Rory was being a very supportive girlfriend. She wanted to abandon Harry and sit with Hermione and Matilda, but instead, she was having breakfast with Ron, Lavender, and Parvati.

She was being as engaged as possible. She commented and laughed when appropriate, but otherwise was a bystander. She liked Parvati perfectly fine; they'd never been super close, obviously, but they got along well enough.

"Are you coming to our mani-pedi party?" Parvati asked. Which was probably calculated. She would be more likely to say yes if Parvati asked rather than Lavender.

"I have plans, actually," Rory said.

"Do you?" Ron asked. "Harry and I were going down to the pitch because he said you didn't have plans today."

"Harry and I don't have plans," Rory said. "But I was going to the library. Alchemy assignment I wanted to get a jump on."

"Oh, you can put that off for a few hours, can't you?" Lavender asked.

"I would," Rory said. "But I'm supposed to be meeting up with Draco."

"You are?" Harry asked.

"Yes, remember. I told you," she said even though she definitely had not told him since she'd come up with this lie just now. "I'm just going to double-check the time with him. I'll see you all later."

Rory got up from the table and walked over to the Slytherin table. She gave Atlas a quick wave and he was undoubtedly confused when she kept walking past him. He was the only person in Slytherin she ever talked to. Until today.

She walked up to Draco and he narrowed his eyes on her.

"Cousin," she said, her voice light.

"What?" he asked.

"I need a favor," she said. "Can you meet me in the library in thirty minutes to work on our alchemy assignment?"

"It's Sunday. Why should I?" he asked.

"I'll fill out your whole star chart for astronomy if you do me this solid," she said.

He looked her up and down. "You seem desperate."

"I wouldn't be here putting myself in debt to you if I weren't," she said.

He let out a groan. "Fine."

"Thank you," she said.

He waved her off dismissively and she walked away.

She walked out to the Entrance Hall but was quickly stopped by Harry.

"Did you really just blow off Lavender to hang out with Malfoy instead?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "I don't want to sit around with Lavender and paint my nails while she gushes about Ron and tells me how it makes sense that my fish blanket was a gift from you because it's not really my style, whatever the hell that means."

Harry sighed, defeated. "She's going to figure out that you're blowing you off."

"Then maybe she'll stop asking," Rory said. "But now I am going to meet with Draco to do Alchemy homework."

"How is Malfoy a better option than Lavender?" Harry asked.

"Draco isn't suddenly interested in me because he started dating your best friend," Rory said.

Harry was annoyed, but Rory was too.

"You can try," he said. "Ron and Hermione made an effort when we started dating, and look at you now."

"Ron and Hermione were already my friends before we were dating," Rory said. "They didn't pretend to start liking me because I was your girlfriend. Meanwhile, the only real conversation I had with Lavender last year she told me I was crazy because my dad was a werewolf and that you were an attention seeker."

"Malfoy's said way worse about all of us," Harry said.

"Sure, but at least he has enough integrity to not pretend as if he never said any of that," Rory said. "And he's actually trying very hard to not be my friend."

"Rory," he started, but Rory was over it. She kissed him.

"I'll see you after lunch," she said without another word.

Rory made a quick stop in Gryffindor Tower and then went to the library. She was surprised to see Draco arriving at the same time.

"You showed up," she said. "I half expected you to bail on me."

"Be nice to have a break from homework," he said motioning for her to go inside. Rory followed and they took a table together in the only section of the library that had any alchemy books.

"What are you so desperate to get away from that you'd spend Sunday morning doing homework in the library with me?" he asked.

Rory rolled her eyes as she pulled her notebook from her bag. "I'm avoiding Ron's new girlfriend."

"Granger?" he asked.

Rory chuckled humorlessly. "No. Unfortunately, after Ron made his grand return to Quidditch last weekend, he decided it'd be an awesome idea to start snogging Lavender Brown."

Draco snorted. "What?"

