyes. "Of course you don't understand. You're little miss perfect like you're mum, no one could ever be disappointed of you."

"Al, look at me." Rose wrapped an arm around him. "No one is disappointed in you, we could never be."

"Rose, you don't get it, do you? You've just been made the Gryffindor keeper." Albus rested his forehead in his palms. "You're a keeper, James is a chaser and quidditch captain. My mum was a famous player for the Holyhead Harpies, my Dad was the youngest seeker in the century, he also saved the entire wizard world twice before he was even in his twenties. Victoire, Dom and Lucy have all been head girls. Hugo, Fred and Louis have always been uncommonly kind to everyone and Roxanne and Lily have always been popular.

"And then there's me. The odd one out. I'm the first Slytherin, I'm terrible at quidditch and my best friend is a Malfoy. Yeah, everyone seems ok with it and I know you all still love me no matter what, but I'm the one who is too different. I'm just, I don't know, like a footnote in a big book of famous wizard families. If there were such a thing, I bet there would be a whole page on our family, excluding me."

He put on a posh low voice to make his point. "'Oh yes, the Weasley's are a beloved pure-blood family, known for their good hearts and constant presence in the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts. They are closely connected to the Potters who are most famous for The Boy Who Lived, excellent quidditch skills shown throughout the generations and, much like the Weasley's, their presence in Gryffindor. Both families are rivals of another pure-blood family, the Malfoys.' and then in a tiny little footnote at the end, 'the only omission to all of this is Albus Potter who did nothing exceptional at his time at Hogwarts, was in Slytherin house and befriended a Malfoy'. Ok, so 'outcast' was the wrong word to use. But don't you see Rose? I'm nothing but an anomaly, I don't fit in with my own family."

Rose didn't know how to reply. He was right, she had no idea how he felt. She had always fit in from the red hair to being Gryffindor quidditch player. She even fit in with her mother's side as she was extremely smart.

"Well, I guess I know a tiny bit." Rose said uncertainly. "I mean, I was friends with Malfoy once and my dad hated that."

"Yeah, but you eventually did what any normal Weasley or Potter would do, hate him."

"Ok then, you're different to the rest of us. But at least you know that we all love you and you should know that everything you just said, no one even cares about. And you know what else?"

"What?" Albus grumbled.

"It's good that you're different to the rest of us. We're all living under the shadow of who our parents were at the Battle at Hogwarts. The name Potter will always follow you and your dad did unintentionally leave a rather large shadow, but you're the exception to the rule. You make your own rules and expectations to live up to."

Albus was quiet for a while and Rose wondered if she had said the right thing or just made everything worse.

"Al," she added quietly. "Forget what others think, we all have to make our own way."

"You're too smart for your own good Rose." Albus muttered, Rose could almost hear the reluctant smile in his voice. "How do you always know what to say? You always have a way of making me feel better."

Rose scoffed. "We're cousins and best friends. There's very little I don't know about you." Rose patted his shoulder gently. "You're gonna feel like this again Albus, these feelings of not belonging don't just go away forever after just one clever pep talk from your favourite cousin."

Albus smiled at her shameless and cocky self compliments.

"At least I know who to go to next time I feel like this." Albus finally looked at Rose, he could see that she truly did understand. "Have you ever felt like you don't belong? I mean, you're practically a 50/50 mix of your parents."

Rose brushed him off with an evasive and hollow laugh. "I think I'm just paranoid about the future and what it holds for me. I'm the girl who is super smart and organised and is meant to have everything sorted out- but I guess I'll just have to work stuff out as I go along, just like everybody else."

"Adulthood sucks doesn't it?"

"Yep. It already sucks and we're only at the beginning." Rose nodded. She heard the fat lady portal open and shut, she spun her head around to see Scorpius. Rose gave him a small nod of acknowledgment which was returned and they switched places. Rose went back to the party and Scorpius spent a couple of minutes cheering Albus up to rejoin the party.

"Is-Albus-ok?" Lunette rushed out in one long breath as soon as Rose re-entered the common room. She startled Rose with her sincere concern.

"Umm, yeah, he'll be ok. He just feels a little out of place again. And now that he's seventeen and legally an adult, he's scared."

Lunette sighed with relief and nodded. She took Rose by the arm and dragged her to a quiet corner. "Rose," she spoke very quietly and softly. "I think I've decided how I feel about Albus and I want to talk to him tomorrow about it."

Rose grinned and Lunette rolled her eyes.

"You can't grin yet!" Lunette tried to hide a smile. "You don't know what I'm going to tell him."

Rose only raised her eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure I know. In fact, I'm pretty sure that anybody in this room could guess what you're going to say tomorrow. The only person that is clueless is Al."

Lunette let out a shaky sigh. "I'm really nervous."

Rose placed a hand on her shoulder. "So is he. Draw your strength from him." She tried to move on as she had seen Ben Rome on his own on the other side of the room but Lunette caught her arm again.

They both spotted Albus and Scorpius come back in and head their way. Lunette spoke quickly.

"What does that mean? Draw my strength?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "You practically light up every time Al is with you, you make each other stronger. Use that to your advantage."

"That still doesn't make any-" But Lunette couldn't finish her sentence as Rose had already gone and Albus and Scorpius had joined her.

THE NEXT DAY

Rose was in a cheerful mood knowing that her favourite cousin and her best friend would finally admit their feelings for one another and be together by the end of the day. Scorpius noticed her good mood and suspected it had something to doo with some hex she was going to use on him later. So as he saw her exiting her history of magic class, Scorpius sent a tripping jinx at her. Rose, of course, knew it was him and sent a bat bogey hex back with a small smile. It had been a while since they had had a proper fight.

"You git Malfoy!" She shouted at him and the corridor was pretty much cleared as students didn't want to be caught.

"Oh yeah?!" Scorpius was struggling from the flow of bats and his hex to turn Rose's hair blue missed her by inches and hit her bag instead. "Well at least I'm not some stuck up nerd!"

"Ha! But you are!" Rose sent another, stronger bat bogey hex at him which lasted longer. "Areshole!" and she stormed off to find Lunette, except that Scorpius's tripping jinx had not worn off yet.

"Twat!" Scorpius shouted back between the streams of bats exploding from his nose. He went off in search of Albus, hoping that the bats would wear off soon.

Lunette spent the whole day biting her fingernails and bouncing her legs like a nervous twitch. As she walked around the castle with Rose, every time she and Scorpius shouted insults at one another, it made Lunette jump, whereas normally she was used to it.

"Lunette, are you ok?" Rose asked softly in Herbology.

"I'm fine, I'm just determined to go through with this. I am not backing down again."

"Again?"

"Oh, umm, I wanted to tell him on the train, but then he came to see me and a chickened out and convinced myself that I was wrong."

Rose smiled. "I'm glad you've found the courage to do this, it will make you both happy."

"Tosser." Scorpius muttered to Rose as he passed her in the corridor.

"Knob head." she retorted.

After they had gone a couple of steps away from each other, Scorpius sent a hex at Roe, giving her the tail of a fox. A soon a she felt the hex hit her, Rose spun around and sent a jinx at him which made leeks sprout from his ears. They stopped walking, turned and face each other with a scowl before moving on again.

"Umm, Lunette, I've just got to get rid of a little problem." she pointed to the tail which made Lunette laugh.

After dinner, Rose saw Lunette get up from the Hufflepuff table and start following Albus out of the hall. The only problem was, Scorpius was there too. Rose quickly stood and followed them too, with the intention to keep Scorpius busy for around half an hour.

Once in the corridor, she turned Scorpius's hair blue. He didn't notice until Albus started laughing at him.

"Weasley!" Scorpius spun around and sent various hexes at her.

While Rose dodged them, she nodded at Lunette who understood, she dragged Albus too an empty classroom.

Rose sent a hex at Scorpius which stuck his arms to his body so he couldn't lift his wand. Rose then made a tapestry to fall on top of Scorpius. It was quite a heavy tapestry so the few students remaining to watch their fight quickly fled. Rose double checked that the surrounding corridors were empty before helping Scorpius and putting the tapestry back.

He raised his wand ready to hex her again but Rose stopped him with a disarming spell.

"Truce? We need to hear see something." Before Scorpius could answer, Rose dragged him by the ear to where Lunette and Albus had disappeared to. "Just wait a little while, you owe my two Galleons." They listened in.

"Umm, so last year, you um-"

"Lunette, I'm sorry , I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I mean, I love being your friend and I shouldn't have ruined it by asking you out."

"Albus, would you ever ask me again?"

"What?"

"Well, would you ask me again? I mean, if you still feel the same way would you ask me again?"

Albus was confused but tried to cover it up. "You know, I never actually asked you to go out with me. You wouldn't let me remember?"

Lunette smiled and nodded. "Do you still feel the same way?"

Albus paused, not because he was uncertain of how he felt, but because he didn't want things to become weird again between them. He swallowed his fear and answered honestly. "Yes."

Lunette held his hand. "Would you ask me what you were going to ask me last year?"

"Will you go out with me?"

Lunette took a deep breath ad squeezed his hand. "Albus, this is my answer: we're way too young to really know what romantic love is. But I know that I love you as a friend, I have since we met. I really like you Albus and I've been thinking about you a lot. And I've come to realise that I like you way way more than a friend. I miss you when you're not around, I think about you all the time. I'd love to go out with you and I'm determined to make this work between us. Because Albus, you're something special and you deserve everything I can give you. Which, I'm sorry to say, isn't much, but I will try everyday to make you as happy as you make me"

Albus grinned from ear to ear. "I only want to do the same for you." He paused for a moment. "So this is a yes?"

Lunette giggled "yes."

"So can I kiss you?"

"You may."

Scorpius had been wrestled to the ground by Rose, who he realised was in an especially determined mood to keep him from moving on with his day. When he saw Albus and Lunette exit from an empty classroom, giggling and holding hands, he finally understood. Scorpius disarmed Rose and rolled his eyes.

"You know Weasel, you could've just told me that Al needed time alone with Lunette."

Rose shrugged and smirked. "Where's the fun in talking to you when I can knock you to the ground?"

DECEMBER

Scorpius sat on his own, slightly away from the rest of the Slytherin students, on the table at breakfast. Rose sat with Hugo, James and Phil. All of them looked miserable.

Lily had started going with some fourth year who used to be friends with Hugo. Lorcan had started dating Mabel, who was an ex girlfriend of James's, he didn't care that it was an ex, James didn't care about any of his exes except for Lucile, but Lorcan wasn't good at juggling having a girlfriend and spending time with his friends. Mel had completely stopped hanging out with Phil outside of their room and was always with Anna and Robin because they all had crushes on Wesely McLaggen and Grant Hathaway. And, of course, Lunette and Albus had started dating. Not much had changed between them, they still acted like best friends, except for all the hand holding, the snogging that people would uncomfortably walk into and the fact that they rarely spent time with Scorpius or Rose.

That December seemed to be the month of couples who left their friends behind. Scorpius found himself spending a lot more time in the library than usual and therefore became better friends with Katie Webb. Since Scorpius was in the library and stealing her study friend, Rose found herself spending a lot more time with her brother and James.

Rose and Scorpius also found themselves arguing at least two or three times a day. Which was huge compared to the start of the year when they only fought once or twice per week.

"Umm, hi." a small voice spoke from behind Scorpius. He quickly spun around to see Katie Webb.

"Hey Katie."

"Hi, umm I was wondering if you're going to the library after breakfast?" Katie was clinging on to her books as she spoke. Rose turned and saw Scorpius and Katie talking, it annoyed her.

"Oh, sorry, I've got a quidditch practise to go to. But I'll probably see you later on tonight."

"Ok, that's fine. What are you doing this weekend? I know it's a Hogsmeade weekend, but I normally-"

"Actually Katie, I'm going to try and convince Albus to spend time with his friends." Scorpius sadly looked over to the happy couple on the Hufflepuff table. "He's my best friend and I only ever see him when he's just about to go to bed or in class, and even then he only talks about Lunette. Which is fine, but, you know."

"You're glad that he's happy but you want your friend back?"

Scorpius nodded. "Does that sound selfish?"

"No, it sounds very loyal."

"Thanks Katie, I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later." Katie tried to wave but her arms were full of books so she just walked away.

"Really? The friendless Ravenclaw? Wow, and I thought hanging out with Potter and Weasley was low enough. At least you had to good sense to drop Weasel." Llod Parkinson slide next to Scorpius.

Scorpius ignored the urge to punch him. "What do you want Parkinson?"

"Nothing, it just seems like you're lonely. I mean, you have to be lonely to be talking to that thing."

"Did you just call Katie 'that thing'?!"

Lloyd rolled his eyes and groaned. "Ugh, you get so offended with anything I say! You're so touchy about everything. Who cares what I called her, they're just words." Lloyd then stood on the table to draw attention to himself and started laughing at Scorpius. "Just a heads up to everyone, Scorpius Malfoy is such a precious little delicate flower that you can't say any words vaguely rude around him."

Nobody was laughing. Lloyd was well known for attention grabbing and pathetic insults, and denying that they are insults.

Scorpius stood up. He grabbed the back of Lloyd's robes and pulled him off the table. Everyone, except Rose, went back to breakfast. "Detention Parkinson. And that's ten points from Slytherin."

"You can't do that! I'm a prefect you twat." Parkinson shrugged Scorpius off and kicked him in the shin then stormed out of the hall.

Scorpius angrily followed him. And behind him was an equally angry Rose.

"That's another detention for you Parkinsons, you don't kick people. Especially prefects. Did your parents teach you nothing?" Rose intervened.

"I don't need your help Weasley." Scorpius rolled his eyes.

Rose scoffed. "Oh course you need help, but at the moment there's no one else that cares."

"Oh, and you're saying that you care?" Scorpius said smugly and folded his arms.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I care more about a single piece of new parchment then I do about you."

"Lloyd! Get back here!" Scorpius shouted as soon as he realised that Parkinson was using their argument to sneak away.

"Parkinson! I'm taking you to one of the professors to organise your detentions now."

Lloyd stopped and groaned. He kicked the wall. "This is so stupid, all I said were words that pissed of Malfoy because he's so pathetic."

Rose shrugged, she really didn't care. She then led the way to Lupin's office, Scorpius tailing behind her and Lloyd to make sure he actually went.

"Words matter Parkinson, 'Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words can also hurt me'." Scorpius said in a matter of fact tone.

"'Stones and sticks break only skin, while words are ghosts that haunt me'." Rose quoted back to him.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Your both fucking insane." he mumbled.

"'We're all mad here'." Scorpius quoted Alice in Wonderland, one of Rose's favourite childhood books. He smiled at Rose as she turned around when she recognised the quote.

Once they had handed Lloyd over to professor Lupin, Scorpius and Rose happened to be walking in the

same direction. To avoid fighting for absolutely no reason, neither spoke for a while.

"So, um that poem," Rose decided that it was too awkward. "How do you know it? Muggle studies?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Not really, my mum occasionally made me read muggle literature during the summer holidays. At first I think it was just to spite my grandparents, but then I actually enjoyed it. Crap, why am I telling you this? This is weird, it's a normal conversation-"

Rose smiled. "Yeah and you're ruining it by talking about it."

"How do you know it then?"

"My grandma thought it was good to know little quotes like 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can also hurt me'. Of course, being the stubborn child that I was-"

"Like you are."

Rose scowled but carried on. "I looked up the whole poem."

"'Stones and sticks break only skin, while words are ghosts that haunt me'. Remember the rest Weasley?" Scorpius tested her.

"'Slant and curved the word-swords fall, it pierces and sticks inside me. Bats and bricks may ache through bones, but words can mortify me'." Rose answered cockily, she raised her eyebrow to test Scorpius in turn.

"'Pain from words had left its' scar, on mind and hear that's tender. Cuts and bruises have not healed, it's words that I remember'."

They smiled at one another, feeling a small part of the friendship that they had years ago.

"Ugh, you're even nerdy when you flirt." Mae Blinston had turned up to ruin everything. "You're so pathetic Weasel, like Scorpius would ever be actually interested in muggle stuff. It's boring, stupid and prem-val."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and pushed past Blinston. He had had enough of her and he knew that Rose would have enough witty comebacks to drive Blinston away.

"Muggle literature is an intricate and genius tapestry of history and culture." Rose stubbornly pushed her point on Mae. "Your views on muggle literature is the only thing that is primeval, yes I believe primeval is the word you were looking for, or maybe not since you're too stupid to even know what it means. Maybe if you opened your mind just a tiny bit, you would have a better vocabulary or a better view on the world outside ours or even have one original point of view. Or is the very notion of having a thought conjured up in that thick skull of yours plastered with anti-spot potion, just too scary?"

Blinston blinked. She had no comeback. She didn't even understand half of what Rose had just said.

"You're just- you- you're just the pathetic leftovers of muggle lovers and mudbloods. I know that I'm better than you!" Blinston shouted.

Rose rolled her eyes and begged herself not to care. "Keep your mouth shut Blinston." she groaned. "Everytime you speak I feel my brain cells committing suicide one by one.

Mae stepped forward to slap Rose. Luckily Rose hopped out of the way just in time. Even angrier, Mae stormed off to the Slytherin common room.

"Fifteen points from Slytherin!" Scorpius shouted at Blinston. He was glad that he had hid around the corner to hear Rose's comeback. But he was embarrassed that he had ever been Blinston's friend after hearing what she had said. "Are, um, are you alright Weasley?" Scorpius asked cautiously seeing Rose stare angrily at the ground.

She looked up at him and glared. "Yeah, I'm fine for an ugly daughter of a muggle lovers and mud- mud-." She started off sounding angry but gave up when repeating the awful insult. "Piss off Malfoy." Rose growled when she saw the hesitant pity in his eyes. She sent a bat bogey hex at him and stormed off to her room to read her history of magic text book.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

As Rose and Hugo made their way down to Hogsmeade to catch the train to London, she looked over and saw Lunette and Albus being cute. Normally Scorpius would be trudging behind them but he was nowhere to be seen. Rose made her way over to the couple and pushed her way between them, breaking apart their linked arms.

"Hey guys, are you coming to visit like last year Lunette?"

"Yes!" Lunette exclaimed happily.

"Great, just one other question though, will I be able to hang out with you guys or will you be all sickly sweet, staring into each other's eyes and pretending like the rest of the world around you doesn't exist?"

"Oh, sorry Rose. I guess we have been ignoring you and Scorpius." Albus shrugged.

"Yeah, where is Malfoy anyway? I thought he normally just hangs around behind you guys looking bored." Rose finally got to the subject she actually wanted to talk about.

Guilt struck Albus and Lunette. They never noticed Scorpius. The fact that their two best friends might be a bit lonely, never occurred to them.

"Oh, well, I think he said something about staying at Hogwarts for Christmas." Albus shrugged,

"What, does the little rich boy think his house isn't big enough so he has to stay here?" Rose smirked

"Um, no actually." Albus really had to think hard about what Scorpius had told him. "He was meant to go home but something happened last minute and he decided to stay at Hogwarts."

Rose frowned. She actually found herself worrying about him.

"Hey Rose!" James called from behind. He had caught up with Hugo.

Rose joined her brother and cousin. "Lorcan still hanging around with Mabel?"

James nodded. "I don't think he's noticed that I'm not around."

Rose searched the crowd of students all making their way to the station and spotted Lorcan behind them. He didn't look too happy. "I don't think you've not noticed how he's feeling."

"What?"

"Is he happy with Mabel? I mean, in your last year relationships are hard. You're either stuck with that person for a long time, like them or not. Or you instantly separate."

"Well, when we do talk, I steer away from talking about Mabel."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "So he could be miserable or not know what to do and he has no one to talk to about it."

James huffed and rolled his eyes. "Ok Rose, you've made your point. Sheesh, stop being so smart and right. So Hugo, how are you holding up with your abandonment?"

Hugo shrugged. "It just sucks when I realised that my cousin is my only friend in my year."

