In the wake of the Gryffindor Quidditch victory, Rose was hoping that the fervor over the game might die down for a bit. Instead, the team immediately began to prepare for the final match of the season, which wouldn't be played until May. They had two months to prepare, but Cameron insisted that this was no time to lighten up on practices and continued to work the team as hard as ever.

Rose was privy to one of their post-practice meetings in the week following their victory. She had been waiting up in the common room for Albus and James to return, having promised to work on Transfiguration homework with Albus before turning in for the night. Having gotten surprisingly bored with the latest book she had thought she would enjoy, she had actually begun it on her own and was more than halfway through before the team returned.

"I think you should talk to McGonagall," said Dominique as she entered the common room. "James actually has a good point."

"For once," said Louis with a short laugh.

"Thank you," said James proudly. Patricia Longgrass was holding his hand, and he seemed to be leaning slightly to accommodate the height difference. "I'm just saying, if the castle keeps freaking out like this, the grounds might be next."

"I'll ask her," said Cameron with a sigh, "but I don't know if she'll allow it."

Albus came to sit with Rose, making a face at his Transfiguration homework, which she had lay out one one of the study tables.

"What's going on?" asked Rose.

"James wants us to be able to keep our brooms in the castle," explained Albus. "With everything going on, he's worried they could get lost or something out there."

"Or sabotaged," added James as he sat, Patricia still by his side.

"Hello Rose," said Patricia with a smile. Rose smiled back, still unsure what to make of the older girl.

"Think about it," continued James. "With the castle acting up like this, the other teams could break into the broom shed, mess with our brooms, and then blame it all on whatever's messing with Hogwarts. No one would trace it back to them! Can't take that chance."

"We'll see if McGonagall goes for it," said Albus dubiously.

But to his great surprise, Professor McGonagall was in strong agreement with James. After Cameron approached her, she met with the captains of all four house teams and instructed them that they were to keep all of their team brooms in their dormitories for the time being.

This was clearly too much of a temptation for some people. And by some people, Rose meant James and Louis. As soon as Cameron and Dominique were out of the common room on the first night after bringing their brooms inside, James and Louis had both taken to the air.

"James," cried Rose as he turned precariously close to her head. "There's not enough-"

She didn't even have enough time to finish warning him before he collided with Louis, who had turned on the other side of the common room. Both boys tumbled to the ground, which lacked the softening charms of the Quidditch pitch. Louis groaned as he sat up, and James held his shoulder, wincing.

"Room," finished Rose with a sigh. "There's not enough room."

Lysander laughed, shaking his head as Patricia rushed forward, making sure that James wasn't seriously injured. Neither boy was, but both brought their brooms back to their rooms, wearing matching embarrassed expressions.

The very next day saw Louis taking a different approach to the situation. According to what Rose was told over dinner that evening, he had decided that he would make much better time arriving to his classes if he rode his broom instead of walking. Professor Slughorn had been entirely unamused, but what Rose found most remarkable was that there was not an actual Hogwarts rule forbidding riding ones broom through the dungeons.

"So he couldn't give me a detention," said Louis proudly, "and, as a bonus, I have a new rule named after me. It's my legacy."

"You should be very proud," said Rose, rolling her eyes.

And though James had decided to leave his broom in the relative safety of his dorm room, she didn't think that his behavior was much better than Louis. Patricia Longgrass was still following him around- and though Rose had originally thought she resembled a puppy, she was beginning to have her doubts.

"I mean, she's two years older," Rose told Lysander as they sat in the common room. Patricia was fawning over James again, playing with his hair as he talked to his friends and trailing her fingers down the sides of his face. It was actually quite disturbing to watch. "Isn't that weird?"

"She's pretty," said Lysander with a shrug, "and he is James Potter. That was bound to catch up with him eventually. Remember the Yule Ball?"

Albus and James had both gone with older girls- a pair of sisters, actually, who were eager to be on the arms of the famous Harry Potter's sons.

"That was different," objected Rose, "that wasn't- oh, come on."

James had abandoned his conversation to return to snogging Patricia. Rose wrinkled her nose in distaste and returned to her textbook. She had no need to watch that.

"Let him have his fun," said Lysander flippantly. "It's not like he's hurting anyone."