"I am as shocked as you are," Rory said. "Hermione isn't speaking to Ron because they'd made plans to go to Slughorn's Christmas party together. Like, an actual date. And then he was suddenly snogging Lavender. And Harry is pretending that nothing is wrong and Hermione told me to let it go, but Lavender is insufferable and the minute she started dating Ron she wanted to start hanging out with me, and, honestly, no thanks."

"I'm sure she won't take it personally that you decided you'd rather sit in the library with me over doing something with her," he said sarcastically.

"I don't care if she does truthfully," Rory replied opening her book.

"Will your boyfriend care?" Draco asked, mockingly. "Can't imagine he'll be pleased about you and Weasley's girlfriend not getting along."

Rory scoffed. "Do you think Harry and I just agree on everything?"

"No," Draco said. "Didn't you break up with him earlier this year? Can't agree about everything then can you?"

She glared at him and started reading through her textbook.

"Was it 'cause of Chang?" Draco asked. "He didn't waste any time messing around with her after you two broke it off. Can't help but wonder if he was messing about before."

"You know, I've been trying to be very friendly to you all year and you're not making it easy for me," she said.

"So he was snogging her behind your back," Draco chuckled. "I'm surprised. Potter's so high and mighty you'd think cheating would be beneath him."

Rory closed her book. "This is a lost cause. I know you don't care, but I've been trying to bury the hatchet with you this year and you're just determined to be an ass."

"Well, since we're being honest, I don't understand your sudden interest," Draco said. "Don't have a crush on me, do you? Heard that kind of thing runs in your side of the family."

Rory shuddered. "Don't be gross."

"Then what is it?" he asked.

"It takes too much energy hate you. It's easier to let it go," Rory said. "And I figured if you're even half as stressed out as I am from all this dark wizard, deatheater bullshit that maybe giving you shit at school wouldn't be the kindest thing I could do."

"You're talking to me about kindness when you're here because of how intensely you dislike someone's girlfriend?" Draco asked almost with a laugh.

"I'm not perfect," Rory said with a huff sitting back in her seat. "Why are you so determined to hate me? Why is it so bad if I feel like we should get along?"

"Because you have an agenda," he said.

"My agenda is to make my life fucking easier," she said. "And, full offense, you've been a hell of a hurdle in that department."

He chuckled. "So what? We just decide to be friends and trade secrets? You run off and tell Dumbledore everything I say?"

"That's the last thing I'm doing," Rory said. She'd keep Draco on the right path, sure. But report on him to Dumbledore? Fat chance of that.

Draco seemed surprised by this and leaned forward across the table. "Aurora Lupin, are you not a fan of our lord and savior Albus Dumbledore?"

"If you want to talk about people with agendas, I think that man always has one. Harry gets on with him well and that's fine by me, but I try to have as little to do with him as possible," Rory said. "Not that I think Dumbledore would be particularly interested in your separation from Pansy and your declining Quidditch stats."

She grabbed her book from the table and opened it back.

"Why did you break up with Potter?" Draco asked. She looked up at him. "Genuinely."

It was probably the most sincere she'd ever seen Draco. Was she going to tell him to fuck off again, or did she take a risk? Did she give him a once-over with her inner eye to see if he was genuine or did she just go with her gut like a normal person did?

Rory shrugged. "It was a lot of things. He did kiss Cho once while we were dating, and I saw him do it. That was the nail in the coffin, but we'd been on thin ice for a while before that."

"And why'd you get back together?" he asked.

"Because I love Harry. And he didn't like Cho. He loves me. Because you're right, he does think cheating is beneath him and it ate away at him that he did that to me. And every second since we've gotten back together he's been honest about everything," she said.

"Everything?" Draco questioned.

"There's not a thing I don't know about Harry Potter," Rory said. "If that weren't true, Voldemort wouldn't have tried to kill me."

"Dangerous time to be Harry Potter's girlfriend," he said.

