The train ride to Hogwarts was definitely one of my favourite aspects about the whole Hogwarts experience, especially after a summer had gone by. Mostly it was because of all the physical changes that people had gone through: longer hair, shorter hair, taller, deeper voices, and just the sheer happiness of friends reconnecting after time spent away.

"Jay! Kia!" I yelled through the throngs of people in the narrow corridor of the train, pushing students out of my way and leap frogging over their trunks. I wound one arm around each of their shoulders and pulled them in close for a hug. They were sisters in my house now in Fifth and Sixth Year, and two of the chasers on my Quidditch team. "My two favourite Capricorns. You both are looking fantastic. How was the break?"

"We're not Capricorns," Kia muttered, face still mashed into my collarbone.

Jay, the younger one, was probably the feistiest girl you'd ever meet and gave me a hug that threatened to pop my ribs, even though I was essentially still suffocating her. "Rose I can do 15 pullups now!"

Kia pulled her face away from my armpit so she could talk. "And she won't shut up about it. Break was good though. For the most part." Her voice became resigned. "Jay can run farther than me, faster than me, and also do more pull ups than me. So there's that."

I couldn't help but grin. "Awh, KitKat. Don't worry. Our first few practices back will get you right back in peak condition."

Kia groaned (obviously having vivid memories of my exciting practices from the last two years) while Jay clapped her hands with a somewhat evil grin that seemed to say 'bring it on.' The two were polar opposites sometimes. Looked basically identical with their glossy brown hair, similar facial structures, and brown eyes, but Jay was on a permanent cheering charm while Kia had been smacked by a reality check at a young age.

My next victim was Tamook, sitting in a carriage near the beginning of the train that I had completely overlooked while I was stalking the sisters. He was a Beater last year with me when he was in First Year. Most of the school considered it risky that I picked him, but he showed amazing potential for someone so young. What was even crazier was that he was a muggleborn and took to flying like a moth to a light. He had played baseball growing up – so his accuracy and precision with using a bat were well developed. Last year had put a lot more pressure on me to make sure I could cover our positions. Of course, it was risky putting an 11 year old on a Quidditch team, but I was confident enough in my own abilities as a Beater, and the rest of my team's abilities to help teach him and keep him safe (as safe as a Beater could be during a full-scale match).

He was sitting with two of his Slytherin friends and a Gryffindor. I invited myself into the compartment with a poorly-timed avalanche of sneezes and squeezed in between Tamook and Cintia, the sole Gryffindor, after my sinuses had calmed down. I had an expressed interest in Tamook so all his friends were well acquainted with me (especially because Jon the history whiz helped me with History homework). They all greeted me, and then Hannah pulled out her knitting to show me, to which I told her about Hugo's lumpy dinosaur project over the summer. She was a much better knitter than Hugo.

"So how was the summer?" I asked Tamook after we had discussed knitting and Fortescue the calico cat (Cintia's new kitten who had jumped on my lap). "Get in some training?"

He had certainly grown since last year – not by puberty's standards that I was expecting in two years, but a notable five or more centimeters.

"Yes. Lots of baseball with friends. And eating vegetables. Protein. Carbs. Just like you said. It was good."

I ruffled his wiry black hair and he made a face at me. I basically treated him like my little brother, and he already had two older siblings, to which he reminded me about all the time as a very obvious hint (I ignored it). "Glad to hear! Wait until you see some of the new drills I'm pulling out this year. The other Houses won't know what hit them" I paused. Waiting to see if he caught on. Hannah and Jon were the only ones who smiled. "… Pun intended Tamook … It's okay to laugh if your Captain is being ridiculous ..."

He was a serious lad, and needed a reminder that I wasn't a dictator. Even if I yelled sometimes during games or practice.

The last member of the team wasn't difficult to find. I followed the loud noises of laughter from about midway down the train. I found Jimmy-boy amidst a large group of Fifth Years like him. He had brown skin and thick, straight black hair that reached his shoulders. He was as languid about his sexuality as a fifteen year old could be, flirting with boys, girls, and grumpy cats. He spoke five languages and could swear in eight. Which was slightly annoying because he swore all the time in practice (I thought – though I couldn't really get mad at him because I wasn't entirely sure it actually was swearing. I could only speak English, French, and a splattering of Troll when I was angry). I wasn't sure what he thought of me as a Captain. Regardless of his flimsy mood, I found he seemed to have a grudging respect for me - which was all I cared about.

His group had an open door policy with the train carriage, so I leaned against the door frame watching him interact. He was the centre of attention, as usual, with an arm around two girls in his year and everyone turned towards him. He eventually noticed me standing there.

"Hey Captain! Long time no see."

"Jimmy-boy, I see you survived Croatia and all the beautiful beaches. What did you get up to there?"

"Oh, you know. Picking up babes." The girl beside him elbowed his stomach. I just gave him a look, like 'Ha ha you're so funny. Not. So seriously, what did you get up to because you are sometimes insufferable and I don't want to give you pushups only an hour into the train ride.'

"I'm kidding Captain," he continued. "I went jogging in the mornings, was sure to do 100 push-ups and sit-ups each night. I ate all my broccoli and cauliflower, and I avoided pizza on Wednesdays."

A few of his friends snickered at that. I rolled my eyes. "Alright Jimmy-boy. We'll see you on the pitch then and I hope you're prepared. We're doing a conditioning camp again before tryouts. Every time I lap you it's 20 burpees."