From the way Rose had seen Patricia looking at him, however, she wasn't quite convinced of that. As much as Lysander seemed to believe that Patricia was only after one of the famous Potter boys, Rose thought it possible that she genuinely liked James. What an odd thought.

But it only took another week for James to begin to grow tired of his ever-present female companion. Things with Cameron and Dominique had returned to normal, and he seemed much less interested in Patricia after realizing that things were heading in a serious direction.

"She keeps nattering me about my birthday," he confessed to his friends one night, squinting at his Potions essay. "She thinks she's supposed to get me something."

"What did you tell her?" asked Albus. He had convinced Rose to face him in Wizard's Chess, which she now was now regretting. He had somehow found time to improve even while balancing schoolwork and Quidditch practice. At least the game would be over soon.

"Nothing," said James with a shrug. "I said I didn't get hung up on that sort of thing."

"Bet she loved that," muttered Lysander.

"She doesn't need to," said James. "This whole thing has gone on long enough."

"Finally ready to call it quits?" asked Rose, feeling smug. But James snorted.

"End it? Not a chance. Not when she-"

"Don't want to know!" cried Rose, raising her hands in defeat.

James shrugged, clearly undisturbed.

As always, Rose was well prepared for James' birthday. She prided herself on the neat list of names and dates kept in the front of her Charms notebook. She hadn't yet found a charm suitable for alerting her when it was coming time to order a present for one of her many cousins, but she always glanced over the list as she went to look at her notes. She had thought of the perfect gift for James weeks earlier and sent off for it by owl post. No one bothered asking her what she received in the post anymore- not since she had begun to special order so many novels.

She presented her gift to James over lunch on March eighteenth. He frowned at the wrapped package and gave it a swift knock, as if expecting the rectangular box to cry out, "Why yes, I am indeed a book!"

"It's not a book," said Rose, rolling her eyes. Grinning, James tore the paper open eagerly, revealing the box of charmed chess pieces.

"It's- a chess set?" said James, his brow wrinkling in confusion. "Thanks, Rosie."

"They're charmed to turn into sweets after you win a game with them," she explained, watching as his eyes lit with understanding. "You already have a chess set, silly."

James looked between Albus and Lysander, eyes narrowing slightly as he assessed them. Having delivered her gift, Rose wanted no part in choosing whom he would wage war against.

As Rose had suspected, Patricia had purchased James a gift, even though he had allegedly become quite adamant about her just forgetting the entire affair. To James' further embarrassment, she had selected a pair of cuff links, which he just stared at that night in the common room.

"They're- very nice," he said uncertainly, looking down at the small box in his hand. "What do they do?"

"Do?" asked Patricia. "They're cuff links. You wear them with your dress robes."

"But when am I gonna wear those?" asked James, running a hand through his messy hair and still staring at the small gold triangles in his palm.

"I don't know, maybe we'll go somewhere nice this summer and you'll need a set."

James looked at her like she had suddenly sprouted an extra set of eyes, but Patricia didn't seem to notice. She just smiled and sat on the arm of his chair, leaning over until their bodies were touching.

"He can't break up with her now," mumbled Albus, shaking his head. "Missed his chance."

"After the Quidditch season?" guessed Rose.

"Oh, absolutely," agreed Albus.

Rose was looking forward to the joint practical Astronomy lesson, which was to be held with all of the third year students at once. It had begun to seem like it was not going to take place, since each Friday of March had been accompanied by thick fog that blocked the night sky from their view. However, on the twenty-second, Professor McGonagall announced that the skies would be clear that evening and all third years would be expected to attend to receive full marks.

"It's so late," complained Albus, dragging his feet as Rose waited for him to be ready to leave that evening.

"You're up later than this all the time," said Rose sternly, "so stop complaining. We need to be there so we can start right at midnight or our charts won't be accurate."

"Merlin forbid," muttered Albus. "Rose, you'd know if anyone would. Is there a reason we need to have class at midnight? Couldn't it be… three hours earlier or something? It's plenty dark out by then."

Rose shrugged, but continued thinking on the question as they walked. It did seem rather odd, but she had just accepted it as the way things were done. In all honesty, she felt the same way as Albus and would much rather be curled up with one of her books as she prepared to sleep. Midnight was awfully late to be thinking clearly.