"Dangerous time to be Harry Potter's anything, I think," she said. "But he saw I was in danger and ran head first into death to save me. And he'd do it again."

"Idiot would do it for anyone," Draco scoffed, finally opening his book.

"Even you," Rory said. He looked up at her. "What happened with Pansy?"

Draco dropped his eyes back to his book and shrugged. "Ran its course. She was always on my case about something. I needed space. Didn't need someone in my ear telling me I'm not dealing with things properly."

Rory had heard that a thousand times from Matilda. She'd run Matilda off several times by not letting her handle her mother's murder in her own way.

"If you ever need an ear," Rory started, "you've got mine. Merlin knows you just heard enough of my bullshit to be owed a favor on top of actually showing up here."

Draco smirked, but it didn't feel malicious. It was real. He gave her a nod.

"Alright then, cousin," he said. "I'll keep you in mind."


The extra practice that Harry had with Ron now felt enjoyable rather than like a chore. Ron's confidence after their win had been just what he needed. But now Harry had other Ron-related problems he needed to deal with.

Being alone at the pitch was a godsend. Harry hadn't liked how he left things with Rory. He knew she wasn't angry with him, but he also knew that anything to do with Lavender and Ron was going to basically be a non-starter.

He loved that Rory loved Hermione so deeply. One of the reasons Rory liked Harry in the first place was because he was so close with Hermione after all. The fact that Rory had gotten close with Ron was an absolute bonus. And now that had all gone to hell because of Lavender.

Harry needed to talk to Ron about it. Really talk to him about it.

"Can we chat for a minute?" Harry asked as he put away his broom.

"What about?" Ron asked. "I told Lavender I'd meet her after practice."

Harry nodded. "It's about Lavender, actually."

"She's great isn't she?" Ron asked. He had the goofiest grin on his face. Harry could not help but be happy for him. But he had to have the conversation with Ron or Rory was going to strangle him.

"Fantastic," Harry said. "It's about Rory and Lavender to be more specific."

Ron frowned suddenly. "Now that you mention it, I have noticed some tension."

Harry let out a relieved sigh. Thank goodness, Ron was picking up on this.

"I don't think Rory likes her very much," Ron said.

"I just think, Lavender wants the two of them to get on well, and I don't know that Rory's interested," Harry explained.

"Well, do you think they should be friends?" Ron asked.

"I mean, it'd be nice, yeah. But I can't make Rory like her," Harry said.

Ron frowned again. "Yeah, but she could at least try. It's not like Rory is all sunshine either, after all."

Harry took offense to that because he knew Rory was delightful. If he'd been talking to anyone other than Ron right now he'd have some unkind words for them.

"I just think, since Lavender is going out of her way to be friendly with Rory, it might be nice if she tried as well," Ron said. "I mean, Lav is going to be around a lot more after all."

Harry sighed. He couldn't argue with that. Rory was definitely going out of her way to avoid Lavender. She'd opted to spend the morning with Draco Malfoy, alleged Deatheater, over Lavender. That was saying something.

"You're right. They should get along," Harry said. "Rory knows it'd be easier if they did. But Lavender made a dig at Rory about her dad last year. You know how she gets about him."

"Look," Ron said simply, "I'll talk to Lav about it, but I'm guessing Rory just blew it out of proportion or something. I know Lavender wouldn't mean it if she said something like that."

Any disparaging comments directed toward Lupin and his lycanthropy were immediate grounds for Rory to write you off.

"It's not just that," Harry went on it. "She's as close with Matilda as she is with Hermione these days."

"And what's that got to do with anything?" Ron asked not making eye contact with him. Why would he if they both felt this uncomfortable?

"She's still hung up on Slughorn's party. And that you probably hurt Hermione's feelings. And she thinks Lavender is being pretty dismissive about it as well," Harry said.

"Well, Hermione hasn't said a word to me about it," Ron said.