He groaned so loudly that I was sure they could hear it back in London. "Awwwh Captain. Why do Hufflepuffs always have to be so gung-ho about training right off the bat?"

I raised my eyebrow and grinned. He was fun to rile up a little. "It's actually for all the Houses this year. I've been in contact with the other Captains and we're going to whip all interested players in shape before tryouts. So, not just me this year, lucky you. You'll have three times the fun."

Last year I set up a conditioning camp for any players in my House that were interested in trying out for Quidditch during the first week of school. They didn't have to do the camp to come to the actual tryouts and make the team, but it was highly recommended to the point where I had to drag Jimmy-boy down to the pitch by his ear to get him to show up. It was my personal project to get people start exercising, right off the bat, because regardless of how many people tried to stay in shape over the summer, nobody ever really put any effort into it and everyone suffered at the real tryouts. There was a few interested Slytherin and Ravenclaw players that I let join last year in the spirit of the game, so this year I decided to collaborate with the other Captains to do a school wide conditioning camp.

Jimmy-boy finally unwrapped his arms from the girls beside him as he groaned loudly again. "You kill me sometimes Cap'," he said. "I might as well start doing burpees now, because it's going to be bad." Of the whole team from last year, Jimmy-boy would be the one who would really benefit from my camp since he always did diddly-squat in the summers. He was cleverly lazy – and found loopholes to get out of tasks. He was the Keeper for our team and was excellent at what he did, but suffered from never knowing when to shut up. Nonetheless he was the silly-putty to our party, and usually provided the needed comic relief (though I would never, ever, ever admit it to him). My team meshed well and team dynamics and overall mentality, to me, could make or break a team more than physical fitness and skill.

"That's the spirit! Your enthusiasm is appreciated," I said while only being slightly sarcastic. I pointed to a small blonde girl sitting on the floor by the window. She was the Ravenclaw seeker. "Jasmine will be joining you so you both can suffer together."

Jasmine was entirely too serious for Jimmy-boy and I, and just flipped the page of the magazine she was reading without acknowledging what I said.

Jimmy-boy put his hand on his heart and looked up at the roof. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood. Want to play a round of Snapdragon? I need to beat you at something to boost my ego before you whoop my arse in the camp."

I accepted and his crew made room for me on the seats. I tended to lose more than win at card games because of my short attention span and nonchalance about the rules, but I enjoyed the innocent and fun nature of Jimmy-boy and all his friends. I did end up losing every game I played, to which I didn't care because it did make Jimmy-boy supremely happy. However, losing meant that my fingers were constantly being bitten by the little snapdragons and they were now covered in little red bite marks that would sting for a few hours. A small price to pay, I thought.

During the game, this weird feeling was growing inside me, ballooning larger and larger and threatening to take over my body. It was what laid dormant all summer: just watered down embers instead of the current bonfire. It was simply happiness – this state of being in a place I was comfortable, of doing what I loved, of joking and chatting with my teammates. I always associated Hogwarts with the negatives of schoolwork, and long nights cursing in the libraries wishing I wasn't there, but I had forgotten this part of Hogwarts. Belonging to a group that I was passionate about. Learning from them, joking with them, and teaching them. Trying to foster positive growth in my players in my position of authority – and failing about half the time with Jimmy-boy.

Contrary to all previous thoughts and conversations I was kind of glad I was heading back to Hogwarts, and of course that thought made me want to go find Scorpius to share my revelations.

After my fingers had more tiny bite marks than freckles I knew it was time to make my leave-way. We were a few hours into the train ride and when I re-entered the train corridor it was empty now. Jimmy-boy rounded out my returning players this year. I was looking for a Chaser and a Seeker – not that any of my returning players just got their spot handed to them on a platter. They still had to prove they were the best and remake the team. But I was confident in them all.

The happy feeling in my chest continued to grow at the thoughts of Quidditch this year. My fantastic team were all here. Two new players. There were a few potentials last year that I hoped would try out again.

I wandered through the corridor of the train, observing all the friends and cliques of Hogwarts, waving to the odd person, blowing a kiss here, tripping on a carpet design there, and shooting a thumbs up to everyone who didn't look away. I passed Hugo and Lily in a compartment together with a few of their friends. Lily finally looked like she had returned to earth from her weird philosophical fit. She had a guitar out and was strumming on it. Normal Lily was fantastic and excellent at playing guitar.

Scorpius was near the back where almost all the Seventh Years were sitting. I just really wanted to talk to him and tell him that he was right about school, so I didn't think much of it when I opened the door to him sitting with his friends; namely one Arjun, Cricket, and Gertie. Cricket had been Cricket for so long, I couldn't even remember his real name. Even the professors called him that. He was the first who reacted (besides the stunned looks on Arjun and Gertie). His wand whipped out and he shot some sort of air blasting spell at me that completely knocked me back and off my feet. I hit the doorframe hard with my back and fell to the floor.

"Cricket!" Scorpius yelped. "Merlin's pants!"

Gertie was quick to put up a Protego between us, and Scorpius was already up and standing in front of me, bending down as I groaned and straightened my back, my legs stretched out limp on the floor in front of me. If I wasn't so tough I would have been split in half.

"Nice to see you as well, Cricket," I said with a strained voice. "You certainly have a unique way of welcoming people." Scorpius put his hand out and I took it. He helped me up to the amazed eyes of everyone. Cricket still had his wand out.