Scorpius was waiting for them at the base of the Astronomy tower, pretending to read one of his scrolls of notes. (Rose could always tell the difference between someone who was pretending to read and someone who was faking.) He shared in Albus' grumbling as they ascended the winding stairs that led them outside, where many of the other third years were already stationed.

Their assignment was not difficult, even by Albus' current grouchy standards. Professor Rinita did not object to the students chatting, as long as the work got done before the end of the session, which left Rose free to talk with Tia while Albus continued complaining to Scorpius about the late hour.

"So I've been watching Professor Evariste," said Tia conspiratorially. "In a completely non-creepy way, of course."

"Of course," laughed Rose. "First you send secret love letters to the other girls, now you're stalking one of our professors?"

"Not stalking!" said Tia. "And the girls thought it was funny by the time we were all sitting in Madame Puttifoot's together. We bonded. It was great. Now about Evariste-"

"You mean how he's with that squib of his?" said Odessa Blackwell from a few spots down. Her voice carried and a few other students turned towards their conversation. Professor Rinita, helping one of the Ravenclaws focus his scope, did not seem to hear.

"Her name is Clare," said Tia sharply, "and so what if she's a squib? She probably knows more about magic than you do."

Odessa snorted and adjusted the thick chain around her neck. She had taken to wearing the gaudy necklace that her sister gave her to all of their lessons, even the excruciatingly late ones. When Professor Evariste had asked about the piece during one of his classes, Odessa had smiled sweetly and claimed that it was a family heirloom.

"But it's not like she can do any spells," said Odessa, wrinkling her nose. "What does it matter if she's reading all our books? Let her have them for all I care. All the reading in the world won't make her a real witch."

"Anyway," said Tia pointedly, turning back to Rose, "what I was going to say was that he seems to be rather keen on her, and I think it's adorable. I hope she stays on in the library."

Odessa followed up with a comment about that being the only useful place for someone like Clare, which both Rose and Tia ignored.

"That would be great," said Rose. "I miss Madam Abbott, but Briar says that she's happier living in the village. Mum told me that they're looking into purchasing one of the pubs once Adella comes to school next year."

"Your cousin doesn't seem so fond of Clare," said Odessa, saying the woman's name with a slight sneer.

"You'll have to be more specific," said Rose icily. "If you haven't noticed, I happen to have an endless supply of cousins to whom you might be referring."

She wondered briefly why Odessa was so interested in bringing the conversation back around to the new librarian. She seemed to take some level of personal offense to the fact that Clare didn't have magic. Given the impression she received from Odessa's older sister during her first year, Rose supposed she shouldn't be so surprised. Perhaps it was a family attitude.

"I mean Lily," drawled Odessa, "obviously. Which of your other cousins would I ever have reason to speak to?"

"You've found plenty of reason to speak to the two of us," pointed out Tia with a falsely bright smile, "so perhaps you've decided to turn over a new leaf with the entire extended Weasley clan. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Rose rolled her eyes at the bickering and turned back to her work. She was itching to ask more questions about what Odessa meant and what exactly Lily had said, but she didn't want to egg the girl on any more. Let her have her stupid opinions, Rose thought. I don't need to listen to them.

Still, as Rose lay in bed a few hours later, she couldn't stop thinking about what Odessa had been implying. While Rose had been a bit surprised with how Lily was sorted, she kept in mind the fact that one of her best friends was in Slytherin, and he wasn't a total prat. It wasn't like being in Slytherin meant that you had to believe what the more Dark-leaning families did— there were plenty of students who held different beliefs, which her parents had taught her at a young age. It had been important to them that their children enter school without the same sort of prejudices that her father had held.

Lily had been raised in the same way. Rose knew that Uncle Harry made a point to tell his children about the Slytherins who had played an important role in the last war, especially the man whose name Albus bore as part of his. Lily had always been her brothers' sneaky counterpart; while James was playing tricks out in the open, Lily preferred subtlety.

But the Potters had also raised their children to respect everyone, no matter their blood status or magical ability. Perhaps Odessa was exaggerating the situation, thought Rose as sleep began to take her. Maybe Lily didn't like her for some other reason. It probably had nothing to do with her being a Squib.

Probably.