Rose sighed. She knew exactly how that felt. "Do we have to stage some sort of intervention for them over Christmas? Get Lorcan, Albus and Lily in a room and make them listen to us."

"No, too awkward." Hugo said quickly

Rose nodded. "I thought I might be."

"Is Lunette visiting over Christmas?" James asked.

"Yeah, she is." Rose realised that they were almost at the station.

"Oh joy, we get to see more of the happy couples." James rolled his eyes.

Rose hit his arm. "James!" She harshly whispered. "They're waiting for us on the platform." She looked up and waved at Lunette and Albus.

"We like Lunette alright, so best behaviour." Hugo whispered. "Both of you."

Christmas day and Boxing day were fun, Rose and Hugo finally got their cousins and best friends back due to the lack of boyfriend or girlfriend. Everything went back to normal, and after dinner Rose got what she really wanted, a quick ride on her broom around an old tree in the back garden of the Burrow while Albus sat on a branch talking to her.

However, two days after Boxing day, Rose received a letter from Albus saying that Lunette and her father were staying at the Burrow for a couple of days and that she and him were welcome to stay as well. As it was the holidays, most of the family spent the day at the Burrow and just went home around midnight, if they hadn't had too much to drink or had already fallen asleep. Rose loved Lunette, she and Albus were her best friends, but they barely spoke to her while they were together.

"Lunette!" Rose called for her friend before walking into the living room where Lunette and Albus were just sitting, holding hands and smiling at each other. All the soppiness made Rose feel a bit sick. "Me and James are trying to get a quidditch game started against the parents, want to join in and be our seeker?"

Lunette wasn't listening. Rose threw a pillow at her.

"Oh! Hey Rose." Lunette grinned. "What can we do for you?"

Calling herself 'we' implying that she and Albus were one and the same person made Rose irritated. But she decided to let it go, she just wanted to play quidditch and beat her dad.

"Wanna play a quick game of quidditch?"

"Maybe tomorrow." Lunette brushed her off. "I want to spend some time with Albus. Christmas is such a romantic time of year."

Rose rolled her eyes and sulked out of the living room. "We're short one player. The lovers want to stare at each other some more." She groaned to James, who just rolled his eyes as well in return.

"I hate couples that ignore they're friends because all of a sudden they're happier without you." James said loudly as he swooped passed the house on his broom to meet Rose on the ground.

He happened to pass the living room window. Lunette and Albus heard.

"They should be happy for us! They're our best friends and we're finally together." Albus said bitterly, but deep down he knew that his brother was right.

"I think they are happy for us, but we've been bad friends, just ignoring Rose and Scorpius like we have is horrible."

"I guess you're right, it's not like they can just hang around together. And they're both too stubborn to make new friends."

"Exactly. You know what, let's just talk to Rose when we next see her."

However Rose didn't turn up to Burrow the next day, Hugo said that she was still asleep when they left and the day after that she wasn't at the Burrow again, Hugo said that she was visiting Phil.

It was the morning of New Year's eve, when Albus and Lunette decided to go straight to Rose's parents as Hugo only shrugged this time when they asked if Rose was coming.

"Hey, uncle Ron, do you know where Rose has run off to? We can't find her and Hugo was no help."

"Yeah, Hermione wrote to Headmaster Fairweather yesterday, Rosie went back to school early This morning. She has a history essay that she hasn't finished yet and apparently she left all her notes in her room at Hogwarts."

Lunette frowned. "That doesn't sound like Rose."

"Well, I didn't think it did either, but she was quite determined to go back early." Ron shrugged. "Just a couple less days with my favourite daughter."

"Is- isn't she your only daughter?" Lunette said uncertainly.

Ron grinned and patted Albus on the back. "I think you fit in with your girlfriend perfectly Al, you're a lucky guy." He then strutted off to play chess with Hugo.

Lunette smiled softly at Albus. "I love your family Albus."

"And I'm pretty sure that they love you." he took her hand in his own. He was about to say, 'they'll be your family one day too.' but decided against it. Lunette didn't keep boyfriends around for longer than a week or two usually, and he wasn't going to ruin their just over a month long relationship over one poorly timed comment about the future.

"So, should we write to Rose? She didn't exactly say goodbye to us." Lunette suggested after Albus was quiet for a while.

NEW YEAR'S EVE, HOGWARTS

Rose had kind of been telling the truth, she hadn't finished a history essay, but of course she didn't leave her notes at Hogwarts. Something about hearing that Scorpius was spending Christmas alone at Hogwarts made Rose compelled to go back and see him. This was a feeling she didn't like at all, but at the very least she was able to finish an essay in the quiet of the library where she kept an eye on him, rather than having to listen to Hugo and Lily talking or James, Roxanne and Molly begging her to play quidditch with them as Ron, Harry, Ginny and George kept on winning.

As none of her friends had come back early or stayed over Christmas, Rose found herself reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, at the almost empty Gryffindor table at dinner. It was one of her favourite books, she had read it multiple times. She was suddenly aware that someone had plonked themselves beside her, she looked up to see Scorpius. They scowled at one another.

"What do you want?"

"Why are you here?"

The both asked grumpily at the same time. Speaking at the same time was something that had always been common between them.

"What are you doing here Weasley? You have a nice family and, as I recall, a pretty good Christmas."

Rose gave him a look of pure defiance. There was no way that she was telling him that she felt a bit worried about him. "I think I could say the same thing to you Malfoy. You've got family, a big house and a shit tonne of money. Christmas really can't be that bad. Why are you here?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me." Scorpius raised one eyebrow.

Rose scoffed. "No chance in hell." She turned back to her book but Scorpius snatched it out of her hand. "Oi!"

Scorpius held it just out of her reach, being almost half a foot taller, this was easy for him. "Hmmm, The Outsiders? Never heard of it." He opened it the the first page and read outloud. "'When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.' This sounds stupid Weasley."

Scorpius had not been watching her. Rose had climbed onto the edge of the table and jumped towards him. He wasn't prepared for that, which is what Rose was counting on. She swiped the book away from him as she jumped. She flashed a triumphant grin at him and went back to eating dinner alone. Yet her victory was short lived.

Scorpius snatched the book again.

"Twat! Give it back!"

"I don't get why you like it."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Hinton wrote it when she herself was seventeen. It's direct and honest. It's not some typical teen book where the characters break away from their parents, it's about how teenagers see themselves and each other. She wrote it because she was outraged about the way some in society and condemned to live on the margins and how mindless violence can spark by inequality, codes of loyalty and feelings of alienation."

Scorpius thought over what she said. "That was very well put." He said suspiciously.

"It's not a widely known book these days amongst our generation. It's not the first time I've had to explain it." Rose was still grumpy.

Scorpius. "Well I'm going to borrow it." And he marched out of the hall.

"Hey! Malfoy you git! Give it back!" Rose charged after him. She sent a tripping jinx at him, but before she sould get the the book, Scorpius tucked it inside a pocket in his robes. Rose wasn't about to wrestle him in the middle of the corridor.

"Why are you doing this?" she huffed.

"I'm bored. And you won't tell me why you're here but Al and Hugo aren't."

"Well you're not telling me why you're here."

"It's none of your business."

"Same goes for you."

They were silent for a while.

"So can I borrow the book?"

"No. Tell me why you're here." Rose rolled her eyes

"No. Tell me why you're here."

"No."

Scorpius shrugged. "I'm stealing the book then." and he sprinted off towards the Slytherin common room.

Rose couldn't be bothered to run after him. She trudged back to her empty room to find a different book to read.

At 11:45pm, when the few remaining Gryffindors were partying for the new year in just fifteen minutes, Rose snuck up to the astrology tower. She decided to spend her new year watching the stars. She set an alarm on her watch so that it would beep at the new year.

She snuck past professor Stockett, who was patrolling the corridors, by setting off a tiny and harmless firework on the floor below the stairs leading to the astrology tower. Rose hide in a cupboard while Stockett marched to investigate the banging sound. She smiled proudly to herself at the success of her plan and silently slipped out of the cupboard and made her way to the tower unnoticed.

The stars were nothing compared to how bright the moon was. Rose watched in a trance as the ripples of the lake reflected the moonlight. She could see Hagrid's hut in the distance but it didn't look like the lights were on. She guess that he was asleep, Hagrid was quite old these days. Rose heard footsteps behind her, she spun on the spot quickly and to her surprise, she saw Scorpius.

"What do you want?" Rose groaned. Still annoyed that he had stolen her book.

Scorpius shrugged "Just wanted to see the stars."

"And you can't see them from your room?" Rose rolled her eyes.

"No actually." Scorpius wasn't phased that she was pissed off with him. He leant on the balcony and looked over at the lake. "And what are you doing here Weasel? Are there no second years you have to shout pointless school rules at?"

Rose grit her teeth. "Yeah, and I guess you're here because nobody noticed or even cared that you're quieter than usual." Rose mentally kicked herself. That was a stupid thing to say.

"Ooh, great comeback." Scorpius mocked. "Come on Weasel, you can do better than that. You've pissed me off enough over the past few years that you should have something better to come up with. Or is this it? You've finally run out of smart comebacks? The boring Weasel has finally shown herself up."

"You know what?! I don't have to take this from you. I'd rather be anywhere else for New Year's than stuck up on this tower with you!" Rose huffed and tried to storm off.

Rose tripped on her own foot as she spun around, bringing Scorpius down with her. She landed on his lap. Rose smelt the familiar scent of peppermint, she began to wonder if it was his shampoo or soap that made him smell so strongly. Scorpius looked into her eyes with uncertainty.

"You're too clumsy for your own good." he whispered.

"I know." she whispered back.

"Why are you whispering?"

Rose smiled mischievously and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you whispering?"

Scorpius shrugged and continued it a voice just above a whisper, moving his head closer to hers all the while. "It seemed appropriate. This is a close and fragile moment."

Rose gulped and moved her head to meet his. Scorpius placed a hand gently cupping her cheek. Rose moved her hands to his shoulders. They leaned in, they both knew that the kiss was coming but felt powerless to stop it. They had kissed before, Scorpius remembered, he wanted to know if it would be any different this time.

Suddenly Rose's watch started beeping. It woke them up from some sort of trance.

"Ah!" they both exclaimed as the realised what would have happened.

Rose pushed herself off of Scorpius and quickly crawled backwards away from him until she was leaning on the freezing cold wall opposite. The large, wide, open space of the tower lay between them.

"What was that?" Scorpius eventually spoke.

"Oh, umm, my watch." Rose shrugged. "It's midnight. Happy new year Malfoy."

"Happy new year Weasley." He stared at her lips.

Rose looked up at the stars again, a faint smile growing.

"People are meant to kiss and New Year's aren't they?"

Rose's ears turned red. "Umm, yeah? I spend new year with my family, so my aunts and uncles and my parents kiss each other. And a couple of years ago Molly brought around her boyfriend, Merlin Jordan. But that's about it." Rose frowned and mumbled to herself. "I actually haven't seen Merlin in a long time, I wonder what happened there."

Scorpius nodded. No one did anything in his family, it was more of a muggle tradition that he had learnt about in class. And as far as Molly and Merlin went, he didn't know much. Molly was the only one of Rose's family, not including Albus and Hugo, that kept in contact wit him. She wrote to him every now and then to check on how he was doing. But not even Al knew about her letters. Molly was such a friendly and open person that when she and Scorpius became friends, she didn't care what happened between him and Rose. Scorpius stood and made his way to the edge on the balcony, looking up at the stars too. It wasn't long before Rose joined him.

"Why do people kiss on new year?" he asked

Rose shrugged. "Some, silly, cheesy reason like failing to kiss someone ensures a year of loneliness."

Scorpius shrugged. "Well, my two best friends are dating each other and are very bad at managing their time with friends, so I'm going to be lonely anyway."

Rose nodded. "Same. I may have Phil but she's been on the prowl for a boyfriend since Mel left us."

Scorpius looked down at Rose, the familiar smell of freshly cut grass muddled his thoughts. Before he knew what he was doing, Scorpius gently brushed a piece of hair behind Rose's ear. She searched his eyes before slowly wrapping her arms around his neck.

"We probably shouldn't." Scorpius leaned closer to her again.

"Probably, my watch going off was a sign, I guess." Rose pulled herself onto tiptoes to get closer to him.

"Yeah, I guess..." Scorpius sighed with barely a whisper. His heart raced as wrapped her arms tighter around his neck.

"If anybody saw us..." Rose muttered, not wanting to think about it herself.

She looked away from his eyes for a brief second, the moonlight bouncing off of his pale blond hair just made Scorpius stand out brighter to her. There was a blue tinge to the moonlight, reminding her the bluebell flames she made and put in jars. Scorpius always liked those.

"They wouldn't believe it."

Scorpius had one hand around her waist and the other tangled in her cut grass smelling hair. They had been friends once and had known each other well, but being this close to Rose again made Scorpius realised how many freckles she had and he noticed how kissable her lips were. How kissable they always were. He was just never close enough to have such an uncontrollable temptation.

Scorpius was content to stay in her arms for a while, he enjoyed to lead up to a kiss. Rose on the other hand was impatient. She popped onto her full tiptoes and, to his surprise, gently brushed her lips with his own. Rose's heart thumped loudly alongside Scorpius's and a warmth spread between them. The kiss deepened as they pressed themselves together.

Rose suddenly jumped away from Scorpius again as he released her from his hold when they heard the faint sound of a door slamming somewhere deep in the castle. It snapped them back to reality. And reality sucks.

Scorpius thought Rose might run away, but she gave a shaky sigh before leaning her forearms on the balcony and stared at the stars again. He leaned his head to see her expression. Rose was confused and worried, she was biting her lip. She had no idea what to say. Scorpius copied her position on the balcony and stared at the lake in the distance.

"We shouldn't have done that, should we?" Scorpius sighed.

"No. No we shouldn't have. And because we didn't mean to, it doesn't mean anything." Rose sounded angrier than she actually was.

"Thanks Weasley, but I'd like to think that a kiss from me means a little more than nothing." Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"But it didn't mean anything! We were just caught in the moment. I mean, otherwise I would never kiss you. Actually you kissed me so I didn't kiss you and it means nothing. Why would you kiss me?! You're such a-" Rose's ears were getting red again.

Scorpius thought she looked stunning in the starlight and kissed her again cutting off her rambling.

She looked angry again but Scorpius only grinned. "Just caught in the moment." Rose rolled her eyes and looked back at the stars. "And you did kiss me first. I thought I'd return the favour."

She scowled at him. "Kissing Malfoy the twat. Great way to start my year." she said bitterly. She was secretly pleased, Scorpius was a great kisser and he always made her heart flutter whenever he got so close.

Scorpius smiled and rolled his eyes. He was not regretting their kiss at all. In fact, he was tempted to do it again but knew that he really shouldn't. Scorpius reached into his robes and handed Rose her copy of The Outsiders.

"I couldn't put it down." He shrugged but his heart did a flip flop when he saw her grin.

"Really?! It's great isn't it."

Scorpius took hold of Rose's hand, he looked her in the eye and squeezed her hand gently. "R- Weasley, umm,"

"Yeah?"

Scorpius sighed. "Happy new year. 'Stay gold,' Weasley, 'stay gold'." he half quoted the book. We wished he hadn't, because tears threatened to spill.

Rose smiled softly. "Are you crying?"

"No." Scorpius said defiantly, still holding her hand.

Rose grabbed his other hand as well. "I always cry at that bit too."

Scorpius nodded. "Yes but, I literally only finished reading it about an hour ago. Damn it Weasley, why did you make me cry?!"

Rose chucked. "Hey, you were the one who stole my book."

"Yeah, I won't be doing that again."

"Good. But I would recommend reading The Book Thief and East."

Scorpius looked at her suspiciously. "Are these more books that will make me cry?"

Rose shrugged. "The Book Thief might."

He nodded then sighed. "I'll see you later Weasley." He squeezed her hands once more before slowly letting go and leaving.

Rose stood watching him leave, he stopped and looked back.

"It really meant nothing?" Scorpius didn't know what answer he wanted. But he knew what answer he would get.

"It can't mean anything."

"I thought so."

"Happy New Year."

"Yeah, Happy New Year."

NEW YEAR'S DAY, AFTER DINNER

Rose visited Hagrid for an hour or so before coming back to the castle. As she made her way up the main staircase, she caught a glimpse of pale blond hair.

"Malfoy?" She called out. Rose got her wand ready, expecting him to send a hex at any second. But it never came. She turned the corner and just saw him leaning against the wall smirking at her.

"Paranoid much, Weasley?" Scorpius asked when he saw Rose's wand out.

"What do you want?" Rose was annoyed to see him. She had managed to avoid him all day, but somehow he tracked her down.

Scorpius shrugged. "I've got nothing to do. And Al isn't here. Not that that would make a difference anyway these days."

Rose rolled her eyes and peeped into the nearest classroom. It was empty so she dragged him inside.

"We're not becoming friends Malfoy." she said sternly.

"I never said I wanted to be."

"Good, I just want to get it into your thick skull. Just because our best friends are dating and ignoring us to the point that we're lonely, does not mean that we have to be friends."

"Good." Scorpius shrugged. "But do you want to be friends today?"

"No."

"Good. Just testing you." Scorpius sighed, Rose knew he was lying. "What if we're able to keep it from the teachers and all the students left? We don't even have to be friends. We just call a truce and happen to be hanging out alone at the same place at the same time."

"Malfoy-" Rose rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, I need someone to talk to."

"You barely talk anyway!"

"Yeah, but I've been completely alone for over two weeks now."

Rose looked at her watch. It was 8pm. "Alright, we can be friends in this room for the next two or three hours. No one can ever know about it."

Scorpius grinned. "Great because I'm bored."

"Malfoy, I don't understand why you want me to be your friend."

Scorpius thought, 'Because when we kissed last night it awakened some feeling in me for you that I didn't know was there. I haven't stopped thinking about you and smiling all day. This feeling is scary and I don't know what it is. I can't talk to Albus about it, you're his cousin and if I talk to Lunette about it she'll jump to conclusions and tell you. Neither of them seem to be talking to me anyway these days. I just need you to be here next to him, talking to me to keep me sane.' But instead he said out loud. "I'm bored, and after yesterday I don't think hexing for fun would seem appropriate."

"We're not doing more of yesterday, if that's what you're thinking!" Rose jumped closer to the door.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "No, just friends for a couple of hours."

"Good, because I don't want you kissing me again."

"You kissed me!"

"Well you kissed back! And you certainly didn't stop it!"

"Can you blame me?! Have you met you? Or seen yourself in the mirror, like ever?"

Rose's turned bright red. She didn't know what to say. But she didn't believe him for one second, she wasn't exactly pretty like Lunette or Lily or Dom or Victoire. Rose prided herself on personality, wit and brains. Certainly never beauty. In fact, if it wasn't for her bushy red hair, Rose would look quite plain and not stand out from the crowd.

Scorpius cleared his throat. "Let's just forget yesterday for now and be friends for the day without anyone finding out."

"Fair enough." Rose said quickly, wanting to move to topic on. She dumped her heavy coat on the nearest chair and popped out of the room.

Scorpius frowned with confusion. He poked his head out of the door. Rose pushed his head back inside.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Rose whispered harshly.

"Me? What are you doing? I thought we agreed to get along, then you just ditch me!"

Rose scoffed. "Wow, you are really are lonely. I'm just going to the kitchens to get teapot. Stay here and don't follow me."

"Fine." Scorpius slumped into the chair beside her coat and folded his arms. "But I like my tea with a little bit of milk-"

"-and two sugars." Rose rolled her eyes. "I know. Now can I leave?" she asked with a sarcastic tone. "Or do you need someone to hold your hand?"

"Just go." Scorpius huffed, trying his best not to think about Rose holding his hand.

Rose quickly dashed out of the room, but it was too late, Scorpius had seen her wide smile. He smiled back at the closed door. They spent the rest of the evening acting like children again. Scorpius got it to snow in the classroom and they had a snowball fight. Once they were too cold, he stopped snowing and Rose created little bluebell flames in their empty mugs. They talked about magical creatures and wizards chess and quizzed each other on the rules of quidditch.