In fact, Harry was pretty sure Hermione and Ron hadn't spoken directly to each other outside of class since he started snogging Lavender, but that was beside the point.

"She's very loyal, you know. To all of us," Harry said.

"You mostly," Ron said.

"I'm her boyfriend. But she loves you. She made sure the two of you met Atlas before Matilda and Neville for Merlin's sake," Harry said.

"So I should just put up with her treating my girlfriend like crap?" Ron asked.

"She's not treating her like crap by avoiding her," Harry said. He took a deep breath. "The two of you are new together. She needs some time."

Ron looked unconvinced.

Harry wanted to scream. "Just let me talk to her before anyone jumps to any conclusions."

"Hard not to jump to conclusions when she decided she wanted to study with Draco Malfoy instead of paint her nails with Lavender," Ron said.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't get me started on that. But I'll talk to her. I promise."

He'd come into this conversation intending for Ron to tell Lavender to relax her determination for her and Rory to be friends. And now he was going back to the castle to tell Rory to try a little harder with Lavender instead.

Harry didn't need to be a seer to know that this was going to end badly.


Harry got back to his dorm afterward and collapsed into bed. He was going to take a nap, but there was a knock on the door. He sighed and climbed out of bed. He pulled it open and was surprised to see Rory standing there.

"Well, hello," he said.

"Not cross with me are you?" she asked.

"Not at all," he said beckoning her inside. She walked inside and made herself comfortable on the bed. "How was studying with Draco?"

"It was good," she said. "He can be pleasant when he wants to be."

"Would love to see that," he said.

Rory only looked slightly annoyed, but didn't argue the point with him.

"How was practice?" she asked as he climbed onto the bed next to her.

"Good, except," he said, started, preparing himself for the next part of this conversation, "we had a chat about Lavender."

She sighed. "I think she has it in her head that because you two are best friends that the two of us should be best friends, but she's kind of insufferable."

"I think Ron probably would like it if we could all hang out and get along," Harry said.

"I would love to do that for him, except his girlfriend is the most obnoxious human being alive," Rory said.

"Bit harsh," Harry said. She rolled onto her side and propped her head up on her elbow. She pouted at him. "You want me to tell him to break up with her?"

She rolled her eyes. "I assume that option is not actually on the table."

"Obviously," he said. She pouted again. Harry kissed her. This seemed to annoy her, even as she leaned in and kissed him again. He pushed his fingers back through her hair. "What do you want me to do? I can't make him not like her."

"Then make her stop bugging me," she said. "Hide me from her until they break up."

"They might not break up," Harry said. "What will you do then?"

"Do they really strike you as being long-term?" Rory asked.

Because Ron was his best friend, he was not going to admit aloud that the answer to the question was an unequivocal "no," not even to Rory.

"Do you think you could try to get along with her?" he asked.

Rory frowned at him. "She made a dig at me at the start of last year about how I might be crazy because you were crazy and Sirius Black was my dad and he was crazy and my dad is a werewolf so who knows how I might turn out. So maybe I'm not jumping at the opportunity to mend fences with her."

Harry laid down next to her. Rory scooted close to him, entwining her legs with his.

"I would never tell you what to do," Harry said.

"You'd better not," she said.

"But your contention with Lavender might be affecting how Ron and I get along," Harry said. "Do you think if Lavender apologized and I told Ron to have Lavender not come on so strong that you might make an effort?"

"I might be convinced," she said. "For you. Because if Ron ever gets his head out of his ass I want you to still be friend."

"I appreciate you," he said. She kissed him.

"Show me how much you appreciate me?" she whispered, kissing him again. She put her arms around his shoulders and pressed her body against his.

"Happily," he said. Harry had just slid his hands beneath her shirt when his bedroom door opened. He and Rory both sat up and saw Ron and Lavender at the door.

"Didn't mean to interrupt," Lavender said. She walked into the room and plopped down on Ron's bed. "There was no tie on the door."

