Rory could not have been more grateful to see her dad when she stepped off the train at King's Cross. After lunch, things in the cabin had been awkward and uncomfortable. She bounced between being distracted by Stephen, feeling guilty about being distracted by Stephen, and being irritated with Harry for his mere existence making her feel guilty.

Rory ran up to her dad and hugged him tightly.

"Can I please be homeschooled?" Rory asked by way of greeting.

"I certainly wish that was an option," Remus replied, patting her on the head. "But if you keep it up, it might be the only option we have for you."

Rory nodded. "Referring to my near expulsion then?"

"We'll talk about it later," he said.

"Hello, Professor Lupin."

Rory turned and Stephen was there.

"Hello, Stephen. How are you?" Remus asked.

"Well, thank you," he replied. Then he looked at Rory. "I'm going to work on that arrangement for the performance like we talked about. I'll be sure to update you about my trip to Manchester."

"Interesting place to spend your holiday," Remus said.

"My mother is an interesting person," Stephen replied. "Rory says I should convince her to do a stopover in London. "I don't think there's much chance of that happening, but I do think that I can convince her to let us spend some time here over the summer. I told Rory she'd have to show me around."

Again, felt heat rise into her cheeks. "We'll have to see."

"See you in a few weeks," Stephen said and walked off.

"Well that was an interesting interaction," Remus said. "What was that about?"

"I really wish I could tell you, but I do not know," Rory said.

She glanced over and saw Tonks chatting with Harry and the Weasleys. She was glad to have a break from school, but she also was not looking forward to how much time she was about to spend with Harry.

"Are things okay?" Remus asked, noticing where his daughter's glance had gone.

"With Harry?" she asked. Remus nodded. Rory chuckled. "Hard no. Most of the time anyway."

"Most of the time?" he asked.

"We both keep trying to make an effort to get along and then derailing it massively," Rory said. "Elated to spend three weeks stuck in the house with him."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating," Remus said.

When they got to Grimmauld, they unpacked their things and sat down to dinner. and Mrs. Weasley wasted no time in laying into them about Dumbledore's Army.

"Well, if we're being honest," Ron said casually, "it was all Hermione's idea."

"And if Hermione told you to jump off a cliff would you?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"I dunno if that's a valid argument, Mum," Fred said.

"I agree. If Hermione told us to jump off a cliff, she'd likely have a very long but brilliant reason for wanting us to do it," George said.

"Thank you?" Hermione said, posing it as a question.

"And we were working on patronuses before we left. No one else in the whole school can do anything close to the things we were learning in our illegal club," Ginny said. "All thanks to Harry teaching us."

Rory liked Ginny. She really did. But another thing has been bugging Rory about the train ride. And the thing was Ginny. She'd watched Harry break up with Cho, and she was really just ready to ease her way into the void Cho had left.

"I mean, Rory came up with all the lesson plans and whatnot. I basically just did whatever she told me to do," Harry said.

"Teamwork makes the dream work," Rory said halfheartedly from down the table. She was trying not to be as uncomfortable as she felt, but that was a difficult task. She could sense how uncomfortable Harry felt as well. They were both doing a terrible job of pretending everything was fine.

"And how was the train ride in?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Super," Rory said, a bit more sarcastically than she meant for it to sound.

"There weren't as many people on the train, so it was pretty quiet," Hermione said. "Uneventful."

"Neville and I actually tutored someone in herbology," Matilda said. "I'll rephrase. Neville tutored. I marveled at his brilliance. But that was the most eventful thing that happened."

"So, aside from you all getting into trouble, how has school been?" Tonks asked.

Everyone kind of groaned because school had not been awesome for anyone lately, not with Umbridge around.

"That bad?" Tonks asked.

"If I breathe wrong in Umbridge's class she'll dock me house points," Rory said. "And Trelawney has lost it."

"After she got sacked she just stays in her tower. And whenever we do see her she's a bit... Out of it," Neville said.