"So why did you come back early? I thought Christmas was great with your family."

Rose shrugged. "It's fun, but I had a few essays to finish and I wanted silence."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"Ok," Rose rolled her eyes knowing that he knew she wasn't telling the whole truth. "Lunette was staying for a couple of days and I would've found that great, if she didn't spend the entire time ignoring me. I couldn't drag her away from Al long enough to even ask her to play quidditch with me and James. It's been over a month now, surely they're past the 'honeymoon' period or whatever?!" She neglected to tell Scorpius that she was worried about him spending so much time alone. At least she had cousins who were pretty much close friends.

Scorpius nodded. "I would've thought so. But they're both such happy people that I guess they never have any problems."

"I wonder what that feels like."

Scorpius laughed. "Same."

"So why are you here?"

"A lot of reasons." he shrugged and grabbed biscuit from the slowly disappearing pile that Rose had brought back hours ago.

"Care to share any of those reasons?"

"Well, my mum wrote to me saying that my aunt Daphne was coming to visit, I don't know her that well but she seems alright. Anyway, aunt Daphne is still quite close with one of her old school mates, Pansy, who happens to be Lloyd Parkinson's mother. So they're staying at our house for most of the holidays."

"Crap, that must suck. I see why you stayed."

Scorpius nodded slowly. "My family just assumed that I'm friends with him because we've known each other all our lives. They don't realise what an aresehole he is. And what's worse is that Mae Blinston's father happens to be my aunt Daphne's boss so the entire Blinston family were scheduled to come for dinner on New Year's eve and stay the night."

"So rich kids have problems too." Rose shrugged.

"Yeah, we're forced to hang around with other rich kids who are stuck up twats who don't care about anyone but themselves."

"Yep, you're all stuck up twats."

"Hey! We're meant to get along remember?"

Rose looked at her watch, it was 1am. "Shit. We're waaaay past curfew."

"But it's New Year's day."

"Doesn't matter, we should both be in bed right now."

Scorpius shuffled closer to her. "Ooh, should we? I thought you hated me Weasley, but whose bed, yours or mine?"

Rose slapped his arm and pushed him away. "I'm serious, I'm going to my bed. You should go to bed too, but leave a couple of minutes after me just in case we run into other prefects."

Scorpius smiled as he watched her go. He had never wanted, but was unable to, hate Rose Weasley more in his life. The fact that the feeling wasn't making him angry confused Scorpius a great deal. But he was content to sit and smile watch her leave.

JANUARY

The day after New Year, Albus Lily and James returned back to school because Ginny and Harry couldn't take any more time off from their busy jobs. Rose waited by the entrance hall to greet them, Scorpius was grinning and listening to Albus talking, he had obviously met them at the station.

"Rose! Hi." Lilly grinned and greeted Rose. "Guess what, I've decided to break up with Justin."

"That's the guy you've been going out with right?" Rose raised an eyebrow, she never actually learnt his name.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, anyway, doesn't matter that don't know his name. It's actually probably better. He's such a prick."

"What makes you think that?"

"He visited just after you left and kind of admitted to only going out with me because he thinks I'm suddenly hot."

Rose nodded. "Now you know how Lunette feels."

James nodded and said hi before running off to the common room. Lorcan and Lysander were coming back to that school later on in the day too.

"Hey Al." Rose waved.

Albus quickly shuffled towards Rose and whispered. "Any idea why Scorpius won't stop smiling?"

"Maybe he missed you and realised that money can't buy you everything." Rose replied dryly, thinking inwardly that if she saw Scorpius's smiling little face one more time, she would punch him. The fact that Scorpius winked at her just as Albus turned away didn't help her irritation either.

Albus laughed and went back to Scorpius, who was more smiling at Rose than at anything else. She just brushed it off with an eyeroll.

"So, are you breaking up with him today?" Rose asked Lily as they stepped through the portal behind the fat lady,

"Yep today, apparently he came back yesterday because he was annoyed at his mum."

"What did she do?"

"Asked him to clean his room."

Rose burst out laughing. She looked across the room and saw James shouting and laughing in their direction. Lily and Rose frowned then spun around. They saw Lorcan shouting and laughing too behind them. Lorcan pushed between them and ran to James. They hugged and laughed together in the middle of the room.

Rose grinned. "True bromance."

"Why can't all relationships be like theirs?"

Rose smiled and shrugged. "Because not all people blow up stuff so much that they have to stick together just to get one average brain between them. Separately they are half wits and together they're just witty."

"Barmy, is what I'd call them. My brother has a screw loose. But I guess Lorcan is alright, he can be really sweet sometimes. He can be, when he wants, a calming influence on James."

"James can be nice too." Rose stuck up for her cousin.

"Yeah, but he's brother so I don't see that very often. Me and Al are often the targets of humiliation at home."

A few hours later, Lily began her breaking up with Justin. James got awkward and left to sit in his room, Rose was going to leave until she heard Lily shouting. She found it entertaining and stayed to watch proudly.

"What do you mean why? It's obvious isn't it?! You're a complete and utter arseole! I'm just ashamed it took me so long to notice! You are one of the worst people I've ever met! And I swear, if you ever try to talk to me again I'll gather all my cousins and siblings, and we'll all hex you until you can't move! AND DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO HUGO ABOUT THIS! He takes my side because he's my cousin and my best friend. Do not bother him with the question of picking between a friend and a cousin! Because he will always pick me!"

Suddenly Lorcan appeared beside Rose, he was grinning proudly too.

"She can be really loud can't she?"

Rose laughed. "Yep, that's my girl. Chatty and loud, and beautiful,"

Lorcan nodded. "She's also very protective. Of James especially and you."

"We all grew up together. We're practically siblings and our best friends in the world are our cousins."

Lorcan nodded. "I know. You know what, I've always admired your family, you stick together no matter what. And you stick up for each other, not that you need to. You're all such strong independent and capable people."

Rose smiled. "It's a big family, the weak don't last long."

"Lily is far from weak. Sometimes being a stereotypical girl like she can be, loud chatty and beautiful, means that girls like that get treated in a sexist and stereotypical way. But not Lily, she wouldn't stand for it. She has ambition and pride." he continued in a quieter voice. "You know what Rose? I think I could fall in love with her. I really could. I know she's three years younger and she's James's little sister. But just a couple of years doesn't matter when you're an adult and if Lily could fall for me too, she would stand up to James. But that's only if." Lorcan sighed. "I trust you Rose, that's the only reason I felt like I could blurt this embarrassing crap to you. Plus, we're both so young now, her especially, I know that you know that I would never do anything about this hypothetical feeling."

Rose smiled. "So you really think you could fall for her?"

"Absolutely. That's why I've decided that I need to keep my distance, falling for someone three years younger, while you're at school, it seems a lot."

Rose nodded. "It does, but like you said, when you're an adult three years is nothing. Well I like you Lorcan, and I trust you too. I think you and Lily would be great together. But James would kill you."

"I know. That's why I'm hoping that, if I ever do fall for her, she'd fall for me too."

"This is all hypothetical?"

"At the moment yes. Like I said, we're both way to young to know anything or do anything about it. I just look at her and I feel a protectiveness more than a brother and more than a friend. And when I do actually speak to her, my mind goes to the future. Way in the future, when we're both out of Hogwarts." Lorcan shrugged. "I'm in my last year of Hogwarts Rose, I'm thinking about my future. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I actually do fall for Lily Luna Potter."

"I guess." Rose shrugged and smiled.

She didn't often talk to Lorcan, they were both too busy. But they had a natural trust of each other. They were both almost as fiercely loyal as Hufflepuffs. Rose knew that if she ever needed to rant or talk out loud to anyone that wasn't Lunette or a cousin, Lorcan would be the first person she would go to. Just as he knew that he couldn't tell his best friend about his thoughts on Lily, Lorcan trusted Rose enough to make her his first person to openly admit out loud his hypothetical feelings and the fear that they might come true.

"Aren't you going out with Mabel?" Rose remembered.

Lorcan shrugged. "She's got bored with me and I realised what an arse I've been to James. I imagine Albus and Lunette have been doing the same to you."

"When two people are happy, they can be blind to everything else."

"I'm not sure I was exactly happy, just in a daze because for once a girl was giving me attention and not James."

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Boys." she said in a half exasperated, half mocking tone.

At lunch time of the first day the Hogwarts students started lessons again, Rose had the pleasant surprise of Lunette sitting at the Gryffindor table with herself and Lily. She was glad to have her friends acknowledge her, even if Phil was still hanging around with Mel and Anna trying to get a boyfriend.

"Hey, Lunette, you want to go for a walk before last lesson?" Albus came over to the Gryffindor table to talk to them.

Rose leant back and spotted a very grumpy Scorpius sitting alone at the Slytherin table.

"Oh, well, Albus, I was thinking of spending some time with Rose." Lunette said uncertainly.

Rose had not been expecting that answer, she snapped herself back to the conversation.

"Really?" Rose let her excitement show more than she wanted. 'Pathetic,' she thought to herself, 'getting excited over a friend briefly leaving her boyfriend's side and spending a little bit of time with you.'

"Umm yeah, me and Rose have some girly talk to catch up on."

Albus seemed disappointed but walked away laughing thanks to the grossed out and bored face Rose pulled when Lunette mentioned 'girly talk'.

Rose saw that Scorpius was happy to spend the lunch time with Albus again. Lunette took Rose out to the courtyard and began talking to her uncertainly.

"Rose, I've been going out with Al for two months now." Lunette seemed concerned.

"Yeah, you two are good together." Rose nodded, Albus was her best friend but she didn't really want to talk about him at the moment. "So how has your extra-curricular potions stuff going? I heard the professor say something about you doing an extra course or training thing during the next summer holidays."

But Lunette ignored the change in subject. "I only ever go out with guys for a week or two at the most, this is all new to me."

Rose rolled her eyes and sighed. "Lunette, is it going well between you and Al?"

Lunette nodded.

"Then what's the problem?"

"I can't stay friends with guys once they've dumped me and I'm scared the same will happen with Albus."

"Has he given you any indication that he's going to break up with you?"

Lunette shook her head.

"Then he probably won't. He likes you way too much to break up with you. And the best part is, Al likes you for you, not just for your looks like other guys."

"But we've been dating for so long, I'm not used to it. And I get this wonderful feeling when I'm with him, and it's getting stronger. I'm just so scared that I'll get my heart broken or I'll accidentally break his. And all of this will go away." Lunette was white as a sheet, even her hair had involuntarily turned white.

"Lunette, have you tried talking to Al about this? He's probably dying to know if there's anything he can do to make you happier."

Lunette nodded slowly but didn't answer. Rose had no idea if she was being helpful or not.

The next day, Rose had a free lesson and went to the library to do some work for a couple of hours with Katie Webb, and as she exited, she was ambushed by a hex that turned her hair blue. She only noticed this because her fluffy hair flopped over her face.

"Malfoy you twat!" Rose shouted and spun around. And sure enough, there he was. Cockily grinning, pleased with himself for making Rose look silly.

Rose sent back a bat bogey hex which preoccupied him while she sent a jelly legs jinx. Scorpius managed to concentrate for long enough to send a biting jinx at Rose's bag so it started attacking her for him.

"Ha! Take that Weasley!"

Rose wrestled her bag to the ground and stood on it so that it would stop biting her. She muttered the spell that returned her bag back to normal. She sighed with exhaustion and Scorpius took that opportunity to give Rose buck teeth. Rose growled and sent back a hex which made leeks sprout out of his ears, then she ran back to the Gryffindor common room to sort out her blue hair and buck teeth.

James and Lily laughed when they saw Rose come into the common room.

"Malfoy?" Roxanne guessed correctly as she hid her smile poorly.

"Yep." Rose flopped up to her room and stood in front of the mirror charming her hair and teeth back to normal. There was a small knock on the door. "It's open." Rose called.

Lily came in. "Um, Rose, I heard Anna tell Mel who told Phil who had already heard it from Robin, and she was annoyed because Felix didn't tell her and she had to be told by Wesley who overheard it from Louis who has telling Hugo, that Dom said that Elliott Macmillan said that he caught Felix snooping about and he overheard-"

"You've lost me." Rose sighed not really understanding a word of what Lily was waffling about.

"Dom told Louis, who told Hugo who was overheard by Wesely and he told Robin, and she was really annoyed that Felix didn't tell her first who told Phil who also heard it from Mel who heard it from Anna, but Phil already knew, that Elliot Macmillan caught Felix snooping around and he overheard, or actually saw-"

"Lily, please talk like a normal person rather than chattering away to yourself."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Lunette and Albus broke up."

Rose stood up so quickly, it heard her head and she tripped over a makeup box that Mel had left out. "What!" Rose ignored the pain in the leg. "My best friends break up and I have to hear it through gossip?! Are they ok? What happened? Why? I thought they were happy."

Lily shrugged. "My brother doesn't tell me anything either. But Louis is studying in the library right now, just incase you want to find him so that he can let you into the Hufflepuff common room to talk to Lunette."

Scorpius hobbled back to his room with one leg still jinx as jelly. He got there to find Albus grumpily staring looking at an open muggle studies book without actually reading it.

"Did you have another fight with Rose?" Albus asked uninterestedly when he briefly looked up to see Scorpius pulling leeks out with his ears and taking the last bat painfully out of his nose.

Scorpius scoffed. "What gave me away?"

Albus hissed and slammed the book shut. "Why do you have to be such a prat all the time?"

"What?" Scorpius raised his eyebrows at his best friend. "I thought you were my best mate."

"I am, but seriously Scorp, you've got to get off her back. Are you really so much of a git when you were alone with her? Because if it's all a show, it's stupid."

"No. I'm often substantially more of a git when I'm alone with her."

Albus groaned and hit his head against the wall twice before looking back up at his friend. "Scorp, you have to dial it down, I mean, I know that it's not just you, but I swear it's not even witty anymore. Are you just trying to make her angry?"

"Maybe I like getting her angry." He shrugged and Al glared at him. He then mumbled to himself "It's really the only time she acknowledges me." Scorpius looked skeptically at Albus, he didn't usually care when he and Rose had a fight. "What's got your wand in a knot?"

"Lunette broke up with me." Albus grumbled bitterly.

"What?!"

"Yep, she dumped me." Albus wriggled until he was under his duvet and turned away from Scorpius.

"Are you sure?"

Albus sat up and stared daggers at Scorpius, a look he had never done before and wasn't really intimidating. "Am I sure she broke up with me?!" Albus mocked. "Really Scorp?! Of course I'm sure!"

"Right, sorry mate." Scorpius patted Albus's shoulder after removing the last leek from his ear.

"I want to be her friend, I can't go a day without thinking about or speaking to her. But Lunette can be stubborn in her thoughts. She won't be friends with me now we've broken up."

"Give me a couple of weeks, she'll be your friend again."

"How do you know?" Albus asked grumpily.

"It's hard not be your friend. When Weasley started hating me for no reason, I thought I'd lose you too. I even tried ignoring you for a couple of days because I thought it would be easier on me once you finally decided to take sides. But you didn't, you stuck with me Al and didn't take sides."

"Yeah, well, unlike you and me, Lunette has loads of other friends and can stand to lose one. We're stuck together." Albus grumbled. He turned to see Scorpius's sad face. He sighed and mumbled. "Shit, sorry I didn't mean to sound like that. We're not just friends because we're stuck in Slytherin together."

"I know mate. But look, when it comes to you and Lunette, well you're different to others. Remember you were her friend before you dated, that's more than most guys she's been with."

For a week, Lunette and Albus didn't talk to each other. They simply ignored each other in the hallway, Lunette would often turn around and go in an opposite direction if she ever saw him. Rose didn't know what to do, she decided not to take sides. But seeing as she barely got to talk to Albus without Scorpius present and she was avoiding him, so it happened that Rose spent more time with Lunette.

Scorpius, who was also avoiding Rose, chose not to pick sides either. Although Rose's reasons for ignoring him were because he annoyed her, Scorpius's reasons for ignoring Rose were that she did funny things to his heart that he still hadn't figured out yet. Lunette was also Scorpius's friend but she spent most of her time with Rose so he only managed to speak to Lunette once or twice even if it was just to say hi.

Albus grew more and more miserable each day. And Lunette's hair was a very dull blonde compared to her usual multicoloured stripes. It was often a very dull with a greyish tinge.

One Saturday afternoon, Lunette was waiting in the courtyard for Rose who was coming back from visiting Hagrid. Lunette gave a small wave but no smile as she saw Rose approach. Rose looked behind Lunette and saw Albus and Scorpius coming their way through a small wooden door, not often used. Albus was too busy moaning, staring at the ground to notice where they were going but Scorpius spotted Rose instantly. They both look at Albus, then at Lunette and seemed to have the same thought at the same time. As Albus went through the door Scorpius slowed down to pretend to shut the door, Rose sped up and ran towards it. Scorpius then quickly shut the door so that he and Rose were on one side and Albus and Lunette were stuck in the courtyard together.

Albus noticed that Scorpius was no longer behind him and looked up. He saw Lunette and his heart froze. Lunette on the other hand, had seen everything and had been unable to leave as quickly as Rose.

"I suppose they want us to talk." Albus grumbled and slumped on the cold stone bench opposite Lunette. "But I'm sure you don't want to talk to me. I'm just an ex-boyfriend. It doesn't matter that we used to be friends."

"Albus, we broke up ok. We don't have to talk to each other anymore. Listen, I told you so, I did tell you, I'm no good at-"

"No! Listen to me Lunette! Don't 'I told you so' me! The only problem in our relationship is that you're giving up. We were fine, even if things aren't fine, you should've known to come to me and talk rather than just giving up as soon as things got a little bit hard." he stood and started pacing.

"Albus! You don't understand, I was right. I can't do long term relationships."

"You can't, and I can't, but together we can! You're gave up on us because you don't believe in yourself. But what was really insulting, is that you don't believe in me. We could've made it Lunette! You know that and it freaked you out. Ok, so we don't exactly know what love is, but I believe this is it. And I know you well. Your feelings grew and that was too much to handle. Why didn't you talk to me?"

Lunette couldn't believe it. An ex was having a go at her. This had never happened before. Her other exes tended to dump her because she was boring then never talk again. Lunette had also never seen Albus angry or shouting. Immense guilt washed over her as she realised that she had made the nicest and calmest guy she had ever met shout at her. And everything he was saying was true. Lunette felt like someone had punched her in the gut.

"Look, Albus-"

"You know what? No. I can't do this. Shouting at you doesn't feel right, I can't be angry with you Lunette. I'm blaming myself for all of this, so you can cheer up now." He looked her astonished face and nodded. "Yeah I noticed, I may not have talked to you or even looked you in the eye. But I've noticed how miserable you've been. You chew your lip more than before, you don't seem to be certain of aything. You're paler and your hair reflects your feelings no matter how you try to hide your remarkable powers. And I don't believe that it's specifically me that's done this to you, you would never get this upset over some guy."

"You weren't just some-"

"Yes I was. Another ex boyfriend added to the list wouldn't make you so down, you don't always show it but I know that you are one of the most emotionally strongest people on this planet. The fact that you had real feelings freaked you out Lunette." Albus turned around and shouted over his shoulder. "I thought getting my thoughts out to you, I thought shouting and letting my frustration out would help. But it's not. I don't like being mad at you Lunette because I still love you." Albus sighed and walked away. Lunette heard him mumble. "I can't do it." He pushed open the door, surprised to find that Rose and Scorpius weren't listening behind it. He shrugged and sulked off to the Slytherin common room.

Lunette went back to her room and cried for a couple of hours. She missed Albus and she knew it was all her fault. He was right, Lunette wasn't one to usually cry over some guy, but Albus wasn't just some guy to her.

Meanwhile, Rose and Scorpius shut the door and smiled proudly at themselves.