"It's fine," Rory said. "Just came to have a nap after I got back from the library."

Ron and Lavender got settled with their books on his bed, giggling and whispering to each other. Rory laid with her back away from the couple.

"Are you alright?" Harry whispered.

She nodded. "Just interesting that we walked in on them last weekend and politely left the room and they have decided not to."

Harry's life was going to know no peace if Rory was keeping score.

"Rory," Lavender said. Rory sat up and looked over to her.

"What?" Rory asked.

"I was just telling Ron how excellent it would be if we went on a double date at the next Hogsmeade visit," Lavender said. "What do you think?"

Rory gave Harry a look that said "I think I would rather eat a mouthful of deadly nightshade than go on a double date."

But she looked to Lavender and nodded. "Sounds like a plan then." Rory laid back down and turned away from the couple.

Ron seemed beyond pleased, which made Harry happy.

"How was studying with Malfoy?" Lavender asked.

"Fine," Rory replied. Harry gave her a look. Did she have to be so flippant all of the time? Rory rolled her eyes and sat up. "It was good. I'm lucky to have him as a partner in Alchemy."

"I don't know how you can stand him," Lavender said. "He's been nothing but mean since we started school. "Especially last year."

Rory shrugged. "I guess his dad going to prison has really put his attitude into perspective."

"I don't even know how he's doing well in class. Sometimes he doesn't even show up," Lavender said.

"He's got a lot going on at home, obviously," Rory said. "Everyone handles a dark wizard being the background noise of their life differently."

"Well, you all certainly seem to handle it fine," Lavender replied resting her head on Ron's shoulder.

Rory smirked. He could tell she was itching to list off all of the ways she wasn't handling it well. But Rory managed to restrain herself for the most.

"I'm just saying, Draco can be the worst, but I think you tend to get a bit of perspective if Voldemort comes knocking on your door," Rory said.

Lavender shuddered. "Do you have to do that?"

"Do what?" Rory asked.

"Say the name?" Lavender asked. "Can't you just say You-Know-Who like everyone else?"

"No," Rory said simply. She climbed from the bed. "I'm gonna go back to my room and lie down for a bit. Can you come get me for lunch, Harry?"

"Of course," he said. She kissed his cheek. She gave a smile and wave to Lavender and Ron and walked out of the room.

Lavender harumphed. "I don't remember Rory ever being so difficult to get along with before." She met Ron's eye. "I thought she'd be happy for you. I thought the two of you were close."

Before Harry could explain that Rory was not being difficult on purpose, the door opened and Neville walked in. Lavender must've been feeling brave now that Rory wasn't in the room anymore because she jumped on the chance to talk to him about Rory.

"Neville, Rory tells you most things doesn't she?" Lavender asked.

"Uh, sure," he said. He met Harry's eyes but had no advice to offer.

"Do you know any reason she wouldn't like me?" Lavender asked.

Again, Neville looked to Harry for help as if Harry knew what to do in this situation.

"Well," Neville said looking to Lavender, "it might have something to do with what you said to her at the start of term last year. About her being crazy because of Sirius Black and her dad."

Lavender scoffed. "Oh, I didn't mean that. Obviously, she knows that."

"Obviously she doesn't," Neville said. "And she takes it quite personally when people talk badly about Professor Lupin. I mean, look at what happened last year when Umbridge did it."

"Are you saying I'm like Umbridge?" Lavender asked.

"Of course you're not," Neville replied. "But an apology might go a long way to helping her be… A bit warmer, I guess?"

"A bit?" Lavender asked. "Is there some other way I've affronted her?"

Aside from the whole debacle with Hermione, Rory also just found Lavender to be irritating in general. There was no cure for that.

"Ron's her friend," Neville said. "Maybe she just wants to make sure you're going to treat him well."

A light bulb seemed to go off in Ron's head. "You know, I wasn't all that nice to her when she started dating Harry."

