Disclaimer: JKR owns the characters you recognize. Taylor Swift owns the song 'Long Live'.

Once upon a time, in a land not-so-far away, there were three children who live in a castle.

As it so happens, to get into the castle where they will live for seven years, the three children have to cross a treacherous lake on a flimsy, wooden boat with nothing but each other to save them. They are wizards, but they are not yet skilled in the magical arts, so, should anything dangerous happen, they will only have their intellects and each other to rely upon.

Two of the children, as luck would have it, are related. They are cousins and best friends, having grown up together since the moment they were born. The third child, however, knows neither of them personally, though he certainly knows who they are.

Weasley and Potter are two of the most famous names in Wizarding Britain, 2016, after all.

And Rose Weasley and Albus Potter are born to three of the heroes of the last Dark War. Everyone knows them.

Everyone also knows the third boy, but for a rather different reason.

The name Malfoy is a bit more infamous than famous, really.

Albus is a friendly boy, however, and he isn't aware of his world's prejudices against platinum-haired Death Eaters. "Hello!" he says cheerfully, extending both his hand and his friendship to the boy once they are all settled in the boat.

"Hello," answers the boy, a bit hesitantly, but no less friendly. "You're Albus Potter, aren't you?"

"Yeah, and what's your name?" Albus asks with bright curiosity.

Before the boy can open his mouth to speak, however, Rose gasps in shock. "You're Scorpius Malfoy!"

Scorpius blinks. "Um, yes, I am."

Rose narrows her brown eyes at him. "Daddy told me to stay away from you."

Albus rolls his own eyes and nudges his cousin. "Rosie, relax," he says, years of playing peacemaker between his argumentative siblings allowing him to placate her easily. "What's he gonna do, hex us?"

"You never know," sniffs Rose, but she seems less likely to begin shouting. "How do you know who we are?" she demands of Scorpius, who shrugs.

"Everyone knows who you guys are. You're Albus Potter and Rose Weasley. You're the children of the Golden Trio. Your parents are war heroes. They're in all the history books."

"So are yours," Rose points out. "As Death Eaters, of course."

Scorpius cringes. "I—I'm not a Death Eater," he mutters, as if people had doubts.

"Don't be silly," says Albus immediately. "Of course you're not. Like we're not war heroes, either. We're just first years—just kids."

"So what?" Rose demands. "That doesn't mean we can't be war heroes!"

"To be a war hero," Scorpius begins hesitantly, sending Rose a cautious look, "you kinda have to fight a war."

Albus bursts into laughter.

"What?" Rose rounds on her cousin. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Albus snickers. "Just that—well, he's right. We don't have a war. We can't be heroes. We can't be Death Eaters. We'll have to be our own people."

"What kind of people?" Scorpius asks thoughtfully, right as the boat entered a cave and they were plunged into darkness.

"I hate the dark," Rose grumbles after all three children have managed to regain both their breath and their composure. "What were you saying, Scorpius?"

"I was asking Albus what kind of people we ought to be," Scorpius answers, the surprise in his eyes at her use of his first name hidden by the dark, damp atmosphere of the cave.

"We can be any kind of people," answers Albus, his voice thoughtful. "We can be Aurors or Healers. We can part of the crowd or we can be leaders. We can be revolutionaries, if we wanted to! Think about it—seven years living away from our families. Isn't that the perfect time to, I don't know, change the world?"

"You daydream too much," Rose accuses him, a fond smile on her face. "You're the one who insists that we're only kids. What can we possibly do?"

"We won't always be kids," Scorpius points out as the boat jerks, splashing them lightly with a spray of lake water. "We have time to grow up, to change the world."

The idea of being revolutionaries seems to have planted several thousand seeds in the hearts and minds of the boys, but Rose isn't so easily convinced.

"How so?" she asks skeptically. "What can we change? What do we even want to change?"

"Well," Albus says with a grin just as the boat emerges from the cave and calmer waters sweep them along on their journey to the castle, "we have seven years to figure that out."

Step One in How To Change The World:

Get Sorted.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" cries the Sorting Hat, and Deputy Headmaster Longbottom jerks it off Scorpius's head with an incredulous look at the boy.