"What's happening?" Gertie said slowly. "Why is her wand not out, and why are you willingly touching her?" It wasn't like Gertie and I were on a bad page at all. She was the Slytherin Quidditch captain and we had this weird frenemy relationship that revolved around always pairing up for classes together, since we both understood the demands of Quidditch and could work around it, involved never speaking of Scorpius or being near him together, since that was usually hazardous for me or him, and involved staying in contact during the summer discussing drills, plays, and most recently the conditioning camp.

"Oh, so the gossip hasn't reached everyone yet from Hamideh and Tally. Surprising indeed," I said. My body check with the doorframe seemed to have loosened the elastic from my hair judging from the large volume of it poofing out around my face. I sat painfully on the empty seat next to Gertie and redid it as Scorpius stood standing at attention, still wary, in front of me.

"We're friends now," Scorpius said. "Summer shenanigans is the short end of it."

"Oh fuck off. You can't trust Weasley. You turn your back on her and then get stabbed. Her wand is probably up her sleeve right now."

"You make me sound so nefarious, Cricket. It's different, I like it." Scorpius rubbed his temple. He was sort of used to me now. "But it's not like I even have my wand on me. It's either in my trunk, or with Hugo, or at home still. So I'm entirely defenseless, besides my own two fists and feet though of course."

Gertie's eyebrows were hidden under her bangs, they were so high up. Apparently she wasn't having any of this. She and I had been in a stasis every year before this, so this new friendship between me and her best friend would probably cause some chaos into the natural order of things. "Well Rose. I suppose I will see you at our meeting in fifteen minutes then." She stood up, skirted past me like I might reach out and bite her, and then left the train compartment with a quick 'what the hell' glance at Scorpius.

"Well I didn't mean to scare you," I said to the air since Gertie was long down the corridor. Scorpius still apparently had a headache coming. But then Cricket got up without a word, frowning the whole time, and also left the vicinity. "Man, I didn't realise I had a contagious disease," I said to Scorpius and Arjun. "I'm sorry for clearing your compartment."

"They'll be back," said Scorpius. "Just a lot to take in at once – considering that on the train coming home last year I basically damned you to hell with my angry spiels."

Now that my safety wasn't as much a concern, Scorpius sat down across from me in some very attractive black jeans and a light green button up. For the first time we didn't match since I was in a beat up pair of blue trousers and a brown shirt. "Lovely to hear that. I know you always talk about my best side." I fluffed my ponytail in jest and was grinning at Scorpius. "My train ride back last year involved me burning my assignments in the loo. We differ largely in our releases apparently."

Arjun, who'd been watching us both in silence and suspicion snorted then. "What the hell happened this summer? This is surreal."

Scorpius and I both looked at each other. "Well," I started, "it was a stubby man with a megalomammoth enemy who – "

Scorpius cut me off. "It was a Quidditch game were Rose had been knocked out in a riot and I helped her back to her tent as she was entirely disposed of."

I scoffed. "I would have been fine to make my way back eventually."

"Sure," he said with a lot of skepticism, and continued, "But then we met up for lunch after that, Rose got in another situation by getting stuck in a muggle chimney. More bonding there. And then we met up a few other times as well. It was very enjoyable." His voice took on a lilt with the last sentence and my face went red.

I scowled and muttered, "Not the muggle chimney part."

Scorpius rubbed his temples again and Arjun looked very suspicious – head going quickly back and forth between us. "Well, I can already tell this year is going to be interesting. Nonetheless, I'll go find the other two."

And then it was just Scorpius and I. I looked at him. "I'm so sorry for clearing the room out. I honestly only wanted to tell you that maybe I was a little bit excited for school this year – but only the Quidditch aspect of it. Not the school, school aspect."

"That's happy news! This year won't be as ominous then. But don't worry about my friends. You didn't clear them out. I asked them all to leave."

I gave him a funny look. "They clearly all left in different states of anger and confusion only after I came in."

"Well, yes. But I asked them to leave for a few minutes."

"How could you? You didn't know I was going to randomly stop in for the first time ever in Hogwarts train history."

He got a sneaky grin on his face. "I didn't. I told them while you were in here. Anyway, how's your back? You're fidgeting an awful lot."

I sat up straighter and arched it. It cracked in a few places. "Yeaah. I don't know. It'll just bruise – I'll be fine. Slightly uncomfortable for right now though. Conditioning camp is going to be fun tomorrow evening." Merlin, everything was clicking in my back; even my shoulder blades as I rotated them.

Scorpius stood up and started rooting around in some luggage above the seats and I did my best to not look like I was checking him out. He did look very handsome today. "Funny enough, I brought bruise balm to school for the first time in my life. How weird that it would already come in handy."

"It's not weird when it's me!"

He rooted around for a few more minutes before turning back around and admitting defeat. "Maybe it's in my trunk at the back of the train. I'll find it when we get to school."

"I shall hunt you down in the Slytherin Common Room. But there's no rush. I have had bruises before you know. It's all temporary pain."

"Unnecessary temporary pain. I'll get Cricket to apologise. He usually acts first and thinks later."

I shrugged. "I'm sure he'll warm to me soon. I'm irresistible," I said with a flourish of my hand while fluttering my eyes at him. He gave me a weird look so my flirting had clearly, obviously failed.