"This should get them talking." Rose grinned smugly

"Yep." Scorpius nodded. They listened to silence as Albus sat down. "Now what do we do? We can't be here when they come back in."

Rose nodded in agreement. Only then did she notice how close she was to Scorpius. They were both leaning on the door frame and their heads were only a couple of inches away. Rose looked at his lips and remembered New Years. Her ears turned red and Scorpius grinned, knowing exactly what her thoughts were.

"We could always kiss again." he suggested only half jokingly.

Rose huffed and rolled her eyes. She pushed off the wall and began to walk away. "You're such a prick, Malfoy!"

"Oh, I'm the prick?! You're the one who has been a thorn in my side for years!"

Rose stopped and turned around. She was more irritated than she realised. "What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?! You did that thorn bit just to piss me off!"

"So what if I did?! That's the point of us arguing, you piss me off, I piss you off!"

Rose groaned and rolled her eyes again. "You're pathetic, did you know that Malfoy?" and she sent a bat bogey hex at him.

"For Merlin's sake! What is it with you and this hex?!" he only just managed to get his words out.

Rose laughed. "I'm good at it and the more I use it, the more it frustrates you." and she strutted off to the Gryffindor common room to read a book.

Scorpius took a couple of minutes trying to get the bats to stop coming out of his nose. Rose was right, it really annoyed him that she was so good at that hex and there was little he could do to stop her from doing it everyday.

He heard Albus shout something at Lunette followed by thumping footsteps. Scorpius quickly ducked into the neighbouring corridor, just out of Albus's view. Scorpius heard excited whispering coming from an empty classroom and inched closer to listen in.

"Ok, look, I know that she has a potions class in the dungeons with Slytherin on Fridays after lunch. Now my plan is, if we do something at the top of the stairs, she'll fall down and make an even bigger fool of herself. That stuck up, insufferable smartarse deserves it." Growled the first voice that Scorpius vaguely recognised.

"Falling down the stairs? Couldn't she hurt herself? Isn't this all too harsh? Look, Leyton, I'm still not sure that I'm over her." Scorpius recognised the whiny voice of Felix Stirling instantly, who was now obviously talking to Daniel Leyton.

Scorpius could guess who they wanted to prank or scheme against, they were both dumped by Rose. Scorpius shrugged, telling himself that he didn't care what happened to Rose but he stopped after Daniel's reply.

"It's been two years, get over her already. I mean, it's not like she's that pretty anyway. Just take away the hair and no one would notice her. And I don't care if she gets hurt! I don't care if she falls down the stairs and breaks her neck. She's such a know-it-all bitch. You know, she told everyone that asked that I cheated on her, and now no one will go out with me because they think I'm some sort of dickhead."

Scorpius grit his teeth. 'But you are a dickhead, and no girl deserves to be cheated on by a twat like you.' Scorpius mentally told Daniel.

"But what if someone finds out that it was us?"

"Ha! No way, everyone will assume it's Malfoy. I mean, they hate each other so much, there's no way anyone will think to blame us. I mean, you said yourself the other day, you're still obsessed with her. No one would think you would hurt Rose."

"You're right, and I- I don't want too."

"Look here you pathetic excuse for a living being-"

"-please don't punch me-" Felix muttered.

Daniel ignored him and continued in a threatening tone. "You've already agreed to help me so there's no way I'm letting you out of this."

"Well, umm, what's in it for me? I mean, I like Rose so much-"

"She broke your heart right? You want revenge?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"And if that's not a good enough reason then how about this, I won't date your sister and make a fool out of her and damage her beyond repair that no guy would ever look at her again."

"Not my sister, not Robin."

"There we go, that's got your Hufflepuff protective loyalty going hasn't it. I'm disappointed that Hufflepuffs, with exception of you and that snivelling prat Norwood, have never let me push them around. I guess you two are the only stereotypical pathetically useless Hufflepuffs"

"So when are we doing this?"

"We've got to wait a week or two, I've still go to wait for my brother to send me whatever prank stuff he can through the post."

"And I'll make sure Rose is there to be pranked?" Felix seemed more assertive now that he gave himself a role.

"No, I'll do that. We both know about your failed attempt to trick Weasley into kissing you on New Year's Eve." Daniel chortled. "You couldn't even find her. I guess I'm going to have to trust you to set it up, I'll give you all the instructions and everything, I'll even make sure I walk past a couple of times to check that you're doing it right. But if I start setting things up, teachers and prefects are bound to ask questions."

Scorpius grit his teeth again and stalked off to the Slytherin common room, making a mental note to keep an eye on whatever Felix Stirling and Daniel Leyton were up to.

FEBRUARY

"Jeez, what's wrong with you Scorp? Why are we going the long way to the hall?" Albus groaned loudly as he followed Scorpius.

"Shut up Al, just for a second, I've got to check something."

Albus rolled his eye. "You keep saying that. Why do you keep saying that?! For the past few weeks all I've heard from you is 'I've got to check something'. What in Merlin's beard are you checking?!"

"Shh." he saw Daniel and Felix nod to each other as they got into the hall. Scorpius straightened his tie and led himself and Albus into the hall for breakfast.

"Scorpius!" Albus was getting frustrated as they sat down and still Scorpius hadn't explained himself. "You keep on acting like you're constantly watching our backs and it's getting annoying."

Scorpius sharply turned to Albus. "Would you please stop it with this moody attitude?! Al, you're my best mate and I know Lunette breaking up with you was painful, but can you stop being so, so..."

"So what?" Albus continued their argument in harsh whispers as they were beginning to get looks from Mae Blinston and her friends who all seemed to be still obsessed with Scorpius.

"I don't know! But you're not you. You're not cheerful and positive anymore. You've gotten quieter and grumpier."

Albus folded his arms. "Well, maybe if I had friends that actually had my back-"

"Excuse me?" Scorpius almost growled.

"You! Aren't you meant to be on my side?! And yet you're still friends with Lunette, some friend of mine you are."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Oh, so we're having this conversation again?" he felt like an old married couple. "Lunette was my friend before you guys dated, and she's still my friend now. You know what Hufflepuffs are like, once you're their friend, they are very stubborn about letting you go. And," Scorpius sighed, "I guess, you might be happy to know, that she also isn't her old self."

Albus's expression was briefly one of concern but it quickly changed to bitter disbelief. "I know, I did notice that. But she's had two boyfriends since me."

"Yeah, well, no, both lasted about a week. Al, you lasted over a month, you were something special to her and she misses you too."

"I don't need your pity Scorp."

"Well, what about Weasel?" He pointed at Rose. "Your own cousin is still friends with her."

"Yeah, well they knew each other before I even entered the picture. And besides, I think Rose is having a tough time and needs a good friend like Lunette. Not that you care."

Scorpius bit his lip and nodded slowly. "Yeah, not like I care." he said softly. He couldn't even convince himself of that anymore but Albus didn't seem to notice.

One Saturday morning, Hugo went to the Slytherin common room. He played two games of chess with Albus before he decided that he was fed up with his cousin's grumpy mood.

"Look Al, would you cheer up just a little bit? Please? You're making chess not fun."

Albus raised his eyebrows. He didn't realise that he was so moody that it was putting Hugo off chess. The only thing in history to ever put Hugo off chess was when his uncle Ron told the story of when he was throwing up slugs. The story had made Hugo himself feel sick.

"You know what, I think I heard one of Rose's roomates say that she wanted to talk to you. Why don't you walk around for a bit? I'll stay here with Scorpius."

"You want to stay here with me?" Scorpius stopped and looked up.

Hugo shrugged. "I don't mind you, plus I've heard that you're smart. I say heard, Rose never stops complaining if you beat her in a test or something. But I'd like to challenge you to a game of chess."

"But you're my enemy's brother." Scorpius raised an eyebrow. He knew that Hugo didn't mind being around Scorpius if Albus was there too.

Hugo shrugged again. "I know Rose hates a lot of people and she can hold a grudge like nobody's business. And she's scary and she knows all the spells ever and probably has the ability to send an entire army to hospital, but I reckon her continued hate for you just seems like a matter of pride and stubbornness now, like her hate for you has actually dulled down a bit. Oh, that and you really bug her."

Scorpius smiled, Hugo wasn't a bad kid and he knew his sister better than most. Albus noticed Holly Buchan coming their way.

"You know what, I think I will go for a walk." Albus vanished out the door before Holly could talk to him.

"Um, hey Hugo?" Scorpius muttered as soon as Albus was gone. "Do you mind doing me a little favour? It involves your sister."

"Sure, just as long as she doesn't get hurt. Actually, if it involves her, I might get hurt or at the very least, shouted at. I tell you, I don't need a howler when I've got an angry bush of a sister like Rose." Hugo's smile disappeared for a second. "You won't tell I said that will you?"

Scorpius chuckled. "I can't get within ear shot without her hexing me, I think you're safe."

Hugo laughed too and sighed with relief. "Thanks. Now what is it you wanted me to do?"

Meanwhile, Albus was strolling around the castle, with the intent to eventually go down to Hagrid's, he just wanted to enjoy the fresh air first. Suddenly Anna Gardener bumped into him.

"Why, hello there Albus, funny seeing you around." she smiled flirtily.

Albus just nodded and felt awkward, he heard giggles from behind him. Albus spun around to see Phil Abel-Roy, Mel Fawley and Robin Stirling watching them. He knew that this must be some sort of setup from the group of girls. Rose had warned him that her roommates could be sneaky and manipulative when it came to guys. Albus felt even more awkward with Anna's friends watching him. And he felt like he never understood girls.

"Well, we kind of go to the same school, and, well, it's a nice day. So I, um, I guess it makes sense that we're both outside." Albus shrugged and wanted to disappear.

Anna's expression was one of pure flirtation, she looked behind Albus briefly and her expression turned to disgust but she changed back as soon as she looked back to Albus. He was confused, so he turned around again to see who it was, but Anna grabbed his arm and walked slowly on with him.

"Oh, Annabella, I actually wanted to, um go to Hagrid's hut for a while-"

Anna giggled. "You really should call me Anna. You're so cute Al. Can I call you Al?"

Albus felt an awkward overload and a desperate need to run away, but he kept his cool. "Well, actually, my family are the ones that call me Al-"

Suddenly someone else bumped into the pair, this time with so much force that it broke Anna away from Albus. Which he was grateful for. They both spun around to see Lunette had been the one to interrupt. She looked her guilty, very pale and and very flustered. Albus noticed that she was having a hard time maintaining her haircolour so that it didn't go white like it usually did when she felt flustered. Lunette would not have wanted Anna to know that she was a metamorphmagus.

"Oh! Hi, um, Albus." Lunette was desperately trying to stop herself from hyperventilating. "Oh, and Anna, wow, ok so you two are dating now? Ok, umm, well have fun!" Mortified at the fact that she even opened her mouth, Lunette began retreating immediately.

"Would you excuse me for just a second?" Albus said to Anna and quickly caught up with Lunette. "What's going on?"

"You're dating Anna! I thought you hated Anna, well not hated, but didn't like her. But here you are dating her!" Lunette spoke so quickly, it was hard to comprehend.

"Woah, I'm not, I'm not dating Anna."

"Really?! So you won't ever be interested in or even go on one date with Anna or anybody else for that matter?" Lunette sounded too cheerful and she mentally kicked herself.

"No, I-I can't say that." Albus wanted to hit his head against a wall or a door or anything hard enough to take away the pain of talking awkwardly to Lunette rather than kissing her.

Lunette looked behind her, Anna was standing waiting for Albus to return. "Hey! Umm, let's go away form here and I can show you something. Let's just hang out like old times at this, um, new place I found." Lunette grabbed Albus's arm and began dragging him away from Anna.

Albus refused to move.

"I know what you're trying to do, but we can't do this. We can't hang out as usual. I guess you were kind of right. We broke up, and if we hang out together just the two of us, it makes everything harder."

Lunette couldn't look at him. It hurt too much. She sighed heavily and restrained herself from crying. "I-I know what you mean. Umm, excuse me." Lunette ran towards the castle. Albus watched her leave with a twinge of guilt and sorrow pulling at his heart. He saw Lunette catch up with Rose who was just entering the castle.

Anna rolled her eyes and tried to hold Albus's arm again but he moved out of her reach. "Anyway, now that she's gone," Anna said with a bitterness that Albus hated, "we can resume what I was about to ask you. About maybe going on a da-"

"Umm, Anna, I have to go." Albus said quickly and hurried off to Hagrid's hut.

Meanwhile Rose made her way to the library, with a very quiet Lunette in tow. While Rose set about writing a revision timetable for the exams in June, Lunette stared blankly at the ceiling. After an hour, Rose was a little bit freaked out that this behaviour had not changed and she took Lunette to an empty classroom.

"Lunette, what's going on?" Rose pleaded her friend to snap out of her silence.

"Rose, I did something stupid. I tried to stop Albus from even talking to another girl. I mean, I'm the one who ended it yet I'm the one making it difficult for either of us to move on. It's just that the thought of him with anybody else makes me miserable." She leaned her head on Rose's shoulder.

"Lunette, can I ask you a question?"

She nodded dully in reply.

"Why did you break up with him? I mean, I thought things were going great and you both really like each other. What happened?"

"Well that was exactly it. Things were going really well. I panicked I guess. I knew I would screw things up so I thought, why prolong the inevitable?"

"But how could you know that?"

Lunette started to tear up. "I don't, I didn't know that. I was just scared and now I've lost him."

"Yeah," Rose hugged Lunette sympathetically. "I hate to say it, but being friends with Al might just not be possible for you."

"I know. Not dating him his horrible, not being his friend is killing me but to cut him completely out of my life apart from awkward glances in the hallways is just the worst. And that's selfish, I know, but he's important to me."

"I, I don't know how to help. I'm sorry. But you really broke his heart."

Lunette sniffed. "Why are you even friends with me? Why is Scorpius still friends with me? You're both so loyal to Albus but somehow make time for me. I don't get it!"

"Well," Rose sighed and shrugged, "Despite what he says, I know that Albus would be angry if we stopped being your friend because of him. Lunette, you're important to Al too."

"I don't deserve him, I never did."

"Lunette, I believe you deserve anything you set your mind to and work hard for." Rose said determinedly.

Lunette looked Rose dead in the eye. "And you don't believe I worked hard for Albus?" her voice shook.

Rose took a deep breath, "As awful as it sounds, yes. You gave up and you didn't talk to Al. You were scared and didn't try hard enough to save what you had with him."

"Are you saying that I don't deserve him?!" Lunette was deeply hurt.

"You do Lunette, you deserve each other, and as cheesy as it sounds, you guys belong together." Rose rolled her eyes, she hated herself for saying such cheesy, lovey-dovey things. "But you needed to work harder at letting your feelings strengthen and not run away when they got too much."

"Ha! And what about you?! You hate feelings! You never like letting the strong ones show! What about you and Scorpius?! I'm pretty sure neither of you let your feeling strengthen! In fact, I'm pretty sure you two turned your backs on each other just as feelings stronger than friendship came into play! So don't you talk to me about feelings Rose!" Lunette practically shouted and slamming the door as she stormed out.

Lunette immediately regretted shouting at Rose. She stopped as soon as she exited the classroom and leant on the wall beside the door trying to control her tears.

Rose had said nothing in return. That was what surprised herself the most. She always argued back, having a little brother had prepared her enough for that. But for some reason Lunette had stumped her. She paced back and forth by the door, Rose did not want to leave until she figured out why she didn't argue back. Whether it was the fact that Lunette might just have been right or the fact that Lunette, of all people, had shouted at her, something had stopped Rose from opening her mouth in defense.

Deciding that Lunette had to be wrong, otherwise that would mean she had feelings for Scorpius, Rose barged through the door with the intent to go to her room and not think any more. But the sound of crying drew attention, Rose turned her head slightly to the left and saw Lunette.

"Rose, I'm- I'm sorry." Lunette spoke through sobbs. "I wasn't there when you and Scorp stopped being friends, I can't make assumptions. And you were right-"

"Lunette, I know I like to be right, but in this circumstance I don't need to hear it. It just makes me sound like an arsehole." Rose wrapped one arm around her best friend. "Why don't we go down to the kitchens and get you a drink?"

Lunette stopped crying and smiled softly. "Albus said I always smelt like hot chocolate."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Alright, we'll get you a hot chocolate." Her mind unwillingly drifted to the scent of peppermint and the certain blond boy she associated it with. Her ears turned red and she felt frustrated. Lunette luckily didn't notice.

The next Friday finally came and Scorpius kept a close eye on Felix Stirling and Daniel Leyton. He came to the conclusions that whatever they were up to was definitely happening that day. It made him late to all of his lessons that day, something which each professor reported to the head of Slytherin who just so happened to be the potions professor. The professor caught up with Scorpius just outside of the hall at lunch, which was inconvenient.

"This is unacceptable and completely out of character Malfoy! If you are late to your potions lesson today, I will give you detention and take twenty points from Slytherin! Do you understand?!"

"Yes sir."

Scorpius saw Felix and Daniel sneak away, he had had enough knowledge of where whatever it was was stashed to get them both a detention. But being shouted at by his potions professor didn't give Scorpius enough time to stop them in the act. It was time for plan B. Scorpius caught Hugo's eye and nodded to him.

"What was that?" Rose asked suspiciously as she witnessed the nodded between her brother and her enemy.

Hugo shrugged. "Nothing." He knew Rose wasn't convinced and saw it as a perfect opportunity. "Well, actually, I overheard Scorpius tell Al that his potions essay from last week was so much better than yours."

Lily eyed him suspiciously, she could tell that Hugo was lying. Rose would have normally been able to tell too, but the possibility of being beaten by Scorpius was not worth the risk and it sent alarm bells to her head.

"What?!" Rose was panicking.

"Er, yeah. But I think I saw your potions professor go down to his classroom right now if you wanted to talk-"

Rose was already gone before Hugo could finish. Scorpius had overheard the exchange and ran ahead of Rose.

"Professor! Can I speak to you about my essay from last week-" Rose blurted out as soon as she made it to the dungeon classroom.

"Look, Miss Weasley I'm trying to set up for my next class, which happens to be you, so would you mind if we spoke about this another time?"

"But sir-"

The professor looked at his stop watch. "It's almost class time, just sit down and we can speak later."

Rose huffed. "Fine." and she slumped in her seat at the front of the class

Scorpius had got to Felix just as he was walking away towards his prank to get the final touches ready.

"Oi! Stirling!" Scorpius had dragged Felix into an empty corridor just in time and Rose didn't see either of them when she ran to the dungeon classroom. Scorpius had watched as she safely run down the stairs to the potions classroom. He just hoped that she would stay there long enough.

"What?"

Scorpius suddenly remembered that Felix was there. "Oh, I know what you and Leyton are up to. And you both will have a detention with professor Longbottom. I'll talk to him later about it."

"What?!" Felix was panicking but it was time for their final lesson to start. He ran outside the room, knowing that Daniel would be waiting there to see Rose's humiliation. He whispered what Scorpius had said, and they both became angry.

As students poured into the potions classroom, Scorpius waited until they had all gone inside then made his way to the classroom.

Suddenly he felt a coldness dump on his head. He knew instantly that Leyton and Stirling had gotten him back for protecting Rose. He just hoped it was worth it. Scorpius debated going to his room, but he knew that if he was late or absent for this class he would get a detention. At least with this obvious humiliation, Scorpius knew that he had a reason to leave and avoid detention all together if the professor saw.

Scorpius took a deep breath before he walked into his potions class covered in red paint. Most of the class were laughing, but Albus looked embarrassed for him and Rose was sending him a confused look. Scorpius sat in his usual spot, next to Rose and in front of the professor's desk. He didn't say anything for a while but he knew that Rose's eyes were on him and she was desperate to ask why on earth he was covered in red paint.

"Stop looking at me Weasley, you're making me blush." more red paint from his head dripped onto his cheeks.