"Sloshed is more like it. Can't imagine how she even manages to stand up sometimes," Matilda said. "She was always a bit odd, but Umbridge really genuinely drove her to drink."

"Oh, goodness," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Well, there has to be something good that happened," Sirius said. "You all had a Hogsmeade visit recently. I'm sure that was fun."

Rory was certain that Sirius meant well with his question because usually, Hogsmeade was a reprieve for everyone. But not for Rory. She snorted a laugh into her water glass.

"Sorry, that was inappropriate," Rory said. "Hogsmeade was great. I had a table all to myself at Madame Puddifoot's tea shop. I had three cups of tea and she gave me them all free of charge."

Because my piece of shit boyfriend didn't bother to show up, Rory added to herself. She didn't doubt that everyone seemed to sense this addition to her sentence though.

"Well that sounds nice," Mrs. Weasley said. She was clearly not in the know that Hogsmeade had all but been the nail in the coffin for Rory and Harry. She probably hadn't even put together that it was Valentine's Day and that Rory wasn't meant to be sitting alone in the tea shop.

Bill, Remus, Tonks, and Sirius were all well in the know though, exchanging uncomfortable glances, clearly wondering what to say next.

"It was nice," Rory said. "An old woman on the street even gave me some flowers. But she was super weird, so I tossed the hyacinths in the bin as soon as I walked away."

"Hyacinths?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah. Out of season for February, right? And definitely not a Valentine's Day flower," Rory said.

"You're positive they were hyacinths?" Tonks asked.

"Positive," Rory said, unsure of why Tonks was hung up on this detail. "She was selling roses and she just pulled the hyacinths out of nowhere. And she was going on about how I'm a light or something. Very strange words of encouragement."

"She told you to be bright?" Tonks asked.

Red flags were going up now. "That's exactly what she said. How did you-?"

"Not important," Tonks said, getting to her feet. "Excuse me. I need to go find Kingsley. And then scream into a pillow."

She walked out the door and Rory looked at her dad.

"Should I be concerned?" Rory asked.

"Not yet," Remus said.

He was being intentionally evasive, but Rory took this to mean that he was going to tell her what was happening, but not at the dinner table. It was probably why they wanted her to come back for the Easter break.

"I'm so glad my life isn't as interesting as yours," Matilda said.

"'May You live in interesting times' is a curse after all," Rory said. "Although you had to spend Valentine's Day with Seamus and that sounds like a curse."

"We've already discussed how crap my taste is," Matilda said.

"I take offense to that," Fred said.

"Good," Matilda replied without missing a beat. She turned back to Rory. "Anyway, I'd rather have to deal with having a crappy boyfriend instead of your problems."

"Well, I used to have my problems and a crappy boyfriend," Rory said.

An uncomfortable silence overtook the room and Rory realized that perhaps she was doing a worse job at keeping her bitterness inside than she thought. She glanced over and saw that Harry was frowning at her. Ginny leaned over and started to whisper to Harry, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I'm actually going to excuse myself and head to bed. I'm exhausted," Rory said. She left the dining room and went to her bedroom. She fell face-first into her bed. A few minutes later, Matilda entered the room and sat beside her.

"Well, that was wildly uncomfortable for everyone," Matilda said. "Personally, I think you held back."

"I'm trying very hard not to be the bitter, broken-hearted ex-girlfriend tonight, but I am a very bitter, very broken-hearted ex-girlfriend," Rory said.

"It's only hard because you want your dad and Sirius to still like Harry, so you don't want to publicly shame him," Matilda said. "You got very close tonight though. You really toed the line."

"That's being polite about it," Rory said. "I may as well have said 'Harry Potter is an asshole.'"

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Matilda said. "He'll have Ginny there consoling him the whole time."

Rory groaned. "Don't get me started, but it doesn't matter. They can get married for all I care."

"You would hate that," Matilda said.

"He's already gone out with Cho. Why not add another opportunistic, Quidditch player into the mix," Rory said.