His hair was combed nicely for the first day of school except for one piece sticking up in the back. It looked a little too neat for my liking and I wanted nothing more than to run my fingers through it again and feel how soft it was. His lips quirked up as if he could read my thoughts and my face suddenly felt like it wanted to burn off. We were alone in a train compartment. That thought suddenly hit me like a tonne of bricks and I played with the loose thread in my trousers as I peered out the window instead of looking at his face. But he wasn't saying anything so I snuck a glance over. He was staring intently at me.

"What?" I said a bit defensively.

"You really are," he said, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knee and his chin on his hands, his eyes, his beautiful eyes, gazing at me as if I were the last pumpkin pastry on the table.

"Are what?"

"Irrestistible."

"Eew," I said and scrunched my face. "Don't stroke my ego. I'm really not at all. I mean, I haven't washed these jeans in about four weeks. And this shirt is third hand. Not to mention this bush on my head today!" I gestured to my annoying hair before resuming pulling the loose thread on my trousers again. And oh Merlin. Why would I tell him all that? For the first time since the infamous Quidditch League Cup game I was worried my face would be permanently stained red.

"Four weeks is nothing. I once wore a shirt for 65 days straight without washing it to annoy my parents. They stopped complaining after a month and a half."

"Well … that certainly beats me. What were you protesting?"

"Muggle clothing. It's much more practical than robes all the time. This, of course, was when I was about eight or nine."

"Ha. I'm sure they appreciated your stance."

He gave me a knowing look and bobbed his head on his hands, looking out the window to the rolling countryside thick with trees. "You don't even know."

"So …" I said. His face instantly turned to mine and a giggle erupted from me. "I'm sorry. I'm being lame. I don't mean to constantly bring up that word. It's just becoming a weird habit when we're together."

"A nervous habit?"

"No. Maybe? … Tiny bit? It's more like I'm gauging the situation. Like I really want to snog you – since it's been a few days," Scorpius started grinning like a maniac and I continued, "but is it appropriate with the whole world as we know it outside the door looking in ... and then I'm wondering if I'm being way to forward? Or if there's a smoother way I can make my transitions." I laughed. I was sometimes too cursed honest. "Those tend to be the line of thoughts I have when I say 'So'." Regardless of how easy that came out, my heart was pattering away in my chest at a rabbits pace.

And besides my not so discreet awkwardness at scheming to snog him, he seemed perfectly at ease and much too relaxed about it all. He slowly stood up (which caused my heart to do a backflip) and adjusted his clothing – since uncovered ankles were so scandalous. He turned around and started rooting around in his trunk again, which left me a great view of his arse again. And that I could appreciate (maybe a bit too obviously this time).

It was that moment where I was checking him out that Taliso walked past the corridor, stopped in front of our closed door, and just stared at me through the glass window. Her beady eyes saw right through me and then she was gone in the next instant.

Internally I groaned. "So, Scorpius. Added to the rumour mill might be another one about me checking you out and before you get defensive you should know it's true."

Instead of berating me or being embarrassed he just turned his head enough to wink at me. "Like what you see?"

"Ha ha. You wish. What are you looking for?"

"My wand … Peeping toms from the corridor are all very well when we're just talking, but – "

He left the sentence hanging and this time it was Hamideh who walked by awfully slow, staring into our compartment and jerking her head away when she noticed that my narrowed-eye-laser-look didn't falter. Yeah, that's right Ham. Run far, run fast. I would definitely be a source of gossip for the next few months. Thankfully I kept myself busy enough to stay out of it.

Scorpius found his wand and then spelled the door. "It's just an illusion, and also locked. So we can have a bit of privacy."

I bit my lip at that and looked at him, standing tall in front of me. I had made the first move; him the second. Now that we had a lot more privacy I felt bolstered suddenly by my confidence.

"Oh, an unchaperoned lady all alone with a gentleman caller? How highly inappropriate!" I said as I stood up and took a few steps towards him, grabbing the shirt around his hips, scrunching it in my hands, and pulling him towards me – and that's really all it took before we were caught up in each other.

His lips descended on mine, soft and probing, and tasting like mint. His hands were in my hair and then my hair was suddenly loose and voluminous since the elastic was now gone, and his hands were running through it and tugging at it –

He pulled away for a few seconds, leaving me gasping. "I think it was more that an unchaperoned gentleman was coerced into a corner by a complete goddess," he said as his lips kissed the tip of my nose, traced down my cheek, kissed my jawbone and then was tilting my head back so my neck was exposed.

I realised that he was correct in the fact that I had backed him into a corner. "I feel like I should contest that, but – just – don't – stop!" Merlin, it was hard to breath sometimes.

There was such a delicious pressure on my neck that was moving its way back up. Subconsciously, but a little aware of what I was doing somewhere at the back of my mind, I was playing with the buttons on Scorpius' shirt, undoing one, and then the next.

Scorpius found my lips again and I bit his lower lip gently, tugging at it as another of his buttons came undone.

"You're killing me Rose," Scorpius groaned, and then his tongue found mine and his hands were on my hips, just dipping up under my shirt – hot against my skin, his thumbs pressing into my hips, and causing goosebumps to erupt instantly. My whole body felt as if it were flashing hot and cold – like I was standing in a huge bonfire, flames flickering onto my skin, and then I'd be numb to everything, only to have it intensified the next time by the stars flashing into existence around us, and only for us.

I soon found there were no more buttons to unbutton, but my hands were pushing his shirt to the side and slipping inside to feel his warm skin. He spun us around, even though I was trying to keep control, and I was pushed back into the corner as his hands roamed more, pushing my shirt up a little higher each time on my shuddering skin.