Rose quickly turned her head away from Scorpius and hide her face from his view. Scorpius leaned forward to try and see her expression. She hid it well but her shoulders occasionally bounced.

"No, you're not actually laughing at that joke are you?"

Rose tried to hide a smile and mumbled an unconvincing "No." she still didn't look at Scorpius.

He leaned forward once again to see her face and Rose started laughing properly. The professor walked in to see Scorpius rolling his eyes and covered in red paint and Rose laughing at him. He naturally assumed it was all Rose's fault. Without a second thought he began shouting.

"Weasley this is unacceptable! I expect each one of my students to come to class well behaved, in the proper uniform and not covered in evidence of harassment! I believe I have been tolerable of your disagreements with Malfoy, but to humiliate him in my class in unacceptable! You will have detentions with me every Friday after dinner for the next three weeks! Ten points will be taken to Gryffindor! And your punishment starts now, get out of my class, you will spend the time sitting at the back of professor Lupin's class and explain to him what you have done, you can catch up on potions notes in your own time!"

"But sir-!" Rose tried to defend herself.

"No Weasley! Get out now!"

Rose angrily picked up her bag and began to storm out, but not without hearing Scorpius trying to speak.

"Professor, you've got it all wrong, it wasn't-"

"And as for you Malfoy, I'm sure that you are not wholly innocent in all of this and therefore you will also have detentions with me for the next three weeks on Fridays after dinner! Now get out and tidy yourself up!"

Rose waited outside the class for Scorpius. When he arrived, just as annoyed as Rose, she caught him before he disappeared into the bathrooms.

"Malfoy!"

Scorpius spun around and rolled his eyes when he saw that it was Rose. "What do you want?"

"Who did this and why are they trying to blame me?"

Scorpius opened his mouth and closed it a few times before finding the words. "It wasn't- Well it was supposed- It was- you were the one who was- Oh nevermind, Why do you care anyway?"

Rose shrugged. "I'm not sure I do, I just want to know why I'm getting detention for no reason."

"Yeah, me too. Professor assumed it was my fault too." Scorpius grumbled. "I'm stuck with you for the next three Fridays."

That night Rose went to bed in a foul mood. Three weeks of detentions for something she hadn't done. And to top it all off, Scorpius hadn't told her who did do it so they wouldn't be caught. Or so she thought. Little did Rose know that Scorpius had gone straight to professor Longbottom to tell him what happened before cleaning himself up. Longbottom agreed to give detentions to Leyton and Stirling, to not tell Rose (although he didn't know why she couldn't know) and Longbottom attempted the convice the potions professor of Rose's innocence, but he didn't believe his colleague or Scorpius.

Rose calmed herself down around the same time Scorpius cleaned himself up. Just before dinner. However it didn't stop her from sending him glares across the hall while they ate.

Later that night, Anna was groaning and screaming into a pillow that night as Rose was trying to read her book and Phil and Mel were quietly chatting on Mel's bed.

"I'm never going to get a guy like Albus potter! Especially with pretty and perfect girls like Lunette hanging around! Ugh, I hate her. She has to steal all the good guys!"

Phil and Mel looked quickly between Anna, who was pissed of and Rose who was holding in her impatience and irritation. They pulled the duvet over their heads and spoke even quieter.

Rose sighed, she decided to be calm and rational. Rather than flying off the handle like she was tempted to. But Rose decided that she had been angry enough for one day.

"Anna, you're right, in a way."

All three girls were shocked. Anna's eyes widened and Phil and Mel whipped to duvet off their heads to listen.

"All I'm saying is, you're right that you and every other girl, will never get Albus. And again, you're right, it's because of Lunette."

"Ha!" Anna was over confident and triumphant. "I knew it! Lunette is a bitch veela that steals-"

"No!" Rose angrily outburst. She took another deep breath and continued calmly. "I know Lunette and Al broke up, but they both have very strong feelings for each other. They may or may not date other people for a while, but I am positive that they will end up together in the end. There's just something that draws them together, it might even be love and all that mushy crap that makes people act stupid. Mark my words, they will live happily ever after like some cliche fairytale someday."

"Oh, like you and Malfoy." A cheerfully cheeky voice came from the door.

Rose and her roommates snapped their heads towards the door to see that Lily had sneaked in.

Phil laughed at Lily's remark, Mel didn't understand, Anna was annoyed at Rose and was hiding under her duvet and Rose herself was scowling at her cousin.

"Is there a reason you're here little cousin?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, can I talk to you Rose?"

Rose shrugged and followed Lily to the common room.

"What is it Lils?" Rose slumped in a chair and crossed her arms.

"Well, I was wondering, how are you?" was all Lily said

"Is that it? Well, ok then, I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." Rose began to stand up but Lily pushed her down again.

"I'm serious Rose, how are you?"

"Why do you ask?"

Lily shrugged. "Because I know you and I love you and I want to know how you're doing." Lily sighed and sat beside Rose. "Look, your favourite cousin is best friends with your enemy. And your other best friend just broke up with your favourite cousin. You can't pick sides between your cousin and best friend. And you can't even talk to or comfort your cousin because your enemy is always by his side. Rose, are you ok?"

Rose sighed. "Wow, you really do know me. Well, to be honest, I feel lost and helpless. And I hate that you're right."

"I know you're not a hug person, but would you like one anyway?"

Rose nodded and hugged her cousin.

"Thanks Lils. What made you think to ask me? I mean, I know you're super considerate of everyone, but everyone else seems to be more concerned that Al and Lunette aren't getting along."

"The truth is Rose, someone kind of did it for me once. It sounds selfish, but when your bestfriends are going through something, others usually forget about you. It was when your grandma died, you and Hugo were going through a lot and you guys weren't yourselves. I felt like you do now, useless and that made me feel terrible. You guys were miserable and I felt just the same except that you had an actual reason. And you're not going to like this next bit, but Malfoy was actually the one who asked me if I was ok. He helped me and gave me some good advice. But because he noticed that I wasn't feeling myself, I felt a bit better. So I promised myself that I would do the same. I would look out for those caught outside someone else's problems, sometimes just recognising that person makes them feel a whole lot better."

Rose smiled.

"And, if you think about it," Lily continued, "Malfoy is going through the same thing. Hate him or not, you both have the same friends."

Rose couldn't help but give a small laugh. "This is so stupid. All of this is ridiculous. I mean, just three years ago Malfoy and I were best friends!" She hit her forehead with her palm. "What went so wrong? I mean, what went wrong other than him turning into a proud, arrogant twat who ignored my opinions, judgements, feelings and always started arguments. But what went so wrong?"

"Well, I have an opinion on that but you won't like that either."

Rose squinted skeptically. "Alright little miss chatterbox with all the theories, what do you think?"

"Ok, but don't hate me. I think you developed feelings for each other-"

"What?!" her ears turned red. Both Lunette and Lily had mentioned this within a couple of days.

"Just hear me out-"

"We were thirteen!"

"Rose, I think you and Malfoy felt something more than friendship begin to develope and it freaked you both out a little bit. You started hating each other because you were confused."

Rose rolled her eyes then yawned. "There isn't enough time in the world for me to tell you wrong you are and how much I hate Malfoy." she stood and made towards the stairs. "So I'm going to bed before you start suggesting that I'm like, I don't know, I love with him or something-"

Lily shrugged. "Well I wouldn't say love but-"

"Ha! And I guess he 'loves' me too?"

"There is definitely something between you two-"

"No Lily." Rose rubbed her eyes. "Go to bed, you're thinking strange things."

Lily flopped in her airchair and thought back to lunch time. When she had seen the nod between Hugo and Scorpius, she saw Scorpius run out just before Rose and she heard a rumour that they both had detentions due to some sort of prank that Rose claimed not to have done, Lily knew to interrogate Hugo And she had done so after dinner. Hugo was very happy to tell her the truth but he didn't see why it was so important. But to Lily it almost confirmed what she believed to be true about the feelings of her cousin and the so called enemy.

MARCH

The first and second detentions Rose and Scorpius had together were spent in complete silence. The third detention was in the first week of March.

"Look, Al, you don't have to follow me to detention." Scorpius rolled his eyes as he and Albus took the long way from the hall to the dungeons.

"Well, I'm bored and I haven't spoken to Rose in a while so I'm coming with."

Meanwhile Rose was already waiting outside of the dungeon classroom with Lunette by her side. Rose was leaning against the cold stone wall with her arms crossed, already bored and fed up.

"Why are you here?" Rose rolled her eyes.

"Well that's rude, I thought you'd enjoy the company." Lunette pretended to be offended but Rose saw right through her.

"I could just leave you out here on your own and go to my detention. The professor has bound to have noticed that I'm just hanging around outside rather than going in. And I don't want to spend anymore time in this detention than I have to. I've done nothing wrong."

"This time." Lunette mumbled.

"What was that?" Rose stood up properly.

Lunette grinned and spoke clearer. "I said, you did nothing wrong this time. We both know that you've done a great number of things, especially to Scorp, that you should've gotten a detention for but didn't because you weren't caught." Rose was about to interrupt but Lunette raised a hand to silence her. "And yes I know he's just as much to blame as you. Think of it as justice. You both argue and break the rules without punishment on a daily basis. Now both you and Scorp get detentions for something you haven't done. Speaking of Scorp, he's the reason I came along with you."

Rose rolled her eyes once again and slumped against the wall.

"If you keep rolling your eyes, they'll get stuck that way." Lunette said in a motherly tone which made Rose laugh. "Look, since the whole thing with Albus, I haven't spoken to Scorpius very much and he's still one of my best friends."

"Loyal Hufflepuff." Rose grumbled with a smile.

Lunette grinned back. When Scorpius came down the stairs Lunette grinned at him too and attacked him with a hug. Rose groaned and was about to go through to the classroom but saw Albus lagging behind.

"Hey Al." Rose smiled, she hadn't spoken to her best friend in while.

"Hey Rosie."

Rose scowled, only her parents got away with calling her Rosie. Albus knew that.

"I see Lunette's here." Albus sighed, his heart thumping in his chest at the sight of her. He felt to awkward to even talk to Rose.

It hurt Rose to see Albus so upset at the presence of the girl he had deep feelings for but couldn't show. Not that he did a good job at hiding his feelings.

"Look, Al-"

"No, I should let you get to your detention. I'll see you around Rose. I might pop up to the library or to your common room tomorrow if you're not in Hogsmeade."

Albus left with a nod to Scorpius and a sorry expression to Lunette. She saw him and quickly followed. Which left Rose and Scorpius and their final detention. Final for the moment.

"Weasley." Scorpius acknowledged her.

"Malfoy." Rose grunted back. She waited for him to go through to the classroom before following him in.

Their potions professor sent them to the study room on the fourth floor of the castle to clean all the windows by hand. Having never cleaned anything by hand or by magic, Scorpius was slow to pick up the simple task so the professor stayed and watched for half an hour, making sure that Scorpius had to redo three of the four windows he had completed at a snail-like pace. After the professor left, the dull and tense silence began again. Rose buckled down and worked quickly and efficiently wishing the detention to end as soon as possible. The only thing worse than having to spend time with Scorpius for three weeks in a row, was spending time with him without so much as a sentence passing between them. It was a sudden swing from arguing to no words whatsoever. They were also instructed to remove all cobwebs from the room, magic was allowed for the especially high ones, and to mop the floors.

Four hours later and they were finished. Rose and Scorpius never truly realised how massive, dusty and old the study room was until they had to clean every inch of it.

"Do we have to go back to the professor or do we simply go our different ways?" Rose startled Scorpius by speaking.

"Well look at that, she speaks." Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"Shut up Malfoy and answer the simple question."

"I don't know, we probably should go back, I don't want you getting me another detention for something I didn't do."

"How can you make this my fault?! You're a right tosspot, you know that right?! This wasn't my fault and yet I get a detention. You could have very easily explained to the professor what happened!"

"No I couldn't! He gave me a detention too and I was the victim here!"

Rose scoffed.

Scorpius continued. "Why would I even want to stand up for you anyway?!"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I'm your best friend's cousin, or maybe because it's the right thing to do, or maybe for old times sake?!" Rose shouted and began to storm off.

Scorpius grabbed her arm before she got too far away. "We both know-"

Rose wriggled away a stormed off again. Only to have Scorpius grab her arm once more. He pinned her against the wall so that she would listen. He had one hand holding her shoulder to the wall and the other planted firmly beside her head. Upon reflection, Scorpius later realised that he didn't pin her too hard to the wall and Rose could've left again if she wanted. He knew of her strength.

"Look, Weasley, you can't keep bringing up old times when it suits you!" he looked into her eyes and was reminded of the funny feeling he got at the start of the year. His tone softened "If it was up to me-"

"What was that?!" Rose snapped her head to the right and interrupted Scorpius.

Seeing it was hopeless, Scorpius let go of her and sighed.

"No, Malfoy I'm serious, what was that noise?" Rose felt the wall beside a mirror next to them.

"What noise?" Scorpius grumbled.

"It sounded like..." Rose didn't know how to finish that sentence. She looked him, and then at his left hand which had been resting next to her head.

Much to Scorpius's surprise, Rose gabbed his left hand and placed it beside her head again. He had no objections, it brought him closer to Rose, even if she wasn't paying attention to him. Scorpius felt the brick beneath his hand sink into the wall and he jumped back. This time he heard the noise too, almost like a door opening from inside the wall and scraping along the stone floor.

Scorpius and Rose looked around the corridor, none of the doors were open.

"I guess it was nothing." Scorpius shrugged and turned away.

Annoyed by his lack of interest, Rose decided to leave it alone too and set off straight after him.

Of course Rose, being Rose, tripped and dragged Scorpius down with her. But instead of falling on the floor, they fell down into darkness. There was a loud bang and they knew they were stuck.

...

After Albus and Lunette had left Scorpius and Rose at their detention, Lunette was determined to get a conversation out of him without arguing. She refused to remember their last conversation as an argument. That's not how she wanted Albus to be in her mind and she didn't want to be some heartless ex in Albus's mind either.

"Albus!" Lunette called out to him as soon as they reached the first floor.

"What-? Oh Lunette, hi." Albus turned around and went red.

"Umm, Allbus, I just, I just wanted to say-" Lunette choked 'what?' she thought to herself. 'I wanted to say what? Anything. I just want to say anything, why did I even open my mouth?!'

Albus looked at her expectantly. "What?" he also desperately wanted to say something, but what to say had escaped him completely.

"Oh, nothing." Lunette gave up and ran to her common room before she could feel any tears coming.

Albus was left bewildered and more hurt. If Lunette couldn't even speak to him anymore, that was it for them. No happily ever after in the future.

...

"Lumos." Rose muttered once she pushed herself off of Scorpius who was laying on the ground.

The dark room was more of a narrow tunnel or pit with only just enough room for two people. Scorpius stood slowly behind her, his head hurt.

"Where are we?" he began to panic. "It's so small and dark in here. So empty." his heart raced. "I don't like it, Weasley I don't like it." fear edged through his voice.

But Rose remained calm. "Fourth floor, I knew there was tunnel behind the mirror but I thought it was blocked up years ago." Rose was more speaking to herself than to Scorpius. The light from her wand reflected off of something high above them, she knew it had to be the mirror. She went on mumbling. "James and Lorcan must have been spending a lot of time trying to unblock it, I never realised they got so far, the map didn't show how big..."

"Map? That exists!" Scorpius had overheard James and Lorcan say something once about a map with hidden rooms on it.

"What?!" Rose realised what she had said. "Oh, I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, you said map-"

"No I didn't! Now shut up and think of a way out of here. The door is too high up and jumping won't work."

Scorpius, without giving it a second thought, lifted Rose up by the waist.

"MALFOY!" She shouted in anger. "PUT ME DOWN NOW!"

Scorpius gave an exasperated sigh, "Look, can you reach the door or not?" He was really trying to control his fright. The pit-like room full of darkness scared him more than the enormous dining room in Malfoy manor at night. He was sure that he could hear the rattle of the gate leading to the dungeons whenever he walked past when it was dark out.

Rose reached up but still couldn't grab the ledge. "No." she called down.

Scorpius lifted her up higher, so that she was sitting on his shoulders.

"Please don't drop me." Rose said shakily.

"Come on Weasley, no one's as clumsy as you. Don't worry, I've got you. I won't let you fall." he could feel her trembling as she tried again to reach up. "I won't let you go." he said softly as he clung tightly to her

"Yeah, well, somehow I find that hard to believe given our history with the tripping jinx." Rose decided to use insults to cover up her nerves.

"And for the same reason I find it hard to have faith that you'll help me up once you're out."

"I guess we're just going to have to trust each other then." Rose huffed.

Neither was thrilled with that idea.

Rose reached out and her fingers brushed the edge of the ledge. "Can you get me any higher?"

"I can jump. Ready, three, two, one!" Scorpius jumped and Rose managed to get a strong grip on the ledge. Scorpius let go for her and Rose army crawled, clutching her wand, on to the fourth floor.

She rolled on to her back and panted. She was out of the claustrophobic hole. 'I'm going to have a go at James later. He could have at least put a witty warning sign- MALFOY!' alarm bells went off in her mind. He still wasn't out.

Fear threatened to pound Scorpius's heart out of his chest. He closed his eyes and imagined he was somewhere else. 'At least she's out. At least she's not scared like I am.' he thought repeatedly to himself.

"Cover your head!" a voice shouted down. It startled Scorpius. But not as much as the next thing that happened. "Levicorpus!"

Scorpius found himself being dragged up by in ankle through the darkness. He shut his eyes to stop himself from being sick. Small hands grabbed his feet and yanked him through the passageway. Scorpius briefly opened his eyes to see his paler than usual expression in the mirror. Rose dragged him into the hallway then leant against the opposite wall calming herself down.

"Thanks." Scorpius gave a shaky sigh once he caught his breath and calmed his heart rate down. "I'm glad you saved me back there."

"We weren't in any danger." Rose shrugged.

Scorpius swallowed his pride and shook his head. "I was. I was terrified, I was in danger of a heart attack or a complete meltdown."

He expected a scoff or an eye roll or at least an insult from Rose but instead she gave him a look of concern and understanding.

"You're afraid of the dark?"

"I'm afraid of my home, which is always dark. Most of all I'm afraid of being alone in the dark. Trapped."

Rose smiled and stood. She held out a hand to help him up, she never did this for anyone. Scorpius took the opportunity and held her hand as he stood.

"Don't worry. I won't let you go." She stroked his hand gently with her thumb. "Now lets shut this bloody mirror door thing and get out of her. I either need a shot of firewhiskey or a massive cup of tea."

Scorpius grinned. "I think I need it more than you. And tea will be easier to get from the kitchens. I doubt there's even a drop of firewhiskey in the entire castle."

Rose laughed. "That's where you're wrong. James and Lorcan, at the very least, have bound to have some stashed away somewhere."

They silently made their way down to the first floor, it wasn't an awkward silence, but one of relief and brief respect for one another. When Rose finally spoke, they were nearing the great hall.

"Why don't you wait here or in a classroom and I'll bring you a cup of tea." She looked at him once again with concern. "You're still looking pale. You're hands are shaking like a leaf."

Scorpius looked down and realised she was right. "Ok, I'll just be here." he accepted her kindness It was rare that either of them would act friendly to one another, let alone accept such behaviour from the other without being suspicious.

Scorpius sunk down to the ground and was startled to hear voices from inside the closest classroom. He recognised them immediately.

...

Four hours from his conversation with Lunette, Albus decided to go looking for Scorpius. It had been long enough, he must be done with his detention by now. However, before Albus got past the first floor, he ran into Lunette again.

"Oh! Lunette, sorry, I didn't think I'd see you..."

"Albus I need to speak with you." Lunette rushed out in one long breath. "I was actually making my way down to..." she drifted off and looked embarrassed.

"Well, ok-" he stopped abruptly as Lunette yanked him by the wrist into the nearest classroom.

"Ok, Albus, there are some things I need to say to you but they're really difficult. So would you please do me a favour?" Lunette couldn't look at him. Her hair was a pale shade of pink, as were her cheeks.