"I don't think he likes Ginny that way," Matilda said.

"Didn't think he liked Cho, but that hardly kept him from shoving his tongue down her throat," Rory said.

"Valid, but he did break up with her," Matilda said. "I think he still loves you."

"Well, good for him I guess," Rory said. "On the train, he said he broke up with her because he didn't realize there could be someone worse than me."

"What?" Matilda asked.

"Did not think someone could be worse about being jealous than me," Rory said.

"Does-Does he just not listen to the words that come out of his mouth?" she asked.

"Not his mouth or my mouth or anyone's mouth apparently," Rory said. "It's Harry Potter's world, and we're all just living in it. Stupid boy. With his stupid cute face and his stupid mouth."

"Rory... Do you still love Harry?" Matilda asked cautiously.

She'd already admitted that aloud to him earlier this week. She couldn't stand the thought of saying it out loud again. "Would I be the bitter ex-girlfriend if I didn't?" Rory asked. "I just keep waiting to not feel like this anymore."

"He's your first boyfriend. You were together for like, over a year. That never happens," Matilda said.

Rory sighed. And then she felt tears coming up.

"Sometimes I feel like," Rory started, "he took me for granted all that time and didn't get it together until after I broke things off, and now that he knows how not to be a shitty boyfriend he's… Someone else gets him."

"He's not that great. Cho did slap him after all," Matilda said. Rory chuckled. Matilda placed a hand on Rory's back. "Fred sucks and Seamus sucks a shit ton more, and I kind of hate that they'll be better for someone else because of me. But I think I'll be better because of them too."

Rory wanted to agree. But she couldn't. She felt like she was incredible and smart and funny and would be quite the catch for anyone. But she couldn't shake the feeling that Harry was the person for her. Harry had made her better, and she'd made him better too. But even after everything, no one seemed to compare to him. Which was stupid because she was definitely better off without him.

"I miss him," Rory admitted. "I know that he's an idiot, but he was my idiot. And I think he never figured that part out."

Matilda laid down next to Rory. "You know, I always thought that Harry was, like, your soulmate. You two just get each other. Even now that you've broken up you're always on the same wavelength. But it seems insane that he didn't realize what was happening, like, outside of Cho."

Rory nodded. She had a lot going on, and so did Harry. But because Harry was dealing with Voldemort, the 500 things Rory felt she was tackling didn't even compare. Everything paled in comparison to Voldemort it seemed. His mood swings and frustration and desire to run away were all because of Voldemort and should be excused.

Meanwhile, Rory's whole life was thrown into utter chaos because her family, her own mother had come out of the woodwork, to throw a wrench into things.

Harry had told her that his problems didn't outweigh anyone else's, but was that really true? Because he never seemed to act like it, especially to Rory. She felt like her life was the subject of media approval every week at this point.

"Be nice to him," Rory said. "Everyone here, it's the only real family Harry's got. I didn't even tell my dad or Sirius that he kissed Cho and that it's why we broke up or even that they were dating."

Matilda gasped. "You didn't tell them?"

"My dad would be so upset. And Sirius already feels so conflicted about looking after Harry more than he does me, and I don't want to give them a reason to just look down on Harry. He was a shitty boyfriend, but he's good otherwise,"

"Oh my god, you need to fall out of love with this boy," Matilda said.


Harry woke early the next morning. He was getting tired of having nightmares. They were much worse since he'd started having his lessons with Snape. Although Snape had made it abundantly clear that there would be no more Occlumency lessons after Harry got a look into Snape's Pensieve. He hadn't told Rory what he'd seen yet, nor had he mentioned what he'd found on the other side of the door.

It was going to be hard to do that now that they were at Grimmauld though. Harry knew things were going to be somewhat awkward when he got back, but he hadn't expected this. He and Rory were just recently able to be in the same room together without it feeling like the most awkward thing in the world, but it definitely felt like he was going to have to start over from scratch with her being angry with him again. And it wasn't like he was thrilled with her either.