Harry recalled the bit of friction between Rory and Ron at the beginning of their relationship, but it was very lighthearted. The only time they'd had any real trouble was at the ball when he'd found out that Rory knew Hermione was dating Viktor Krum.

But Harry was not going to mention that. If this was another stepping stone to getting everyone to not hate each other, he would take it.

"Oh! So you think she's just behaving this way because she's looking out for the way you looked out for Harry?" Lavender asked.

She wasn't. At this point, it was kind of a miracle that Rory was still being kind to Ron.

"I'd just start with the apology, Lavender," Neville said. "It's rare that any of us knows what's going on in her head."


Rory stuck close to Hermione for the rest of the day and was able to avoid conversing with Lavender further, though it meant she didn't see much of Harry the rest of the day either.

Monday morning, she sat down to breakfast with Harry, blessedly alone, but she knew it wouldn't last.

"Don't run off when Lavender gets here," Harry said. Rory groaned.

"I agreed to go on a double date with them next weekend, isn't that enough?" Rory asked.

"She thinks you're icing her out because you're looking out for Ron," Harry said.

Rory scoffed. "As if I don't have words for him as well."

"I know," Harry said. "But I love you. You said you'd try."

"I will," she huffed.

"You have plans this afternoon?" Harry asked.

"I'm meeting up with Atlas and Tonks after classes, but that's it," she said. "Can't wait for them both to yell at me."

Rory was trying to keep Atlas as far away from her bullshit as possible, but her own antics with regard to the Servants of Pythia left her with a lot to fill. Lots of people were asking why she'd been to the Ministry on Friday. There'd been a whole write-up about in The Prophet on Sunday. No doubt Witch Weekly would run their own story about it today. Rory told everyone it was routine, but she felt like she could be honest with Atlas about it. He was her brother after all.

"Can I steal you away after dinner?" he asked.

Rory raised an eyebrow. "For what"

Harry chuckled. "For something purely academic. And no, that is not a euphemism for anything. You'll have to keep knickers on tonight."

She chuckled. "That's fine. What did you need help with?"

"Nothing," Harry said with a shake of his head. "Just need your wand and your beautiful face and come to our empty classroom at eight o'clock."

Their empty classroom, where he'd asked her out the first time, the last empty classroom where they'd had quite a nice evening snogging.

"Okay," Rory said dubiously.

"I mean it about being completely academic," he said. "Don't show up in a negligee or something because you'll be embarrassed."

"I got it," Rory laughed. She kissed him. "Also, do you think I own a negligee? The sexiest pieces of clothing I own are a pair of too-small pajama shorts and an ABBA crop top."

"Well don't wear those tonight. This is not a sexy event," he said. "But if you're interested in a sexy event, I can pen one in after lunch."

Rory filled a mug with coffee and shook her head. "Working on an essay with Hermione after lunch, for Ancient Runes."

Harry huffed. "Guess I have no excuse not to work on my potions essay."

Just as she was thinking up a flirtatious remark about how he should be doing his studying, she spotted Ron and Lavender walk into the Great Hall.

Rory took a deep breath. "I agreed to a double date. Isn't that enough?"

Harry kissed her cheek. "I appreciate you."

"So you say," she said.

"If you want to ditch Hermione, I can pen a show of appreciation in after lunch," he teased.

She laughed and kissed him again as Ron and Lavender joined them.

"You two are in a good mood for a Monday morning," Lavender said.

Rory shrugged. "Today just has good energy. For me anyway, though I reckon if anything bad were going to happen to a friend or classmate it might ruin my day as well, so I expect everyone else will have a fairly uneventful day as well."

Lavender brightened, as Rory knew she would at the vaguest mention of predicting the future.

"Do you do it constantly?" Lavender asked. "Just know things? Like, is your inner eye always working?"

The answer to that was an unfortunate yes. The good news was that she was able to make a lot of it background noise now.

"Something like that," Rory said. "It's not as impressive as you think it is."