And then for some reason I remembered how neat his hair had looked, and realised I hadn't even ventured into that territory (which really showed where my mind was preoccupied), and I was pulling him closer and ruffling it under my hands. He pressed hard against me, and I could feel every inch of him, but then we needed to fall from grace somehow, and his pressing on me pushed my back into the window frame. I couldn't help but twitch away from the wall and mutter, "Ow. Frig," under my breath as I moved my sore back into a more comfortable position on the wall. I instantly felt cold when he backed away from me, hands raised as if I was accusing him of something. My hands fell through empty air to land at my side.

"What the hell are you doing?" I said, visibly annoyed and unsatisfied.

"What? Are you okay?" His hair was finally messy and flopping over on angles on his head, his shirt was unbuttoned and hanging loosely around him, exposing his stomach and chest and strangely enough (because I don't remember doing it) red scratch marks.

I frowned. "What do you mean? I'm not okay now that you're not still snogging me senseless!"

"Your back?" He looked equally as defensive and somewhat proud or embarrassed or something as he stared at me.

"So? It's fine. Whatever."

"You just said 'ow'!"

I raised my hands to the sky. "So? I didn't mean it. Obviously it's not a huge concern considering it's just a bruise. I would much rather be occupied doing other things." I glared at him for good measure as he stood shameless before me with his chest exposed.

That was when he sighed and sat down on the bloody train seat. I felt my hackles rise and probably could have hissed. How dare he just leave me like this? "Just. What are we doing Rose? When were we going to stop? Aren't you supposed to be in a meeting? Like five minutes ago?" He looked at his watch and held it up to me.

"Who said anything about stopping? You already look like you've been shagged. I'm sure I look the same. Might as well just continue."

He rolled his head back and around in a circle, running his fingers through his hair. "You're killing me Rose … and you are injured, regardless of how much you're playing it off right now - " Now I was two seconds away from a hiss surfacing. He continued on quickly "and we're on a bloody train. It's obvious we can … really connect. But if we do continue, I don't want it to be on these grimy seats, when people are already gossiping about us alone in a compartment. You know the double standards."

A low hiss finally escaped, as if I were a balloon that was slowly letting off air instead of bursting outright under pressure. "I don't understand how you can be logical right now. My mind is still struggling to process reality. "

He shrugged and started slowly buttoning up his shirt. "I mean, Cricket blasted you off your feet for stepping in here, and Gertie and Arjun are in varying states of disbelief. I'm sure half my house is ready to curse you after last year. Maybe in terms of personal safety we just take it slow."

I sat down heavily across from him, slumping down in the seat. "I think you care a bit too much about possibilities and hypothetical situations."

"I would just rather do it right than anything … because I really like you." As if my heart could take any more dramatic events in such a short period of time. This time it performed a triple front flip at his statement. "And we went from being hyper-enemies for years to friends-and-more-than-that in a few weeks. We don't really have a solid base – yet." He held up his hands in a teepee formation in front of him and moved it back and forth like a see-saw. "Without that solid base, something minor could cause the scales to tip in a direction we don't want. Especially at Hogwarts with classes, friends, houses, Quidditch … it'll all be new this year and things might change fast. It might ruin this – whatever we have right now – when we finally get to the castle and into the dragons nest."

What he was saying was finally hitting home. I wanted this to be more than a one-time thing and yes, we were already making leap and bounds from where we started. Hogwarts really was a dangerous new area with fire breathing ignoramus creatures – and we were going in blind. I'm sure despite my internal agreement my eyebrows were furrowed in thought. I looked out the window. It was probably late afternoon now judging by the sun and the shadows over the land. We would arrive in a few hours. One of my hands reached up to my head to feel the damage of my hair and it was worse than my bedhead this morning. I tugged a curl out of a knot and held it straight up in the hair, pulling slightly.

A weird noise sounded and I turned to Scorpius, only to see him tucking something black in his bag and holding a white paper in his hand.

"That's the whatchamacallit? Automatic camera thing? What did you take a picture of?"

He didn't say anything, but held it out as magically, once again, I appeared in it – from my ripped jeans at the knees, to my slouched posture, wild hair, and pulling one piece straight in the air as I looked out the window. I inspected it closely. "I do look properly sexed up. I'm actually not as frustrated as I look in the picture. It's just - you drive me crazy sometimes. In a good way. And I appreciate that." I raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged his shoulders.

I handed it back to him and he stared at it for a few moments before tucking it away in his bag. I'm sure more voodoo would be performed on it, but it didn't really matter. I didn't mind being part of his collection – he didn't seem like he'd do anything embarrassing with it at this point.

I sighed. "Well, what time was it, you said? I feel like I might be very late for a Quidditch Captains meeting." Yet despite what I said, I remained slumped in the sleep, looking back out the window.

"Ah, sorry for keeping you," Scorpius said. "It's about twenty past four." I jerked my head over to him and saw that he did not look sorry at all.

"Wish you would have kept me longer," I said saucily as he stood up tall, his shadow falling over me and gently stood on the tips of my toes, holding out his hands. I put mine in them and he tugged me up with one pull so we stood touching. This time, he kissed me slower and sweeter, lips just pressing softly against mine as our mouths moved in unison.

"Your hair looks wildly sexy right now. But in an obvious way," Scorpius said after as I was trying to finger comb it into an acceptable hairdo. "Your neck looks rather obvious as well."