Whispered conversations sprout up in the Great Hall like breezes over wildflowers. Students speculate and gossip and pass information—sometimes right, often wrong—through the Hall by way of chatty friends and eavesdropping neighbors. Up at the High Table, astonished teachers trade glances and questions amongst each other.

Albus, still in the line of first years waiting to be Sorted, begins clapping first.

Rose joins soon after, only a tad more reluctantly than her cousin.

The Hufflepuff table follows in a hearty round of applause, as is the Hufflepuff custom, despite some of the students looking confused and horrified.

Scorpius smiles tentatively, hops off the stool, and makes his way to the table decked in yellow and black where he sits down next to an overly-cheerful brunette girl who'd been Sorted a bit before him.

"Hello," she beams at him, flashing her pearly-white teeth. "I'm Gracelyn Grace." Noticing his double-take at her name, she adds, "My parents thought it would be funny."

He laughs genuinely and returns her smile. "Nice to meet you, Gracelyn. I'm Scorpius Malfoy."

Gracelyn giggles and shakes his hand, and it really is that simple.

Not nearly as simple is Albus's Sorting.

"SLYTHERIN!" the Hat declares, and the atmosphere goes as cold as the winter solstice.

"What?" demands his older brother James, rising from his seat at the Gryffindor table with an indignant look on his face. "Al, what the h—"

"Sit down, James," Victoire, the eldest of the Weasleys, sighs, sending Albus a reassuring smile as she yanks at James's sleeve. "Don't make a scene."

"I'll bloody well make a scene if I want to!" James snaps at her.

Victoire glares.

James sits down.

The whispers that have once again sprung up at the Hat's edict melt into laughter at James's expense. Albus has to struggle not to grin at Victoire's solution as he jumps down from the platform and crosses the Hall to the Slytherin table, which is now clapping fiercely.

"We got a Potter!" yells a third year boy joyfully, clapping Albus on the back as he sits down. "Way to go, squirt."

"Suck it up, Potter," adds a second year girl, though she was talking to James rather than Albus. Across the Hall, James sticks his tongue out at her. The pandemonium is eventually stopped by a bang from Professor Longbottom's wand and a pointed look from Headmistress Sprout.

Albus trades a grin with Scorpius, then looks over at Rose.

The Sorting Hat isn't quite done helping them yet.

"RAVENCLAW!" it cries when, many Sortings later, Rose finally sits underneath the Hat.

By this time, the students of the castle are getting quite tired of surprise Sortings. With only the smallest of pauses, the Ravenclaw table begins cheering and enthusiastically welcoming a smiling Rose into their midst. Her cousins at the Gryffindor table look on with a mixture of astonishment (James), pride (Victoire), and resignation (everyone else).

In the middle of the grand feast that follows, Albus leans over to Rose and whispers, "See?"

Rose blinks curiously at him. "See what?"

"I told you we can change the world."

"Sorry, boys, we'd love to help, but this is a Ravenclaw-only study group."

The words of Hansel Mallings, a fifth year Ravenclaw prefect, linger in the air for several moments, turning the atmosphere awkward and uncomfortable. Dust and silence fill the air, along with the smell of old books and the somewhat eerie feel of an abandoned classroom.

"Pardon?" Rose asks lightly, cutting through the tense atmosphere with one simple, brightly-uttered word.

"I said," begins Hansel, looking at her oddly, "that this is a Ravenclaw-only study group."

Scorpius and Albus exchange glances.

"Well, that's kind of a stupid policy, don't you think?" Albus asks, rocking back on his heels with a remarkably calm look on his face. "I mean, don't you want to share your knowledge?"

"No," scowls a second year girl, a stormy-eyed brunette with a perpetual downwards curve to her lips. "Why should we?"

Rose slams her books. "Right. I'm leaving. And I'm taking my mother's books with me."

Chaos breaks out in the classroom.

"Wait, what?"

"Leave? You can't leave!"

"We need those books!"

"Why are you leaving for them?"

"Rose, don't be ridiculous," Hansel says calmly, though there's a glimmer of annoyance and confusion in his eyes. "Sit down. I'm sure we can work this out."

Instead of obeying, as she perhaps ought to have in order to curry his favor, Rose sets her hands on her hips and stares him down with the full force of her mother's inherited glare. "We most certainly cannot," she sniffs. "If you won't let my friends join, why should I stay? Goodbye."