He smelled coffee and walked down to the dining room, expecting to see Mrs. Weasley up and about.

But as the universe would have it, instead he found Rory. She'd already brought up a tray of mugs and the coffee pot. She had her herbology book open in front of her, a cup of coffee steaming just beside it. She had a pencil in her hand and was taking notes down in a notebook beside her.

He thought about leaving, but then realized he was probably not going to get another opportunity to speak to her alone. And he wasn't sure if he could endure another dinner like the one last night.

"Morning," he said, making himself known.

She looked up at him from her book. "Hi."

"Expected to see Mrs. Weasley," Harry said.

"She'll be up soon, I expect," Rory said returning to her book. "There's coffee."

Harry took that to be a sign that she was okay with him staying. He poured himself a cup of coffee. He pointed to the chair next to her. "Do you mind?"

"Go ahead," she said as she underlined something in her book. She reached for her mug as he sat beside her. "Sorry. About yesterday."

He shrugged. "Expected it to be uncomfortable."

"I think I was well past uncomfortable and became downright hostile," she replied.

"It's fine," he said. "Wouldn't expect anything different from you."

Rory's eyebrows furrowed. "And by that you mean?"

"It's not like we were really getting along before," Harry replied.

"But I wasn't going out of my way to be a jerk," she huffed.

"Sure. You were just going out of your way to not speak to me," Harry said.

"You know, you're making it really fucking difficult to give you an apology right now," she said.

He really was. He'd been wanting to talk to her, alone, and just have a normal conversation, and he immediately set her off. Why was he like this? He'd been like this all year. No wonder she'd broken up with him. Who would want to put up with this?

"Good morning."

The pair glanced over to the door where Mrs. Weasley entered.

"Good morning," Rory and Harry replied in unison.

"It's always so wonderful of you to make coffee, Aurora," Mrs. Weasley said. It was clear from the speed at which she was speaking and the way she was fidgeting with her hands that she'd at the very least heard Rory scold him a moment ago.

"It's no trouble," Rory replied.

"I'm going to go and get breakfast started," she said, inching towards the cellar door before disappearing.

Rory took a sip from her cup and picked her pencil back up.

"Sorry. Of course you didn't want to talk to me. You told me," Harry said. "I just... I don't listen, I guess."

"Well, that's a level of introspection I didn't expect from you," she replied, scribbling in the margin of her book again.

That hurt his feelings a bit. Some reassurance would've been nice, but considering how contentious the last three minutes had been, he couldn't really expect otherwise.

"I'm just starting to realize how much I've taken you for granted. Everyone for granted, really," Harry said. She looked over to him again, sitting her pencil aside. "But especially you. Even now. I fly off the handle and still expect you to understand after I finally get my head on straight. So, I'm sorry for all the times I was a jerk to you. And I will try not to be a jerk anymore. And if I am a jerk then I'll try to catch it before someone has to tell me I'm being one."

Rory let out a sigh and gave him a gentle smile.

"What?" he asked.

"I think that's the sincerest apology you've given me," Rory said.

That, again, hurt a bit to hear, but she was entitled to her feelings. And he knew that after everything, it made sense that she might not believe him. She said she didn't trust him anymore after all. Why would she believe any of his apologies?

Something else was becoming clear to him as well. For all their arguing, for as much as she pushed him away and wanted to make it perfectly clear that they were not getting back together. Harry still loved her. Her smile, her laugh, her happiness, it was everything to Harry. No matter how many times he tried to tell himself it was over or thought about the countless ways he felt her distrust had poisoned their relationship, he couldn't help but feel a little flicker "Maybe."

And sitting here with her now, it all felt so easy. The way things always seemed to drop into place so comfortably around each other always made him feel like they were supposed to be together.

"But like I said before," Rory said, distracting him from his thoughts. "I'm sorry about last night. I was just in a kind of a mood."

"I know a thing or two about bad moods. No worries," Harry said. "I think you're the last person who needs to apologize to me for not being in a good mood."