My hand slapped to my neck – right where he had been occupied. That rat bastard.

"I appreciate the fact that you went out of your way to muss up my hair," I said back. I winced as my finger got caught in a knot. "And mark up my neck. Right before we got to Hogwarts."

"I didn't see you complaining while I was doing it," he said and my face lit up red.

"Yeah. Well it was in the moment. And it's a very sensitive area."

His hand brushed along my cheek and neck just as I was finishing my side braid. "Noted."

"Danger," I said back.

"Even better."

"Well, someone is getting oddly confident now."

He cocked an eyebrow. "With you, it's easy." I was distracted for a bit longer, and was delayed even later for my meeting. We left it at that as I left the compartment.

"Nice of you to show up," Gertie said as I found my Quidditch group lounging, with a paper explosion over every visible surface. Gertie was half laying on the floor, pen in hand as she jotted something down on the paper. She was the Slytherin Captain. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw captains were identical twins – Li and Evan: the dynamic Vietnamese duo whose parents basically moved to England for their sons to go to Hogwarts.

"Lost track of time," I said. "Time flies when you have a good distraction."

"No comment," Gertie said back. "Especially since you have that extremely obvious hickey on your neck."

I was blushed out by this point, so I gave her the evil eye and meant to sit down on the seat next to Li – only misjudged where it was situated and fell to the floor with a small scream. And a sore tailbone.

"Ow," I moaned as I rubbed my arse. "As if I needed to hurt any other body parts." I just stayed on the floor instead of getting back up as we got straight to business and started discussing our conditioning camp. This was a school-wide collaboration and all ages were able to join – so I wasn't sure about what sort of numbers we'd get. What I did know was that at least half of the participants would drop out after the first day.

"Biggest things for me at the start of the season are physical fitness and having the stamina to outlast. Broom-work comes later after they can run a few kilometres on the ground."

"What did you do last year?" Evan asked. "Build up slowly, or start hard?"

I handed over a sheet to him and started explaining the drills we did over the first week of school last year. "How great is your physical fitness?" I asked the three Captains.

"Peak condition," said Li immediately.

"Mediocre," said Evan.

"Why do you want to know?" Gertie demanded, suddenly on edge, her eyes blazing at all of us – daring us to say what she didn't want to hear.

"Because we have to do the drills with them. There's no point being a dictator on the sidelines. If we can't do it, they can't do it," I said to her. If looks could kill, Gertie's blue eyes would have decimated me to smithereens.

"Like fuck."

Evan laughed. "Oh don't you worry Gertie; I'll be dragging your arse around that pitch. You'll finish each drill." Gertie seemed to always have a soft spot for Evan – he got away with the least amount of glares, punches to the shoulder, and mean comments.

"Ah, fuck that. Why did I agree to this again? I barely left my bed all summer."

"Wow. Sounds like you had a riveting summer."

"Fuck off Rose."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Can't help it that you didn't want to meet up to Quidditch two months ago."

"I was visiting family in Venezuela that week." She crossed her arms and pouted. I pleasantly ignored her as we continued talking Quidditch and plans for our camp.

We arrived at Hogwarts amidst a flurry of excitement, yelling, lost cats, and more. The feast went by in a flash, my rendez-vous with Scorpius when he handed over the bruise balm was over in a blink of an eye. I didn't sleep at all that night over my anxiousness at our first inter-house conditioning camp.

And then school happened. Which went something like this:

Quidditch, school, Quidditch, homework, training, detention, Quidditch, Quidditch, library, training.

My life went round and round in its usual pattern. I was up at the crack of dawn every day, before my dorm mates were awake, and was back around midnight. I managed to avoid most of the gossip that surrounded me by just being constantly busy. In classes, I partnered with Gertie and she definitely wasn't a person who gossiped about her best friend (who was Scorpius – Gertie and I could never cross that line if we wanted to maintain our relationship).

I'd talked to probably dozens of different people since then. Fallen down two sets of staircases, sprained my left wrist thrice, picked my two new players for the Quidditch team, had our team bonding event on the roof of the school, fallen asleep in the library at midnight countless times, almost got eaten by a Venomous Tentacula in Herbology, sent oodles of letters to James, Vic, Dad, and Molly, spilled a corroding potion all over my desk and the floor in Potions, squished a few too many flobberworms in Care of Magical Creatures, handed in eight assignments two weeks late, and collaborated with all my fellow Quidditch coaches about training, practices, and the possibility of a friendly tournament between magical schools at the end of the year.

I was exhausted. Seventh Year shouldn't have been so exhausting. And despite my late nights in the library I wasn't doing very well in Transfiguration and Potions, which was mostly based in theory this year. But that was partly my fault since I didn't steal Albus's supply of parchment paper until two and half weeks into school. Then before I knew it, it was the last day of September and I realised I hadn't said two words to Scorpius since the empty classroom near Gryffindor common room back when he gave me some bruise balm.

I was napping at the back of the Transfiguration classroom after I snuck in late after early morning practice. It had been lightly raining all morning, and that meant a very muddy pitch and very muddy players. I took an extra-long hot shower afterwards and ended up missing breakfast – along with the start of class.

It was the type of napping where my head was resting in in one of my hands, but I had my quill in the other as if I was actually awake. My head was looking downwards, just to be safe, with my curtain of wet hair as a cover. McGonagall was a sneaky bat who had caught me numerous times, but in my last year of school I basically mastered the trick.