Albus couldn't refuse her anything. "Sure. What do you want me to do?"

Lunette sighed with relief and began to pace. "Just, ok, just wait here until I sort out what I want to say. Because if you leave the room I will loose all willpower to speak to you again. I don't mean that in a horrible way, I just mean that, well, I mean..."

"You mean that you'll be too nervous or guilty to talk to me again. Lunette, I understand, I've felt the same way for a long time. I'll just sit here and wait for you to shout at me-"

"Shout at you?" Lunette was astonished. "That's what you think I'm going to do?"

Albus shrugged. "I shouted at you, I've said my piece. And now it's your turn."

"Albus, I'm not going to shout at you. At least, that's not what I'm planning to do."

"But I really wanted to shout at you! I didn't want to want to shout at you and I've felt like a right knobhead since. But I wanted you to know how bad I felt about our relationship ending because you meant so much to me!"

"Look, I want to do the same, kind of. I want to tell you that you weren't alone in your strong feelings-"

"I was. I think you'll find that I was. As much I feel about you Lunette, I've finally shown myself that you never truly loved me. You can't have."

Albus had spoken in such a resigned manner that it cut Lunette like a knife. Sharp tears threatened and she sat down quickly. "Don't say that! You don't know what love is, neither of us do! You can't be certain that's what you were feeling and you have no idea what I was feeling! You can't just convince yourself that I didn't feel as strongly simply because it makes it easier to move on. Or because it makes you the victim, in love alone, or so you thought!"

"You think it's easy for my to try and move on? I haven't even started yet! I thought I loved you, but then I also thought love was, when you miss the other person like crazy!" Albus began to pace.

"It is! I think."

"Well did you ever love me?"

"Of course I do!"

"Well you seem to pretty happy, going out and flirting with other people. I miss you like crazy! I feel like is was in love alone. You're getting over what we had very well and I'm just left here wondering if what we had was just another passing fancy." Albus couldn't believe that he had just said that, it was way too harsh.

"Are you kidding me?! I loved you, so much! I miss you all the time, you're all I think about. But I have to put on a brave face otherwise I'll have a complete meltdown. I love you so much and it's killing me that we might not end up together in the end!"

Albus suddenly stopped pacing and looked up. He turned to her, eyes wide open. "Wait, loved or love?"

"What?"

"You said both. You said that you loved me and then you said you do love me."he took a step forward

"So?"

"So which one is it?! Past or present?! Because of you still love me, why are we not together? Because I never stopped loving you. From the moment we met, I have loved you."

"Albus, we don't know what love is, not really-"

"But this has got to be it." Albus held her hands gently.

"Well, I've been thinking that, but I don't know."

"Neither do I." Albus sat down beside her. He had no idea what to do.

They sat in silence for a while, just holding hands and staring at the floor.

Rose had been standing outside of the door for most of the conversation, holding two cups of tea. When she couldn't find Scorpius again, she simply stopped outside the classroom where Albus and Lunette were. She heard a faint rustle behind her. She spun around to see a lump behind a tapestry. She rolled her eyes and gently kicked the shoes she could see poking out.

"Eavesdropping on your friends Weasley?" Scorpius pretended to be innocent as he pushed back the tapestry.

Rose scoffed. "Guilty as charged, how about you?"

"Nosey Gryffindor, it's none of your business."

"Oh 'cunning' Slytherin, grow up. How much did I miss?"

"I heard movement, I thought it was them leaving so I hid. Turns out it was you I heard"

"You hid? Pathetic."

"You've said that before."

"And it just keeps on getting truer."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and took the tea offered to him, trying to listen to Albus and Lunette but they were still silent.

"Answer me, what did I miss?" Rose sat opposite him.

Scorpius shrugged. "Not much, just them acting like the lovesick fools they are."

Rose nodded. "They get all soppy and cheesy. It's weird. Phil and Mel say it's cute when couples act like that, but I-"

"-I just find it gross and annoying." Scorpius finished her sentence, something that usually irritated Rose.

"Same."

Scorpius sighed. "They're miserable without each other and they're soppy when they're together. There's no middle ground."

"They're just really happy people who deserve each other."

"Yep. It's actually a bit irritating when two people are perfect for each other, and everyone can see it, but they can't." Scorpius looked over at Rose and caught the scent of rain and new parchment. He quickly looked away from her and began to shuffle away.

"What in Merlin's name was that for? It's not like I'm going to hex you now, I'm staying quiet so that the lovebirds don't hear us." Rose harshly whispered.

Scorpius nodded uncertainly. "Right, I know that."

Rose shushed him as Albus and Lunette began talking again.

"Albus, you're not going to ask me out again are you?" Lunette asked softly.

Albus shook his head sadly.

"Because you want me to want to go out with you. You don't want to make me feel obliged to date you?" Lunette guessed.

"Pretty much." Albus shrugged. "I'm sorry I pressured you into going out with me before."

"But you didn't." Lunette answered quickly. "Albus, I really like you so I dated you. It was my own selfish thoughts and my self doubts that made me break us up."

Albus hit head head on a table a couple of times. "I wish it worked out."

Lunette stood, cupped his face with her hands and kissed him.

"Ew, nope. I don't want to eavesdrop on my cousin kissing someone." Rose was grossed out and tried to leave but Scorpius grabbed her hand and made her stay.

Albus searched Lunette's eyes. "What was that for?"

"Do you want to try again? I can do it, I think. I know that I need to talk to you more about my worries, I know that now. Spending time apart has been too hard. I miss you Albus."

Albus kissed her again. "I've missed you too." he said dreamily. His tone suddenly changed to a cheekiness. "So I guess you'll have to ask me out!"

Lunette giggled. "I have to ask you out? You know, I've never asked anyone out before."

Albus shrugged. "I know, which is why I think this would be a really good learning curve for you." he winked.

Lunette grinned. "Oh, I see, so that I know how scary it is and it won't be so hard the next time I ask someone out." she raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly- wait." Albus caught on. "Next time? I don't really want there to be a next time. I know we're only seventeen, but my parents met long before then and they started dating around that time, so maybe-"

Lunette cut him off with another kiss.

"You know, if you keep on doing that, you're going to have to ask me out sometime."

Lunette raised one eyebrow. "Oh do I now?"

Albus wrapped his arms and her waist and brought her closer. "Definitely, otherwise I'll have to ask you out. I might not be as stubborn as Rose or Scorp, but I might be able to hold out for a while since I know that you feel the same way."

Lunette giggled. "Well I can't wait that long." she kissed him once again before sitting beside him and leaning on his shoulder. "Hey Al?"

"Yep?"

"Wanna go out?" she said in a throw away tone and looked at her nails at the same time.

Albus shrugged. "Yeah, sure, whatever. It's not like I could do any worse than you." he smiled sheepishly at her.

"Good. Because you're stuck with me."

Albus jumped down as quick as he could, the widest grin on his face and pulled Lunette close to him.

"Seriously Malfoy, I don't want to hear this mush anymore. I can't eavesdrop on my cousin kissing my best friend."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "What if he caught us kissing, would you expect him just to up and leave?" he almost regretted saying that until he looked in Rose's eyes. Scorpius saw for second that Rose had thought about kissing him again. Her ears turned red, he loved it when her ears turned red.

"I- we- no, no. If Albus caught us kissing, which would never happen-"

"Because we're too careful not to get caught."

Rose grit her teeth and her ears turned redder. "No, he wouldn't catch us because it never will happen. And even if it did and he caught us, I would want him to interrupt and bring me to my senses!" Rose yanked her hand away from Scorpius and stormed off. Leaving her empty mug for him to take back to the kitchen.

The next day Rose spotted James and Lorcan huddled over a small table in the Gryffindor common room muttering to each other. Rose scowled and stormed towards them with great purpose.

"James Sirius Potter! We need to talk, and by that I mean I'm going to talk and you are going to listen! The fourth floor-"

"Shh." James waved her off.

Rose's nostrils flared. "James! Your pranking has become a serious hazard!"

"Shh, we're discussing." James mumbled again.

Rose crossed her arms. "You two are idiots, did you know that?"

Lorcan looked up, "In our defence, we actually did know that."

"Shh, idiots at work here." James rolled his eyes and gave her and irritated look once he realised that she wasn't going away. "Rose, Lorcan and I would be very happy to have a little pep talk with you or even be on the receiving end of one of your prefect rants, but right now we don't want to hear anything but hilarious ideas."

Rose raised one eyebrow, "So you're out of ideas. All dried up?" she found this amusing.

Lorcan shrugged, "Look Rose, no offense, but unless you have an excellent idea for our final April 1st prank."

Rose nodded in understanding, "Ah, I see. An April Fools prank to be remembered. It's your last year."

"Exactly." James sighed and banged his head on the table a couple of times.

Rose laughed, "If you keep doing that you'll turn into Albus."

"Rose do you have anything useful to say?!" James was frustrated. "Sorry," he realised he snapped at her. "We have an idea, a really good one but it just doesn't seem, well..." he shrugged in a hopeless manner.

"It doesn't seem to have that punch that our pranks usually have." Lorcan finished his sentence. "People are expecting it now."

Rose grinned mischievously, "I think I have a perfect idea." She brought up and chair and sat with them. "Ok so, first year you tricked most of the teachers into eating puking pastels, second year you replaced all the of the Slytherin quidditch team's wands with trick ones so they when they came back from practise their wands turned into rubber chickens and loo seats. You got two weeks detention for both of those and letters sent home. What was your third year prank?"

"Oh that was a brilliant one, we used permanent sticking charms to stick violins to Professor Stockett's office ceiling, and then bewitching them to play the music from Jaws. That was great, she had no idea where the music was from, just that it drove her mad listening to it all day." James smiled proudly.

"Most of the muggle borns knew what it was though, they loved it." Lorcan chuckled.

"Yeah, Stockett tried to get rid of them by setting the ceiling on fire. Merlin, that was hilarious." James stopped laughing and rolled his eyes. "But of course we got three weeks of detention and letter sent home again."

Lorcan laughed, reminiscing, "Fourth year we managed to get all of the first years to use muggle biro pens instead of quill but we used that levitation charm so that they kept on floating out of the windows."

"Oh yeah!" James grinned. "But the charm wore off and the Whomping Willow smashed the pens to pieces when they fell into it. Again we got three weeks worth of detentions and letters home."

"Dad sent me a howler for that one." Lorcan seemed scarred by the experience. "Oh, and fifth year we tried to trick people into trying our extreme versions of Canary Creams but everybody stayed away because they didn't trust us, especially on April, Fools. So we just set off dungbombs randomly throughout the day always near Rory Green, the old slytherin quidditch captain. Man, he was a right tosspot. I never liked him."

"Yeah that was the git Lucile had a crush on. I wanted to humiliate him one final time before he left Hogwarts. We both got howlers for that one, 50 points each taken from Gryffindor and three weeks of detentions again."

Rose nodded. "And last year you got Quick-Quote Quills to follow around the teachers."

James nodded. "Four weeks detention, another 50 points each from Gryffindor and again we both got howlers."

Rose flashed a devious smile. "Well, you see the pattern here right, people are less and less surprised with your pranks. They expect something and therefore avoid targeting. The teachers always know that it's you two, although there is no way to solve that problem. And you get detentions, a tonne of detentions. So I have a little suggestion."

The both leaned eagerly towards Rose

APRIL

On April first, Lorcan and James woke up with cheeky grins on their faces.

Everyone was worried.

Everyone jumped out of the duos way whenever they walked down the same corridor. The teachers watched them suspiciously throughout their lessons. Lorcan almost got a detention because professor Stockett saw him reach into his bag to get something, after a thorough inspection, she found that he had been telling the truth and was only getting his ordinary quill out of his ordinary bag. They had done exactly what Rose had suggested and it worked like a dream. They did nothing. No pranks set up, no tricks. James offered a scared looking second year a harmless and normal piece of fudge which sent the poor boy running to the opposite side of the castle. Too many suspicious teachers and prefects sent James and Lorcan to professor Longbottom's class after dinner. Neville simply laughed when they turned up and let them go on their merry way back to the common room. All Gryffindor students, except for Rose, were expecting them to do something at any moment so the common room was unusually quiet and empty. Those that did stay were the ones who wanted to see it happen, they hid in the stairwells or stayed on the opposite side of the room near the portal for easy escape, all eyes were watching the pair play a bad game of chess, which would have shamed Hugo, by the window.

However, in the second week of April, they carried out the second stage of Rose's idea. She was right, everybody had lulled themselves into a false sense of security as April Fools had been and gone. And that's when the true prank happened. The one they were most proud to finish their final april fools prank on.

It all started at breakfast.

James and Lorcan had managed to convince Peeves to get chalkboards from every classroom to hover above the student's heads in the great hall. Various insults were written on them as Peeves made up a song on the stop to make sure everybody heard the insults.

The students themselves were a sight to be seen. The room was full of laughter as the Ravenclaw students found themselves with big buck teeth as they entered the hall. The Gryffindor students were startled as each and everyone of their bags had been bewitched to roar randomly throughout the day, in fact the lion's roar had woken most of the students up that morning. Every twenty minutes on the dot, the entire Hufflepuff house would change colour, it was mesmerising to see such a huge body of students suddenly switch from having orange robes to pink, and then twenty minutes their robes turned purple and so on. Slytherins woke up with red hair and two or three frogs followed them throughout the day, most of the woke up screaming with a frog hopping on their bed.

Lunette decided to give Albus some time to spend with Scorpius that day because frogs creeped her out. Rose was especially entertained at seeing a redheaded Scorpius. She cracked jokes about it all day. It was nice to be on the other side for once, even if she was still a redhead herself.

At lunchtime fireworks erupted around each teacher and ribbons were bestowed on their robes depicting which teachers were the favourites of the pranksters. Professor Longbottom getting 1st, professor Lupin got 2nd, headmaster Fairweather got 3rd, professor Nye got 4th… and so on, ending with professor Stockett receiving a ribbon that wouldn't come off and very loudly played the soundtrack of Jaws, which irritated her more than it did the first time she heard it on repeat.

Finally, at dinner, when the enchanted ceiling reflected the clear night where the stars were brightly written in a touching sentence:

'This year's April Fools and it's playful tricks are dedicated to the Weasley twins, may their mischievous legend live on.'

Once it was read a couple of times by everyone in the great hall, a thunderous applause erupted from each table. Despite the inconveniences that the pranks had played on each student, they were impressed and most took it in good humour. There were a few who sat and scowled at their happy fellow students while they brooded in anger.

James and Lorcan stood on the bench and took a bow to the room, grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank you! Thank you!" James put on a posh voice. "But today would not have been successful without my dear partner here, Lorcan Scamander." He pointed at Lorcan who took another bow.

"Thanks! But today would not have been accomplished without my dear friend here, James Potter." Lorcan then pointed at James who took another bow.

Most people were now laughing, including the majority of the teachers.

"Thanks to our other accomplice, the smartest person we know, who shall remain nameless!" James wiggled his eyebrows and dug his hand into his pocket. "We've had a great final April Fools and thanks to you all, well most of you, for being such great sports."

"We'd love to stick around but right now we have somewhere else to be! Mostly to prolong the inevitable demand for detentions." Lorcan also dug his hand into his pocket.

"Three! Two! One!" the counted together then threw Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder on the floor. While everybody was unable to see, James and Lorcan slipped out of the great hall and disappeared.

Once the darkness lifted, the enchanted ceiling suddenly erupted with a magnificent fireworks display. All sorts of pictures sparkled in the sky, from the Weasley logo to a giant yellow dragon. A green snake appeared, only to be kicked out of the way by a blue eagle which then quickly fluttered out of the way for the red lion which appeared. All three animals quickly back away though as soon as the yellow badger arrived, it ran towards each of the animals in turn and they disappeared one by one. Finally, an orange fox jumped down for the ceiling, everyone could feel the heat of the enchanted firework but no one was burnt. It hopped down onto the Gryffindor table, stole the book from beside Rose, clutched in it's jaws, and bounded back to the night sky ceiling. Everyone laughed as the fox stood on it's hind legs and opened the book as if to read it. The fireworks fox dropped the book on Scorpius's head and then vanished. The laughter that followed Scorpius's bruised head and Rose grabbing her book back, soon died down and everyone went back to bed. Knowing that the delayed April Fools was over.

Most guessed that the duo went to the Gryffindor common room, but that was where they were wrong. It had been yet another one of Rose's brilliant ideas. The two hid in the pit like room behind the mirror in the fourth floor. James and Lorcan knew that the next day would bring multiple detentions, many points taken from their house and too many howlers to count. But for that evening they were going to have some a quiet but fun time. Throughout the week Rose, James and Lorcan snuck two armchairs, blankets, a chessboard, jugs of pumpkin juice, flasks of hot chocolate and other bits and bobs down into the room so that James and Lorcan could remain hidden in their until the following day. Rose had also conjured some bluebell flames in little jars to keep James and Lorcan warm and to keep the room bright.

Meanwhile, the teachers were discussing the two in the teacher's lounge.

"Of all the scheming, childish, arrogant, demon bastards-" Stockett was ranting until headmaster Fairweather interrupted.

"Professor, I remind you that these are students you are referring to."

"Exactly!" she erupted. "Where are they?! They have to be punished now!"

Neville and Teddy Lupin laughed. "Come on now, give them a break."

"Yeah," Teddy agreed with Neville. "It's their last April Fools, they were just having fun."

Professor Nye smiled admirably. "Indeed, and I believe that today has shown the great deal of skill, intricacy and knowledge that we have passed down to our students. Even Potter and Scamander, two of the hardest, misbehaved and fidgety students at the school for now, have learnt and absorbed so much from us. Rearranging the stars on the enchanted ceiling would not have been easy. And that the changes they made effected every single student, shows what powerful and smart wizards they are."

"Very well put." Neville nodded in agreement.

"I believe we are all proud of our most difficult students tonight. We were too busy telling them off to realise how much they learnt so much from us. I am also proud of you, my staff." Headmaster Fairweather raised his mug of tea to them all and shone a warm smile.

"Well, when you look at it, what you would consider our most misbehaved students are our most talented. Look and Rose Granger-Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, constantly arguing and hexing each other, yet they get the best grades in their classes and they were the first students I've ever had to produce a patronus charm in an actual form in the first lesson. I normally introduce the charm in fifth year, but them pick it up again in their sixth and seventh years, it's very difficult for students. Like it or not, they also have a good influence on their well behaved friends, Albus Potter and Lunette Tinker also managed to produce patronus charms. It even got Albus reading a book!" said Lupin brightly.

Stockett scowled at Lupin for taking them off the point. "So you're not going to punish Potter and Scamander?!" Stockett shouted.

Fairweather chuckled. "Not too harshly. I don't want them punished for such talent. I will write to their parents, making sure that they know that, despite breaking rules, each prank was intricately planned and required such a high leveled skill of magic. Professor Longbottom, as they are in your house I shall let you deal with their punishment."

Lunette and Albus, holding hands, caught up with Rose as they left the great hall. Scorpius grumpily traipsing after them, not wanting to get into another argument with Rose. The frogs had finally left the Slytherins alone and were making their way towards professor Stockett's office as a nice surprise for her later. Hufflepuff robes were flickering back to black, the Ravenclaw buckteeth had gone, Gryffindor bags were only making the occasional mew sound of a kitten, but the Slytherins would continue to have red hair until the following day.

"Hey Rose, do you know who their accomplice was?" Lunette asked eagerly.

Rose shrugged and lied. "No, and I doubt they're tell me or anyone else for that matter."

"Oh, come on Rose." Albus groaned. "You must have some idea as to who it could be."

Rose shook her head, "No sorry, I wish I did know though."

Lunette huffed but remained cheerful. "Rose you must know who it is! Hugo and Lily sad that they saw you talking to James and Lorcan while they were planning their April Fools prank."