"But isn't it nice to always know what to expect?" she asked.

"I don't always know what to expect. Usually, I just know how things are going to make me feel," Rory said. "Good feeling, bad feeling, fear, anger, danger. The future is always changing. People aren't static so events aren't either. Small things I can see. Big things not so much."

Lavender was hanging on her every word.

"Wow," she said. She straightened up a bit and seemed tentative. Rory didn't always know immediately where a conversation was going to when she talked to people, but she knew immediately what was about to come out of Lavender's mouth.

"I'm not going to talk about the Servants of Pythia," Rory said.

Lavender's face went red. "I didn't—."

"You were going to ask," Rory said. "So I'm just telling you, that I don't talk about it. It's a small thing. And I saw it. And now you know not to ask me about it again."

Lavender nodded. "I won't."


As instructed, Rory walked to the empty classroom to meet Harry after classes were over. He was there, as promised, looking through his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook.

Rory chuckled. "Really trying to sell that this is academic and not snogging."

Harry was startled but he smiled at her. "Still doubting me, then?"

Rory closed the door and walked over to him. "So what am I doing here?"

"Private lessons," he said. Rory was more dubious than ever. "Don't look at me like that. I'm serious. I wanted to work with you on something."

"What?" she asked.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," he said. Rory sat on the desk with him.

"You are aware that I'm not taking that class, right?" she asked.

"Which is exactly why I want to work with you on it," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I said I would," Harry said. "You've got a whole host of people in your corner who are excellent at this kind of thing, but you want to be able to take care of yourself. So, let me teach you. If that's the only way I can help, then let me do that for you."

He gently took her hand before she could answer. He squeezed it gently. Rory didn't know why she was so apprehensive about this. Harry was an excellent teacher and he was excellent at Defense Against the Dark Arts. She felt safer with him than anyone else. He was the perfect person to do this. And yet she still felt her pulse quickening and her chest tightening.

Rory got to her feet and stepped away from the desk.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she said. Even the idea of doing this again was starting to overwhelm her.

"There's nothing wrong with you," Harry said.

"Then why are you fine?" she asked. "How come you can keep going to class and don't get stressed out by the idea of someone pointing their wand at you?"

"Maybe you don't remember, Fish, but after I saw Cedric die last year I was not the most fun person to be around," he said. He got up from the desk and put his hands around her waist.

"Am I not fun to be around now?" she asked.

Harry chuckled. "You're still plenty fun. It's the dangerous bits of talking the Servants of Pythia that's troubling."

"Harry, I want—"

"I know you want to learn more about what you can do, and I know you want to know more about them and what they know—"

She turned around to face him, tears in her eyes. "What if they know how to keep—"

"I know," he said. He brought his hands up and cradled her face. "You don't want him in your head anymore. And you're right. Maybe they can teach you how to do that. But—" Rory opened her mouth to argue again, but Harry shook his head. "I don't want you running off into a cult thinking that it's the best option when you've always been capable on your own."

"But Voldemort—."

"Fuck Voldemort," Harry said. Rory didn't know why she was startled by him saying this, it was very much something Harry would say, but it was surprising in this context. "If he knows what's good for him he's not going anywhere near your head or mine. And he'll be doubly in trouble if he goes anywhere near you."

"You can't protect me all the time, Harry," Rory said.

"I know," he said. "And that's why I want to teach you. And if it's too much to try it today, we can read about defending yourself. And we can keep trying until you feel safe enough. We can even go down to the Room of Requirement and practice on one of the dummies we used the DA. But I'm not going to quit. Not until you start feeling safe again."

He wiped the tears from her face and kissed her.

"I love you," she said.

"We don't have to do this tonight," he said. Rory nodded. "But I want—"

"We can try again," Rory said, tears streaming down her face. "Maybe if I mentally prepare myself a bit more. If it's just you… Maybe it'll be better."

"I'm with you," Harry said. "Whatever it takes."