"Well, it's not in my nature to not apologize for something like that so," Rory trailed off. She took another drink from her coffee and then went back to her studying. Harry just stared at her. He missed her, even sitting right next to her.

But he had to seize the moment while they were still alone.

"I wanted to talk to you, actually," Harry said.

"About?" she asked.

"My occlumency lesson," Harry said.

"Still going poorly?" she replied, not looking up from her book.

"They're not going at all anymore," Harry said.

At this, Rory closed her book and slid it to the side. "What did you do?"

"Why do you assume I've done something?" Harry asked. Rory gave him a knowing look. He conceded. "You remember that day Umbridge interrogated us? I went to my lesson afterward, but Snape canceled soon as I got there. And I was going to leave, but…"

"But?" Rory asked curiously.

He sighed. "His pensieve was just sitting there, completely unattended."

"Oh, boy," Rory said sitting back in her chair. "Don't get me wrong, I detest Snape nearly as much as you do, but that's kind of a huge invasion of privacy."

"I know, but he's spent two days a week prying into my private thoughts since January. I just wondered, you know, what does he have to reflect on," Harry said.

"I think you were just being nosey, but I think I also would've justified it as well," Rory said. "But I'm guessing he caught you." Harry nodded. "How do you not have detention for a billion years right now?"

Harry frowned. "Probably because of what I saw."

And Harry told her all of it. The OWLs, the flagrant display of bullying on the part of James and Sirius. Remus sitting by pretending not to see it. Lily being absolutely annoyed by the mere existence of James.

Rory had finished her cup of coffee by the time Harry finished explaining himself. She fiddled with the empty mug in her hands as she listened. He was starting to get a little anxious about what she had to say.

"Well," she started, setting the mug aside, "you can't really be that surprised, right?"

"What?" Harry asked, completely flabbergasted. "How can you say that?"

"Well, you remember all about Sirius tricking Snape into going to the Shrieking Shack when they were fifth years? And how it was only because Sirius told your dad about it that Snape didn't accidentally get himself killed?" Rory asked.

Harry frowned. "Of course I remember that but-."

"Have you honestly thought all this time that sure, Sirius is capable of something like that, but since your dad saved Snape he was entirely unable to do something so horrible?" Rory asked.

Yes, was Harry's immediate reaction. But he didn't say that.

"They were all friends. Peter Pettigrew turned out to be a Death Eater. And no our dads aren't evil, but they're all certainly capable of doing awful stuff, especially when they were our age. I mean, how many times have I literally 'assaulted' Malfoy as my Dad would say?" Rory asked.

"I get that," Harry said. "But-."

"With Snape being a dick to literal children it's not a reach to think that he just hated your dad for literally no reason," Rory said. "But consider that maybe Snape did have a reason to dislike your dad so intensely."

Harry sighed. She was right, of course. Rory was always right about most things.

"I guess it just makes me wonder if I'm like that but don't realize it," Harry said.

Rory shrugged. "I don't think so. But at the same time, I don't think we can really judge people for who they were when they were 15. I mean, Hermione literally kept Rita Skeeter in a jar and blackmailed her at the end of fourth year. We worked together to possibly permanently scar a girl's face for telling Umbridge about the DA."

"Wait, permanently-."

"Only if they don't figure out how to reverse it. She'll be fine," Rory said. "But like... Think of all the shit you've done this year. Do you think you'll grow out of it or will you act like you're 15 forever?"

"Fair point," Harry said.

"Snape didn't outgrow it. And in some ways, Sirius didn't either, but I'm sure Sirius and my dad will hear this story and probably cringe that they behaved that way," Rory said. "Just talk to them about it. No one looks back on the stupid things they did at 15 fondly. I've still got three months left of being 15 and there are already things I'd like to erase."

Harry wondered if he fell into the category of "stupid things they did at 15" for her, but he didn't want to know the answer to that either way.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what?" she asked.

"The much-needed perspective," he said.

She smiled at him again. "No problem."