"Oh, that, I was telling them off for digging out the hidden room on the fourth floor. I almost fell in there the other day!"

Lunette nodded, Rose had told her that before. But Rose had only said that she almost fell in, not that she had completely flopped to the bottom with Scorpius in tow. Scorpius had told Albus a similar story, excluding Rose. Albus sent a confused to Scorpius who only shrugged in reply.

"Oh, well I'll see you tomorrow Rose. Me and Al are off to the library." Lunette smiled and happily went off with Albus.

Rose closed her eyes and sighed with relief. When she opened them, she saw that Scorpius was leaning against the wall watching her, knowing but suspicious expression fixed on his face.

"What?" Rose snapped at him.

"So you don't know who the accomplice was?" he raised his eyebrows.

"No, I don't." Rose said through gritted teeth.

Scorpius smiled knowingly, "There was an orange fox firework that stole your book and dropped it on my head and you still can't work out who the accomplice is?" he raised his eyebrows. "They described them as the smartest person they know." He pushed himself off the wall and walked towards the Slytherin common room. He slowed down as he passed Rose and whispered in her ear. "I wonder who that could be?" His hand purposely brushed hers before Scorpius marched away.

Rose was left staring after him and then at her hand. She could still feel the warmth of his touch as he moved out of sight. She went back to her room in a daze, wondering whether Scorpius had meant to brush her hand and if it meant anything, and if she even wanted it to mean anything. Rose didn't notice the excited hype in her room between Phil, Mel and Anna.

"It was sooo cute! He just kind of looked me up and down and was like 'you're really hot, it's Mel isn't it?' he said it such a dreamy way. And all I could think was, 'MERLIN'S BEARD! HE KNOWS MY NAME!" Mel was squealing.

Phil scoffed, "Well he should know your name! You're such a nice and pretty person!"

Anna rolled her eyes and spoke bitterly. "I wish Albus would do that to me."

The mention of Albus snapped Rose back to reality. She watched her roommates in confusion. Mel and Phil ignored Anna's grumpiness and continued blabbering on to one another.

"What's going on?" Rose asked with a yawn. Ever since Mel and Phil had stopped hanging around with her in pursuit of boyfriends, she had stopped caring what new thing they were squealing about. It was normally some dress or new hairstyle they had found.

To her surprise, Mel jumped onto Rose's bed.

"GRANT HATHAWAY ASKED ME OUT!" Mel shouted.

"Well, good for you. If you like him. Did you say yes?" Rose was already in her pajamas and was trying to get into her bed but MEl wouldn't get off.

"OF COURSE I SAID YES!" Mel shouted more, giving Rose a headache.

"Why? I always thought he was a bit of a prick." Rose grumbled, she really didn't care that much but she didn't think Mel deserved to go out with the popular, serial flirt that was Grant Hathaway. Rose thought Mel could do so much better.

"BECAUSE HE'S SO HOT AND SO POPULAR AND HE ASKED ME OUT!" Mel was too excited to notice Rose's unenthusiasm.

There was a knock on the door, Rose was glad of the excuse to get away from the very loud Mel. It was Lily at the door.

"Hey Lils-"

Lily opened the door wider and scowled at Mel. "Would you please shut up. Some of us have quidditch practise tomorrow." she gave a small smile which only Rose saw and then slammed the door.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Well she was rude."

Phil smiled. "You know, if you married Albus you would be related to her."

Anna raised her eyebrows. "If I married Albus, I'd make sure that we never saw his siblings again. Lily's so annoying and weirdly pretty and all the guys give her too much attention and James is a good for nothing prick who bullies people." she was referring to James's pranks.

Rose finally got into her bed as Mel moved. "Good for everyone that you won't be marrying Al then. Lily and James are some of the best people I know and they're very protective of each other and Al. They both like Lunette so you wouldn't get very far with Al anyway." Rose shrugged and fell asleep thinking about Scorpius's hand lightly brushing her own, before she heard Anna's comeback. Which wasn't that witty anyway so Rose wasn't missing much.

MAY

"It's not looking good for Slytherin! Granger-Weasley just saved another goal for Gryffindor! The score is still 30:0 to Gryffindor! Oh Merlin, look at Malfoy's face! He looks really annoyed! Ha! Granger-Weasley is beating him at something again-"

"Cecil Pond, stay focussed on the game, petty rivalries do not matter at the moment!" Professor Nye warned the commentator.

Professor Longbottom leaned in and whispered to him. "I bet you're missing the old days when Merlin Jordan was commentator, huh?" he grinned.

Nye rolled his eyes. "Jordan was far worse. I'll give you that."

Lupin overheard and chuckled. "It adds a bit of character and charm to the game!"

"It certainly does." Longbottom grinned. "I remember Lee, Merlin's dad did the commentary, he just said what everyone was thinking. Everyone loved it, although perhaps not the Slytherin house."

"Slytherin have got the quaffle back! Gully passes to Malfoy, who narrowly misses the bludger sent by Scamander, Malfoy passes back to Gully. He's getting close to the goals! Can Granger-Weasley pull it off again? Gully throws it and- OH! His arm has been hit by a bludger sent by Abel-Roy! That threw off his aim and Potter gabs it! He passes to Weasley, who passes back to Potter, who passes to my sister, Pond I mean! Pond passes to- NO! Damn it Lucile! Why do you have to be so-"

"Mr Pond!" Nye angrily shouted

Cecil ignored him. "Malfoy grabs the quaffle and makes his way back up the pitch. He throws the it, oh, that's definitely going to go in! BUT NO! Granger-Weasley on top form today as she only just saves that goal! Wait, hang on a sec- ROME HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! THAT'S 150 POINTS AND GRYFFINDOR HAVE WON 180 TO NOTHING! Brilliant game! Slytherin didn't even stand a chance!"

Both teams landed as the crowds cheered loudly. The teams shook hands begrudgingly before leaving. When Scorpius reached Rose she just grinned smugly at him.

"Well done Weasel." Scorpius muttered, he tried to keep a straight face.

Despite himself, Rose's smug smile was making him want to smile too, but that could never happen, he couldn't smile in defeat against Gryffindor. Scorpius squeezed Rose's hand gently and lingered longer than he should have, before running to catch up with his team that had all left. And once again Rose was left staring after him, wonder what his touching actions meant, or if they even meant anything at all.

Suddenly her whole team surrounded her as they cheered.

"WE WON!" James and Lorcan continually shouted at one another until they reached the changing rooms. When there were no teachers around, Lorcan then shouted again. "PARTY AT GRYFFINDOR TOWER IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!"

Later that night James and Lorcan oversaw the decoration of the common room, various bunting and red and gold flowers were hung from the ceiling. The duo had somehow snuck firewhiskey and butterbeer past all the teachers, they were all laid out on small tables dotted around the room along with biscuits, liquorice wands and bowls the size of quaffles filled to the brim with Bertie Bot's every flavour beans.

As Rose entered though the fat lady portal, Lunette in tow, she nodded with approval.

"HEY ROSE!" Ben Rome bounced up to her with enthusiasm she had never seen in him before. "Hey! Awesome game! Try this!" he shoved a shot of firewhiskey in her hand before bouncing off again to talk to Lorcan.

Rose laughed and downed it it one. Lunette raised her eyebrows.

"What?" Rose was suspicious of the knowing look Lunette was giving her.

"Well, he completely ignored me and I'm the only one out of the two of us that has spoken to him in class." She shrugged.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing Rose, just that you might want to start paying more attention to him. You'd make a sweet couple."

Rose rolled her eyes and dragged Lunette further into the room so they could talk to Lily and Hugo. To their surprise, Albus burst through the door with his arm clutched in James's hand.

"Oi! We have our defeated Slytherin!" James cheered and Lorcan was the only one to cheer back. Most didn't hear him over the loud music.

Albus rolled his eyes and Rose heard him say to James, "Did you drag me here to humiliate me?"

James ruffled his little brothers hair and grinned at him. "Kind of. But mostly 'cause your girlfriend is here and I saw some twat in your year looking at her like a piece of meat. And I think she'd want you here."

"Thanks James."

James shrugged. "Or I invited you because Rose wouldn't leave me alone until I did."

Albus chuckled and rolled his eyes before moving over to where Rose was by the drinks table. "Hey."

"Al! Hi! Great that you're here."

Albus eyed the empty shot glass in Rose's hand. "How many have you had already?"

Rose shrugged. "Three, maybe. I don't know, Lunette was counting for me."

They both looked over to the fireplace where Lunette was looking annoyed and uncomfortable as Grant Hathaway was chatting her up. Albus growled and turned away from, he took the shot glass of of Rose and poured himself some firewhiskey.

"Why can't they just leave her alone?!" Albus grumbled.

"Leave it to me Al." Rose stumbled slightly as she made her way slowly over to Lunette.

"Oh, hello Grant, Lunette." Rose said in an overly friendly voice. "Oops, sorry my bad, am I interrupting something here?" She smiled a sickly sweet between Lunette and Grant. Her not so subtle sarcasm was aggravating Grant while it amused Lunette. "Look Grant, you've got to help me out here. I thought you were dating someone else."

Grant rolled his eyes.

"But I guess, I'm such a ditz, that I must be wrong." Rose let out a fake laugh. "I mean if you were currently dating someone I would remember." Her eyes suddenly turned serious as she glared at him. "Especially if we shared a dorm." She let out a sarcastic giggle again. "But then I'm such a ditz that I must be wrong. Unless you remember her name?"

He didn't answer. Grant just stood there looking unamused.

"No? Oh well, I guess I'm just a ditz." Rose sent a fake smile with glaring eyes at him. She quickly spun around to face Lunette. "So Lunette, I know you definitely have a boyfriend."

Lunette sighed. "Yeah, isn't Albus great." She looked over the crowd to see Albus staring daggers into the back of Grant's head. She tried to hide her giggle.

"Yeah, yeah, he is great." Rose turned back to Grant. "Lunettes dating my cousin, Albus. Funny that."

Grant looked incredibly awkward. Lunette still found it funny. Rose was laying on the sarcasm thick.

"Well, as well as being a ditz, and I know you're going to laugh at this one Grant. I'm pretty sure I heard Lunette here say to you at least four or five times to tell you to get lost because she couldn't care less about you and that she has a boyfriend."

"I don't think I actually said that I couldn't careless about him. Although that is correct." Lunette tipped her head sideways.

Rose winked at Lunette before turning back to Grant. "Well I guess I must just be deaf. Yeah, that must be right. I'm ditzy and deaf. I mean, I have to be wrong, otherwise there would be no reason as to why you were flirting with Lunette."

Grant huffed and rolled his eyes. "Heavy on sarcasm much?"

Rose winked at him. "I only save it for special occasions."

Grant began to walk away but he stopped turn back to Rose. "You won't tell Mel will you?" He seemed genuinely worried.

Rose had no sympathy. This wasn't the first time she had seen him flirting with other girls while he was in a relationship.

"I can't promise anything." She shrugged and Grant sulked away.

Once Grant was out of earshot, Lunette burst out laughing.

"Thanks Rose."

"Anytime." Rose grinned.

"You're a little bit tipsy aren't You?"

"Little bit."

Albus finally came over and wrapped an arm around Lunette's waist. Rose felt awkward so she swiftly moved on to talk to someone else.

"Oh! By the way Rose," Lunette shouted over the crowd. "Great work on saving that last goal, such a nail bitter."

Rose was scanning the room for Mel to see if she had seen what Grant had been up to. Mel liked him way to much to believe what Rose knew she had to tell her. Rose wasn't looking where she was going and ran straight into someone's chest. She looked up to see a grinning James.

"There's my favourite cousin! Rosie!"

His enthusiasm made her laugh.

"There's jus' one problem I've got with you."

"And what's that?"

"I've known you all my life and I've never seen you even ride a broom, then suddenly BAM!" James was holding a shot of Firewhiskey which spilled slightly on Rose's shoulder. "You try out at the start of the year and you become the best Keeper I've ever had on my team!"

"And that makes me you favourite cousin?"

"Yes, yes it does. And I love you, have I ever told you that? I love you my dear little cousin." James leant on Rose's shoulder and ruffled her hair. He giggled. "Your hair is sooooo fluffy. You know what?! Your dad will be proud to have a daughter who can rival his abilities as a Keeper, I'm going to write to him so he can be jealous that he never saw the game!"

Rose smiled and shook her head. "Just promise me you won't write to him until tomorrow when hopefully you'll be a little more sober."

James didn't answer as someone else had leant on Rose's other shoulder and shouted in her ear.

"Rose!" It was Lorcan. "Great work out there! I don't think any quidditch captain could've had a better Keeper."

James lifted his shot of Firewhiskey and said. "Too true!" Before downing what was left of it in one.

"Amazing work Weasley!" Lorcan laughed then gently grabbed Rose by the jaw and gave her a quick kiss on the mouth. He aimed for the mouth but mostly got the cheek.

Rose took a step back and laughed at Lorcan, he was just as drunk as James.

"Hey! Don't hit on my cousin!" James seemed to sober up a little bit as he grasped what his best friend had done.

"Woah, woah. Not hitting on her mate, me and little Rose are friends! We're cool, we're cool."

Rose laughed as the two boys linked arms and skipped around the common room singing the school song to the tune of the English national anthem, they kept on getting confused with the words. She knew Lorcan had meant nothing by the surprise kiss and she felt nothing but friendship for him. Across the room she saw Lily quickly looking away from what had happened.

'Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.'

Rose strutted off outside the common room. She decided to go to the owlery as it was her favourite night time walk when she she couldn't sleep. There she found Scorpius, he was leaning on the windowsill and staring at the stars.

Turned he when heard someone then rolled his eyes when he saw that it was Rose.

"Come to rub your victory in my face?" He guessed. "Because thanks to your victory today, Slytherin have no chance of winning the quidditch cup. Even if we do beat Hufflepuff in the next match."

Rose took a deep breathe. "Well maybe originally I did but then I saw your melancholy little face and I remembered 'hey! We used to be friends'!"

Scorpius's eyes narrowed. "Are you tipsy?"

Rose held her thumb and index finger about an inch apart and lifted it to her eye. "Just a little bit. But hey! I won so I'm allowed to!"

"You're underage."

"And you're making me feel guilty." Rose said grumpily. "You're a bad friend."

Scorpius sighed. "We're not friends."

"And saying that makes you an even worse friend!" Rose said it so matter of factly that Scorpius couldn't help but chuckle.

"I think a little bit of alcohol makes you more inclined to tell the truth."

"The truth isn't always good. Like, if James told the truth, he and Lorcan would always be in detention. And if Lunette told the complete truth, then Al would know that she was in love with him and that might freak him out because we're like, only sixteen years old.-"

"Seventeen."

"Don't interrupt. Because if I told the truth I would say that I like hexing and arguing with you in the corridors because you were my friend and now arguing is the only time I can get to know you better, like friends do." Rose smiled not knowing what she had just said. She suddenly frowned and but her hand on her forehead, "ah, headache. Well, cheerio Mr Scorpius." She did a fake salute and skipped down the stairs.

Scorpius stared in a stunned silence at where Rose had been standing. Only the sound of her tripping at the bottom of the stairs brought him back to the present. He ran down the help her back on her feet. Rose rambled on about the quidditch game as Scorpius walked with her back to the castle, he didn't want her falling over again. They were close to the Gryffindor common room when Scorpius noticed Rose's cousin Roxanne coming their way.

Scorpius quickly pulled Rose into an empty classroom .

"What are you doing?" Rose demanded, she was feeling like was a little bit back to her usual self.

"Your cousin was there, no one can see us together unless we're fighting."

Rose's eyes narrowed. "So you don't tell anyone about our occasional conversations where we are completely ourselves and we forget that he hate each other?"

"Yes, nobody knows. Not even Albus. Do you tell people?"

"If I don't tell Lily something, she somehow knows and I end up telling her because she asks and I'm unable to lie to her. I've never told her, but she could probably guess."

"What about our f-" Scorpius stopped. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer or to even open up the conversation about their first kiss.

Rose's ears turned red and she looked away from him.

"I'm tired, kicking your butt in quidditch today really took it out of me. And I need to be ready to kick your butt again tomorrow." Rose yawned then winked. "I'm off to bed."

"I'll see you tomorrow in the corridor." Scorpius watched her clumsily open the door.

"Yep, I'm thinking you would look good with red hair and red robes. Gryffindor deserves his colours to be forced upon every student, especially after our spectacular victory today." She left again and headed straight for bed.

When she got back the common room, the noise had died down a bit. Lorcan and James were still singing and Lunette and Albus were still chatting away together. Rose sighed and made her way to bed. The next morning was going to bring them all a headache.

Rose was right. The next morning the common room was empty. It was a Sunday so no one had to be awake. When Rose trudged down the stairs from her room at 10am, she thought she was all alone. And she slumped in an armchair.

"What?" someone grumbled from behind the chair.

Rose was startled, she had never stood up so quickly in her life. She took out her wand and circled the chair, to find Ben Rome laying on the floor, his arm raised to block out the sun shining on his face.

"Oh, Rose it's you. Hi."

Rose smiled down at the mess that was Ben. His ruffled hair made her realise how handsome he actually was. "Hey Rome, I'm guessing you didn't go to bed."

He nodded and sat up. "I woke up on the chair over there," he pointed to the opposite side of the room. "But the sun was in my eyes so I moved." he rested his hand in his lap and the sun shone in his eyes again. His squinting made Rose smile more. "I forgot the sun moved too."

"How much did you drink?"

"Not that much, I'm just a lightweight."

Rose nodded and sat beside him. "I'm the same, that's why I went to bed. I didn't fancy passing out on a chair and getting things written on my forehead."

Ben panicked and touched his forehead as if to feel any pen marks. He stopped instantly when Rose laughed at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, that's one way of waking someone up." he chuckled. "Call me Ben by the way, my last name just reminds me that I have a little brother. And besides, we're teammates now. We need to be friends." he put his hand gently on her shoulder and squeezed. "You're pretty cool Rose and you were awesome yesterday."

Rose's ears turned red, he felt herself really liking this guy. "Thanks Ben, you were pretty good yourself."

"Ugh, I should go to bed." Ben grumbled and used the back of the armchair to push himself up. "I'll see you around."

Rose spent the rest of the day revising in the library, the exams were coming up soon and she felt underprepared. She didn't notice Scorpius who sat on the opposite side of the room and kept on getting distracted by the sight of Rose. He wondered if she remembered calling him her friend the night before.

'If I fail these exams,' Scorpius thought as he pushed himself to stop looking at Rose, 'it'll be all her fault. Stupid Weasley, too distracting for her own good. She's so annoying and hard working.' he looked up again to see her still pouring over her books. 'Why hasn't she noticed me yet? She could at least send an annoying jinx of some sort. Why hasn't she noticed me?' he forced himself back to looking at his notes. 'No, I shouldn't be thinking that. It's my fault I get distracted.' he then lied to himself to keep concentration. 'It's not like I want her to notice me. I don't even care about Rose.'

JUNE

The exam period was finally over at the very beginning of June and the students had time to breath before the final quidditch match of the year. It was postponed due to someone in the Ministry of Magic messing up the exam timetables. The Slytherin vs Hufflepuff match finally arrived. As Gryffindor had already won every game they played with flying colours, Hufflepuff and Slytherin were simply playing for pride... and second place.

The game started out as usual, each side quickly gained 30 points each. Rose chuckled when she saw Albus across the pitch holding a sign with the names Scorpius and Lunette on it written in their house colours. Al wasn't choosing sides, he was just supporting his best friend and his girlfriend. Although Rose had the slight suspicion that Scorpius had tampered with the poster without Albus's knowing as Scorpius's name kept on flashing brightly.

Rose watched Lunette soar up above the players and study every inch of air within the pitch as she scanned for the snitch. The Slytherin seeker took the approach of circling the pitch too quickly, Rose knew that there was no way Lunette's method would lose to the Slytherins.