Suddenly there was a sharp jab in my ribcage from the right. Enough of a jab that it propelled my head away from its hand rest, and I was suddenly off balance while still in that half-asleep mode and fell off the chair to land on the floor with a thud. I pushed my hair off my face and was about to make a pointed comment to Gertie who obviously was the one who poked me off my chair, when I saw McGonagall standing behind her.

"Oh hell," I said under my breath.

"I'll see you tonight at 8 for detention, Ms. Weasley. I trust you can stay awake for the rest of the class now."

She was severe, old, and merciless. She had more lines on her face than I could even count, yet she was one of my favourite teachers. Maybe just for the fact that I had seen her soft side a few times. Today was not one of them.

I scrambled back on my chair. "Tonight at 8 sounds lovely. I'll see you then." Her look grew more severe.

"Education is not a joke, Ms. Weasley, and neither is sleeping in class when you are already behind, or detentions when you are already busy."

With a sweep of her cape (wings - she is a bat, I'm telling you!) she turned back to the front of the room.

Gertie muttered under her breath to me. "You were snoring. Rather loudly."

"What!" I hissed. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"Because I was sleeping too, and didn't really realise it until McGonagall was right there!"

I grumbled and then had to hold my eyes open for the rest of the class because I was so tired. Gertie went right back to sleep. I guess not everyone can be blessed with the genes of poor timing for snoring. My stomach was gurgling so loudly at that point that I ran to the kitchens for food before Defence class (which meant that I would once again be late, since Defence was on the fifth floor of the school).

And alright, I knew where the trick steps were. Everyone knew where they were. But in between my zombie-like stature right now and scarfing down food, my brain just seemed to forget those simple facts and I sunk down to my knee in one somewhere between the second and third floor.

"Bloody hell. I guess I won't be making Defence class then," I said out loud to myself and then looked around. The whole place was empty, except for some portraits on the wall tisking at me as they had their morning cuppa. It was times like this that made me realise Hogwarts could be deathly quiet regardless of its large student population. I'd been caught in enough trick steps that I knew it was pointless trying to get out by myself.

To top it off, classes had just started so I was in for the long haul in a completely empty area. The portraits on the wall and the moving staircase didn't provide enough of a distraction to keep me awake and it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. I curled up as best as I could and just started napping. Shameless I tell you. How low was my life?

A bright blue cat pouncing on my face was what woke me up not even a few minutes later. I lightly swatted at it.

"Cat! I'm trying to sleep. If you want to be useful you should go get help. Or just let me sleep in peace … "

A voice interrupted my thoughts. "He did bring help, funnily enough. I don't know how you can nap in such an uncomfortable place," said Scorpius. I cracked an eye open and stuck out my tongue. "Do you want some help?" he asked.

"Why aren't you in Defence right now?"

"Thought I'd skive class and take a gander around the school."

"You? Skip class? Say what!"

He grinned and offered his hand to pull me upright. "Gertie mentioned how you were headed to the kitchens for food and I wanted to intercept you because I haven't talked to you in a few weeks."

"Why is Gertie gossiping with you? She broke one of our golden rules."

"Golden rules?"

"Golden rules for how two Quidditch Captains from opposing houses can be civil. Now, are you going to get me out of this step or what?"

"I will. Are you going to go to Defence then afterwards?

I eyed him up. "Not if you have a good reason to skip. Or a bad one. Doesn't matter. Defence is one of the classes I'm actually doing well in right now, so it's alright."

"Let's go to the Whomping Willow then," he said. I'd barely started to question him when his arms tucked under my knees and around my shoulders and he swooped me off my feet into his arms. It was oddly thrilling and intimate considering that was the first time I'd ever experienced it. My hands were looped around his neck and our faces were really close.

"Hi," I said a bit breathless. His green eyes twinkled at me.

"Hi."

"Why haven't we talked sooner? It's almost October."

"I have no reasonable excuses. You have a lot of freckles on your face."

I scowled at him, still up in his arms. "If you're only noticing now you are as blind as a bat."

"Did you know that bats aren't actually blind?"

"Then I reiterate my statement to stay that you are as blind as a naked mole rat."

"They're not blind either," he said with a smile and started walking down the steps. My arms tightened around his neck, fingers wantonly playing with the wispy blonde hair at the back of his head.

"Alright, you've got me then. And what are you doing? I'm not that light – my life is basically flashing in front of my eyes right now!" If anything he loosened his hold on me as he continued to descend.

"So dramatic Rose. Give me some credit, I'm pretty strong. And you're not that heavy. Yes, you're an athlete – but not that heavy."

"Such romantic talk coming from you." I kissed his cheek. "I love being called an athlete. It makes me feel like a real one."

He raised his eyebrows. "Rose, you are a real one. You've organised your conditioning camp for two years in a row and even collaborated with all the houses to get players out. You hold free Quidditch practices once a week for people who want to learn how to play the game, or just get better at flying. You're trying to bring some international schools here for a cross-school competition. You run every day around the lake unless you have practice. There's no denying it at all."

My heart swelled a few sizes at that and my toes curled involuntarily. "Has anyone ever told you you're a charmer?"

"Most women take offense when I call them 'not that heavy.'"

I couldn't help it, and roared with laughter at him. Merlin, how true was that.

He finally set me down when we finished our descent and we went outside into the beautiful greenery of the Hogwarts courtyard. The sky was so blue I felt like I could drink it. I raised my hands upwards and stretched. I loved days that started out dreary and then did a 180 degree flip to sun and sky.

"Why can't we have classes outside today! It's so beautiful. Ugghhhh, school." I could see a class of midgets (probably Third Years) huddled around the backside of Hagrid's Hut for class, and the Herbology greenhouses looked full for morning classes. They were my two favourite classes as they both dealt in hands-on work, like Defence, and they were the classes I did the best in.

We eventually found ourselves in front of the Whomping Willow, who was as innocent as playing a game of hide-and-seek with Medusa. But the swaying limbs of the willow were worse than a hair full of snakes because the limbs could decapitate you without a second thought, whip your body through the air at accelerations equalling 7 G's, and catapult your limp body to the lake to sink to the bottom, never to be found again.

And yet here we were, sitting in front of it.

"This is what I propose," he started. "Life and school are busy. You with all your Quidditch. Me with my advanced NEWT classes and student groups. But even so, we should get together at least once a month and just do an activity, or date, or anything really. Otherwise we're going to blink and it'll be June and we probably wouldn't have enjoyed the year as much as we could."

"I think that sounds reasonable. I can do at least once a month. Probably more if we can schedule it in."

He nodded. "But it has to be unrelated to anything school … I will eventually be seeing you for Transfiguration help so that doesn't count."

My mouth dropped. "McGonagall?"

"Yeah she approached me earlier this week to ask."

I shook my head. I said she was my favourite teacher (bat) – but when she pulled stunts like asking smart students to tutor me it really hurt her street cred. "I'll deal with her in a bit. So Whomping Willow in September. We're doing what? Enjoying the view of this ancient species?"

Scorpius turned serious (and that somehow meant adjusting his collar as well). "Somewhere under those flailing limbs and in the willow's root system is a knot on a root. That knot freezes the tree so we can access the tunnel under its roots. And that tunnel leads to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade."

I face-palmed. He had a death wish. I had heard about the tunnel from old stories, but assumed it had been filled in and it had never really occurred to me to attempt it. "Let me guess, you want to find it."

His face lit up as he started talking about some of the history of it – of ghouls and Hogsmeade, of werewolves, of the Dark Idiot, and on and on. And then it hit me that my parents had done this. They'd traversed this tunnel and went to the Shrieking Shack. They had found the knot under the tree. My mum probably stood close to this exact spot, contemplating how to get through the tree, or if to follow. She'd been to the Shrieking Shack! I looked back at the Whomping Willow. Hadn't my Dad crashed his car in it? It was something I knew my whole life, but didn't connect those dots to this school, this tree.

I scuffed the grass with me feet and looked at Scorpius with an appreciation – even though I was questioning how he ever came up with the idea. My exhaustion from the morning was gone, filled with an increasing anticipation. To do this. To do this with Scorpius. Relive a piece of my parent's history. To enjoy this beautiful weather outside instead of being in a stuffy classroom.

"I've been scouting out the tree for a while and I think if we do quick sprints in and out we might get lucky. And if you were up for an adventure … "

I was already pulling off my robe and tie, unbuttoning the top few buttons on my shirt. I rolled up my sleeves and pant legs, kicked off my trainers and socks and felt the grass under my bare feet - the best way to feel grass. The perpetual elastic around my wrist went straight to my wet hair to hold it back. "I'm always up for an adventure."

Scorpius likewise followed my undressing scheme.

A thought occurred to me. "So, you said once a month. I have an idea for October. And if we wanted it to be scarier I suppose we could say Halloween …"

"What are you referring to?"

"If we find this tunnel, let's camp out in the Shrieking Shack. And before you start saying anything about ghouls and werewolves – the Shack should be sitting empty now. Halloween or not, it would be fun in its own way. And you in no way can be more scared than I would be." I spoke big now, but would probably be shaking more frantically than a leaf in a hurricane when the day arrived.

He took his time rolling up his pant legs. I set our shoes next to one another in the grass, lining them up. His were so much larger than mine, it actually looked ridiculous. He looked up at me with a smirk. "I think that's a great idea. But only if you come sit with me during lunch this week." I made a face at him - I was usually a eat and dash type of person.

"Only if you let me try a new jinx I found on you."

"Only if you come to every Transfiguration lesson that I plan," was his rebuttal. I scowled.

"That's dirty. Unfair. But only if we decorate gingerbread houses before Christmas. And you have to buy the ingredients."

"Only if you come over for supper over the holidays." He was quick with his answers and so I started rapid firing as well.

"Only if you try one of Hugo's evening yoga classes at Hogwarts and Vic's over Christmas."

"Only if you come to Hogsmeade with me first week of November."

"Only if we have a snowball fight in winter."

"Only if you come to the Slytherin party when it's my birthday."

"Only if you send Albus a singing valentine in February dressed up as a cherub and come over for supper at Easter break."

Scorpius finally paused to put his hand on his chin, rubbing his few whiskers and just thinking. He stuck out his hand. "Deal."

I put mine in his and he pulled me in for a quick kiss.

The Whomping Willow swayed behind us, as if she knew what was coming. She has seen enough student antics over the years. I was happy to be the next generation of my family to cause it to stir.

I, blessed with zero foresight unlike the swaying Willow, definitely knew what was coming: a fantastic school year. A year to top all years (as long as I passed my classes). A year unlike any previous years for me. And I was so excited.

La fin

A/N: Thanks so much for your suggestions and reviews :) Much appreciated! And I do believe we have reached the end of our story here. 'Til next time!