Suddenly a jerking movement towards the end of the pitch and away from the quaffle, caught Rose's eye. Scorpius's broom seemed to trying to throw him off. No one else seemed to have noticed as the Hufflepuff chasers scored another goal. The broom succeeded and Rose watched as Scorpius dangled unnoticed from his broom. Rose was confused, he was normally such a good flyer. She heard a faint giggle behind her, someone else must have noticed him too. Without warning Scorpius lost grip of his broom and thumped to the ground. The laughing grew louder and more malicious, Rose was sure that someone in the crowd was doing this to Scorpius.

Rose's heart stopped as she saw him lying helpless on the floor. "Malfoy..." she muttered in concern. He wasn't even trying to get up. Rose heard the laughter again, this time she turned around to hear that it was coming from further up in the stalls, Daniel Leyton and Finley Norwood were taking delight sending hexes repeatedly at Scorpius who was motionless. Even from a distance she could see the hundreds of yellow boils covering his limbs. She growled and ran as fast as she could down to the pitch, pushing the two idiots over on her way down.

"PROFESSOR STOCKETT!" Rose shouted with all her might as soon as she reached the pitch. "STOP THE GAME!"

"WEASLEY GET BACK!" Stockett shouted back.

Rose glared and her nostrils flared. She stormed over to Scorpius who had not shown any signs of movement. Just as Rose predicted, Stockett was always ready to tell her off so she followed her. Only then did Stockett notice the injured student.

Rose knelt beside Scorpius and saw bone sticking out from his leg and his arms were covered in bruises and boils and was almost flat.

"Malfoy!" Rose shouted at his face. "Malfoy!" her hands trembled. He didn't answer. Rose felt lost, she looked up to see Stockett's panicked and embarrassed face. "Do something! You're the teacher!"

Stockett cleared her throat and used the sonorus charm. "THE GAME IS CANCELLED. EVERYONE DISMOUNT CALMLY. ALL STUDENTS MUST GO STRAIGHT BACK TO THEIR COMMON ROOMS." she waved over the nurse then squatted down to inspect Scorpius herself.

Rose's voice shook and was barely audible over the grumbles of the students leaving. "I think he's unconscious professor."

The nurse appeared and shook her head at the sight of Scorpius. "The poor boy's unconscious." she echoed Rose's fear. "We need to get him to the hospital wing quickly. Those boils on his arms are crushing him." she quickly instructed the teachers that were there to help.

Rose followed behind, never taking her eyes off of Scorpius's painful and unconscious face. Albus and Lunette had noticed Scorpius's absence from the Slytherin team and held back behind the crowd. Then they spotted Rose too.

"Rose!" Albus shouted and ran to her. "What's going on?"

"You're so pale Rose! What's happened?!" Lunette asked hurriedly.

Rose pointed in front. "He, he, fell of his broom and now he's been injured. They're taking him to the hospital wing."

Albus and Lunette quickly ran after the teachers levitating Scorpius. Rose told herself to calm down and continued at a slower pace. She didn't understand why she felt so scared at the thought of Scorpius being properly hurt, and she didn't want to think about why. That could wait until after he was better.

Once Scorpius was settled in a bed and the majority of teachers had left, Lunette and Albus burst in and rushed to his side.

"Will he be ok?" Lunette and Albus asked at the same time.

"Eventually, yes." The busy nurse said bluntly wishing that they would leave her to it.

"Eventually?!" Albus was frightened for his friend.

The nurse stopped what she was doing, huffed and spun around. "Yes, eventually. He's unconscious for now, but I shall mend that in a moment. I'll have to give young Malfoy a potion which will make him, shall I say, a bit sensitive-"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Mr Potter! Will you please let me finish! I understand the concern for your friend but if you keep interrupting me I shan't be able to get on."

"Sorry." Albus muttered, his concerned eyes looking at a very bruised and battered Scorpius.

"He shall be emotional is all I'm saying. Even the slightest thing would make him angry or upset. Which shan't be a help to myself at all, his leg and arm are beyond broken." she tutted. "Completely crushed by those heavy boils. Only skelli-grow can help him now, growing back bones is no pleasant business. And I can remove some of those boils while he's unconscious, but most will have to wait until after he's woken up. Poor boy will be in so much pain tonight. And that is why he shall be an emotional wreck." she then tried to get back to work while grumbling. "Bloody side effects to everything. I'm either going to have an angry boy screaming at me because of the pain or the most pitiful crying boy."

Albus grimaced. He remembered his father telling him all about skelli-grow.

"And now Mr Potter, Miss Tinker, I must ask you to leave, he shall be awake in a couple of hours and the less worried faces surrounding him the better. Malfoy's in for a tough night."

"But can't I-" Albus stuttered.

"No! Leave now and I shall let you visit him tomorrow afternoon, if he's improved."

Lunette took hold of Albus's arm. "Come one Al, we'll see him tomorrow. There's nothing we can do for Scorp now, and he's in good hands."

Once out of the hospital Albus sighed, he left Lunette flop against the wall and start shaking. He lifted a piece of hair away from her face and saw that she was crying.

"Lunette, wha-"

"Why didn't I notice?! Al, I was on the pitch! He's my best friend too! Why didn't I notice that he was unconscious and hurt?! I'm a terrible person and friend! And now he's going to be emotional and in pain all night! What if I could've helped?! He has to spend the night alone and in pain!"

Little did they know that Rose was listening just around the corner.

"Hey, Lunette, it's not your fault at all. It's not your job to keep an eye on him during the game, your job was to find the snitch. You cannot blame yourself for this."

Lunette sniffed. "But why did Rose notice? No one else in the entire school noticed anything was up until she stormed onto that pitch."

Albus wrapped an arm around her and they began walking slowly to the great hall. "Yeah, well sometimes I think that they don't hate each other as much they'd like us to think that they do."

"What? So you think that they're really-"

"No. But sometimes, not very often, I get the feeling that they like being around each other. But then they go back to arguing and I'm almost sure I'm wrong."

After hearing that, Rose knew that she definitely had to be seen going down to dinner and feeling fine. But she couldn't resist the urge to peek her head through the door and catch a glimpse of Scorpius.

Rose didn't say much at dinner, but then that wasn't wholly unusual. Lily frowned and asked, "Are you feeling alright Rose?"

Rose eyed her suspiciously. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Oh, well that thing with Malfoy was a bit of a shock."

Rose shrugged. "I think he's in the hospital wing or something. You're best asking Al or Lunette, I think I saw them go that way earlier."

Lily studied Rose for a moment, she knew something was wrong but Rose wasn't telling. So she let it drop with the assumption that Rose couldn't keep a secret from Lily for long. Yet Lily had no idea how many secrets Rose had successfully kept from her.

Late that night, Rose snuck out of bed and made her way soundlessly to the hospital wing. Before she even opened the door, the heart wrenching sound of sobbing reached her ears.

"Now Mr Malfoy, that Skelli-grow is going to hurt but you need it. I removed most of the boils so that the bone can get stronger, although those scars will remain for a few weeks. The potion I gave you earlier is mostly what is making you cry. I understand you are confused by the tears. Although, it normally makes people angry, and I certainly did not give you enough for this many tears. Hmm, I shall have to write this down. Now, shout for me if you need anything, I'm going to bed."

Rose waited until she heard the nurse leave and then carefully opened the door. Scorpius was facing away from her as she sat on the end of his bed. He was shaking as he sobbed, his arm and leg were still limp covered in raw circular scars, blood trickled from one or two of them occasionally. Rose didn't know what to say, he was in so much pain and she felt helpless.

"Weasley?" he whispered in surprise.

Rose gave a faint smile. He could see the concern in her eyes. He felt pathetic.

"Why are you here?" he asked with a sniff.

Rose opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She only took hold of his hand that had bones in it and squeezed gently. More tears streamed down his face, Rose took a tissue out of her pocket and wiped them away.

"It's going to be ok." She whispered softly to him and shuffled closer. "It's ok, you'll be fine tomorrow."

"I'm in so much pain." Scorpius croaked.

"Shhh, I know, just try to sleep. No more tears, just rest."

"Don't leave." Scorpius panicked and his arm jerked, relieving more blood to trail out of some of the boil scars.

"I won't, I'm here. You're going to be ok. A lot of people are worried about you so you need to get some rest. Tomorrow you can show them that you're ok." she took an already bloody cloth off the table beside him and dabbed his bleeding arm gently.

"Please don't leave me alone here." Scorpius held her hand tightly.

"I won't, I promise. I'm here and I won't leave you alone."

Albus was worried about Scorpius, so late that night he sneaked up to the hospital wing. As he opened the door, the sight of Rose startled him. She was comforting Scorpius. Albus had never seen Scorpius cry and yet there hes was, crying with his enemy comforting him. Albus backed out of the room slowly before either had noticed him, Albus was back in his bed.

Albus had the feeling that he had seen something that no one was supposed to know about. He decided that perhaps it was a secret that he should even keep from Lunette. 'Unless of course the circumstance is urgent and I have to tell for the sake of Scorp and Rose. Or if she directly asks. 'Or if those two idiots do actually end up together.'

By the last week of school, Scorpius was back to his usual self and Rose had lost the seemingly permanent concerned look from her eyes. A look which only Albus and Lily noticed, yet they said nothing.

One saturday morning, after breakfast, Leyton and Norwood were laughing in hushed tones in the courtyard together. Rose spotted them and was instantly angry. She knew that it was them who had injured Scorpius and it was their fault that Scorpius had cried so much.

Revenge was going to be sweet.

"Flipendo." she muttered. Both Leyton and Norwood fell off the bench. "Petrificus totalus." Both the boys were unable to move. Using the levitation charm, she moved them to an empty and darkened corner. She could see the fear in their eyes. Both knew what Rose was capable of when she was angry.

"Listen, you foul loathsome gargoyles." Rose grit her teeth. "I saw you at the quidditch match and you're going to pay for injuring another student."

She poked them each harshly on the nose with her wand and spoke clearly. "Engorgio." Their noses doubled in size, she did the same to their ears. Their heads were drooping under the weight. She then removed the hair of their heads, gave them each a rat's tail and acne to cover the majority of their faces.

"Now, you will go to the great hall and appologise to Malfoy, once I am satisfied with your humiliation I will reverse the hexes. Are we clear?" She undid the spell keeping them frozen and they nodded as best as they could before running to the hall.

She followed quietly and watched with amusement as Leyton and Norwood could barely get a word out to appologise to the baffled Scorpius. Every student left in the hall was watching. Their apology was short, as expected, and they sprinted back to the courtyard where Rose undid the hexes. She knew that a simply apology wasn't nearly enough to compensate how much pain they put Scorpius through, but it was all that she could do for him.

"Now, if you tell anyone that it was me who forced you to do this, I will do twice as bad to you and refuse to reverse any of it. Understood?"

All Leyton and Norwood did was nod again and they ran away to their rooms.

"Wasn't that bullying Rose?" a voice sounded from behind her.

Rose slowly turned, she wasn't surprised to see Longbottom there. "I'd prefer to call it justice uncle Nev- professor Longbottom."

Longbottom smiled and nodded slowly. "I would give you detention but we've only got a week left until we all go home so there wouldn't be much of a point."

"I know sir."

"But I could give you detention."

"I know sir, and I would deserve it. But a detention at this point in the year won't teach me anything." Rose sat down on the nearest bench and sighed. "I may have overreacted."

"May have?"

"Look, sir, what they did was-"

"I've guessed what they have done. And again, it would be pointless to give them detentions now. Of course they injured a student and put them in a hospital wing, whereas you reversed the hexes you used in return for their humiliation." Longbottom sat beside her. "Why did you do it Rose?"

"Justice, they-"

"No. No, it would be simply for justice if it was for a random student. It would be revenge if it was for a friend, but this seemed more malicious."

Rose shrugged. "It's been a confusing year."

"Emotionally confusing?"

Rose nodded.

"Things don't get resolved by bottling them up."

"I know uncle Neville, but that's the way it has to be."

"It doesn't Rose, I care about you and I want you to be happy."

"I am happy, sometimes. But no one can be happy all the time." Rose stood, before she left she turned around again. "I shouldn't have overreacted, I know what I did wasn't the best way to handle things. And if it was so late in the school year, I would be willing to accept any punishment that came my way, but as it is-"

"You're very mature for your age Rose, I'm proud of you. And if your parents were to ever hear of this," he quickly spoke as he saw the panic in Rose's eyes. "Which they won't, they would be proud too. Well, proud eventually. You would still get an earful from your mother."

"So they won't hear about this?"

"No."

"Thank you. "

TRAIN HOME

Albus, Lunette and Scorpius sat in a compartment together, enjoying each other's company before Scorpius had to do his prefect rounds and before the summer when they would barely see each other. Lunette was to go back to France for a few weeks to see her grandparents, not something she was thrilled about. And Scorpius would be cooped up in the library at home until he was dragged to Belgium with Lloyd Parkinson for a week only so that he could go back home afterwards and hide in the library again. The only thing Scorpius ever had to look forward to during the summer holidays was the week he would spend with the Potters at Hunstanton beach, but he wasn't sure if he would be invited this year as Lunette was a big part of Albus's life. Scorpius knew that James and Lily would rather have Lunette on holiday with them than himself anyday.

Albus wrapped one arm around Lunette as she snuggled in closer to him. Scorpius rolled his eyes and stared out of the window.

Lunette sighed. "It's been a fun year hasn't it?" she said with a soft smile.

Albus chuckled. "It has, but I'm glad it's over and I've got you." he leaned down and kissed her. "What do you think Scorp?"

Scorpius thought for a moment, he thought about himself and Rose standing up for Lunette and their mutual concern for Albus brought them to civilised conversations. He remembered learning about the amortia potion, and how it smelled of Rose, of rain, new parchment and freshly cut grass. He remembered how she had run out of the class and not returned, he dared not to assume what or who she had smelled. He thought about Rose's birthday and how she was obviously have the worst day ever, and he had the confusing feeling of heartache. He had felt her pain and wanted to take it away. Passing thoughts popped up of Rose's annoyed face as he teased her in front of Wesely McLaggen, the various muggle books and poem quotes that delighted one another when recognised. A few kisses on New Years. Taking the full weight of a nasty prank so that she wasn't humiliated, getting in trouble anyway. Rose's willingness to help and intuition not to tease when he told her of his fears when they were trapped on the fourth floor. And finally the faint image of her worried face before he passed out on the quidditch pitch. He wasn't sure if he had seen her again that night or if he had been imagining it. The nurse had given him some weird potion, he just remembered crying a lot and a comforting voice telling him that they wouldn't leave. Those moments and the ones full of petty arguments, hurt his head. Scorpius felt as though he could not say for certain whether or not he hated Rose anymore.

"I'd say it's been a confusing year."

At that moment, Rose walked passed the compartment. Scorpius spotted her and quickly turned away to look out the window again. Scorpius's reaction and the fleeting mass of red hair, made Lunette aware of her best friend.

"Hey! Rose!" Lunette called her in.

Rose smiled at Lunette and Albus as she entered, on seeing Scorpius she simply grit her teeth and didn't acknowledge him.

"Hey guys, I was just talking to Katie Webb, she's looking after my trunk while I do prefect round. I think Dom is feeling a bit down, her last chance to use the authority of head girl."

"Well tell her I said hi." said Al

"Yeah, me too. And tell her that she's a fierce head girl that I am proud to call a Hufflepuff." Lunette grinned.

"How do you think this year has gone?" Albus asked curiously.

Rose's eyes flickered to look at Scorpius before she took in a long shaky breath, then answered. "It's, umm, it's been confusing." she nodded.

Scorpius looked at her in surprise, her ears turned red and she left quickly.

Albus laughed. "Too bad you guys are enemies, you're so alike." he said to Scorpius.

Lunette slowly sat up and looked suspiciously at Scorpius. He could feel her trying to work out what he was thinking. Scorpius quickly stood and muttered an excuse about needing the loo before he went to do prefect duty.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Of course Scorpius was invited to go to Hunstanton for a week with the Potters, much to his delight. The dates, however, conflicted with the week that the Malfoys were to go to Belgium. Scorpius knew that he would have to do the best sucking up and arguing than he'd ever done in his life to get out of going to Belgium.

His mother was fine with him not going with them. His father, on the other hand, was not. And Draco was not a force to be reckoned with. But Scorpius had to try.

"Dad, you know that I don't get along with Lloyd. He's a stuck up, arrogant prick-"

"Watch your language young man." Draco warned as he turned another page in his newspaper.

"We just don't see eye to eye. For example, I'm a prefect who was given the role due to my responsibility and high grades, he's a student given the prefect role to keep an eye on him and is repeatedly threatened with expulsion."

"This discussion is over." Draco folded his newspaper neatly and made his way to his parent's sitting room.

Astoria Malfoy stopped him on his way and led him into the empty dining room.

"Draco, he is not coming with us." she said sternly.

"Yes he-"

"No he's not." she said more softly. "He has a friend that he treats like a brother. They rarely see each other during the summer holidays because your parents are not inclined to like the Potters-"

"Oh, so it's my fault."

"Do not interrupt me. I am not blaming you for that, but I am saying that we should give him some freedom. He is seventeen now, he's old enough. I know we can't give him everything he wants or he'll turn out like a spoiled brat, but I believe, despite your parent's influence, he's grown up to be a sensible young man. Let's not turn him against us now. And," she sighed, "I think the Potter boy is the closest Scorpius has to a brother or a cousin, Albus is family to Scorpius."

"I understand. But I'm not thrilled. You can tell him that-"

"No, you can tell him."

"Wh-"

"You need to talk to him more often. Draco, this is the first time you have spoken to him properly in months! Be open and honest for once, he's not going to live here forever." She kissed his cheek and returned to her study.

Draco found Scorpius in the library as usual, he was sitting on the windowsill. His son was stuck in a book and did not notice his father's arrival. Draco had to clear his throat twice just to get eye contact.

"Oh, hello." Scorpius was melancholy. 'If Dad is here, it must mean I have to go to Belgium.' Scorpius was already composing a letter to send to Albus in his head as Draco settled down in the nearest chair and began talking.

"Scorpius, your mother made me realise something about our family trips. The truth is, I don't want to go either. But we have to, it is tradition and the Parkinson's are crafty and manipulative in the wizarding world. How else do you think the young boy is still in school? They have connections, and none of them good. Scorpius, with you in Belgium with us, I am always able to use you as an excuse not to go anywhere or do anything with them. I simply say that you are travel sick or that you wanted to spend an entire day just with immediate family, it seems selfish I know, but your mother had always appreciated it. When she tries to use you as an excuse, the Parkinson's see right through it. I guess they do not believe me capable of caring enough about my own family's interests, to lie for you. They would be wrong, yet it is understandable. I know that it is a family holiday and, as your father, I should want you there. But we all hate it."

"Well, I do love Belgium. It's a beautiful country. It's just-"

"The people we go there with. I know. Your mother made me see that perhaps you think of Potter's boy as family too."

Scorpius nodded. "He's like my brother."

"Then spend time with your other family this year."

Scorpius felt a twinge of guilt. "Well, I guess I could come to Belgium with you and mum-"

"No, you have obviously argued your point well and sensibly enough to your mother. You're not a little boy anymore." Draco patted his son on the shoulder and stood to leave.

"Well maybe we could do something as a family as soon as we all get back." Scorpius quickly spoke up, feeling awkward around his father. "It isn't that I don't want to spend time with you and mum-"

"I think we can manage that." Draco nodded and left.

Scorpius was confused. He was happy to be allowed to go with the Potters, and he was even happier not to be dragged to Belgium. But he always found it awkward and too formal talking to his father, like talking to a teacher you don't know very well. Scorpius shrugged and went to his room to write to Albus.

...

The night Scorpius arrived home after going camping with the Potters was the night before Hogwarts letters arrived. Scorpius was so tired that he fell right to sleep without a thought of his exam results.

Rose, on the other hand, did not sleep a wink. Worrying kept her up all night practising basics spells that she had already mastered in first and second year.