She turns on her heel and storms away in a jaw dropping display of theatrics. Albus and Scorpius, after exchanging a grin, quickly follow after her.

The Ravenclaw-only study group has no idea what they had just started.

"We are going to form our own study group," Rose says authoritively as soon as they're out in the hallway.

"Pardon?" Scorpius asks politely, unsure if she was joking or not.

"You heard me."

"Yeah, trust me, Scorp, you heard her," Albus grins.

"Well, yes, but I wasn't sure if I should believe what I heard or not," Scorpius replies, one eyebrow quirked in a perfect imitation of his father.

"You should," Rose nods firmly. "Come on, now, think. Who can we get to join us?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Scorpius waves his arms around in an attempt to halt the conversation. "We're seriously doing this? We're seriously starting our own study group because of an idiot upperclassman who'll graduate in two years and forget all about us?" he asks incredulously.

Albus nudges him, still grinning. "That's the point, Scorp. We're gonna make sure he never forgets us. Now. Start naming kids."

"Um," Scorpius stammers, glancing between a determined Rose and a half-laughing Albus. "Gracelyn. She's in our year, my House, really funny, really smart, always willing to cause trouble."

"Fantastic. Al, write this down," Rose commands.

"Yes, ma'm," Albus salutes her and then pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbles Gracelyn's name down. "Anybody else?"

Rose reels off a list of names too fast for the boys to catch up. "Reese Finnigan. Ophelia and Perdita Urquhart. Darren Perzin. Genevieve Dazette. Al, are you getting this?"

"Not really," Albus mutters, scribbling so fast his handwriting becomes a blur. "What was that last one?"

"Genevieve Dazette," Rose repeats impatiently, tapping her foot. "C'mon, hurry up, we haven't got all day."

Albus grins over at Scorpius. "Only seven years, right, mate?"

For the first time in this whole exercise, Scorpius laughs. "We're in for a long ride," he snorts and joins Albus at the table with a quill in hand.

"What on Earth is going on here?" Neville asks, utterly bewildered as he looks into the abandoned classroom on the third floor where he usually does his paperwork and finds it full to the brim with chattering, studying students.

"Oh, hello, Uncle—I mean, Professor Longbottom," greets Albus cheerfully, popping up at his side and nearly scaring his godfather to death.

"Al!" Neville sighs. "What's going on in here? Did you guys decide to throw a party?"

"Sort of," Albus grins. "Rose decided to start a study group, actually. And, well, it's Rose."

"I see," Neville says slowly, looking around at the students—all first years, he notices now, and all from different Houses—who are reading and talking and joking around. "Actually, that's a lie. I don't see. How'd you guys pull this off? The closest thing to an inter-House study group I've ever seen is the DA, back when I was a student, and that was different."

"It was?" Scorpius asks, appearing next to Albus and turning curious grey eyes onto Neville.

"Well, yes," says Neville, his gaze falling instinctively, uneasily, on the black and yellow stripes on Scorpius's tie. "I mean, we created the DA to fight against an unfair authority figure."

Rose bounces to her spot in between Albus and Scorpius, flashing Neville an unsettling smile. "Yeah, and we created this study group to fight against an unfair societal restriction," she says cheerfully.

"Huh?" Neville asks in befuddlement. "What societal restriction?"

"What does that even mean?" chimes in a dark-haired Slytherin boy lounging nearby with a thick silver tome in his lap.

Rose turns a glare on him—Alex Capulet, Neville remembers—and says, "Get back to work, Capulet, and stop eavesdropping."

"Be nice," Albus chides her, turning back to Neville. "She's talking about the fact that this school doesn't have any inter-House study groups at the moment. She got mad because the Ravenclaw study group refused to let me and Scorpius join."

Neville raises an eyebrow. "Rosie—a Ravenclaw—got mad because a Ravenclaw study group refused to let a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin join?"

Rose sets her hands on her hips, a redheaded copy of her mother, right down to the pose and the glare. "They're my friends," she snaps with a Hufflepuff's loyalty. "What did you think I would do, huh?"

"Certainly not this," mutters Alex, smirking at her.

Rose whips around. "Shut up, Capulet!"

"Rosie, relax," Albus says soothingly, making a gesture at Alex to tell him to be quiet. "Professor, is there anything else you need to know?"

"Um," says Neville eloquently, letting his disbelieving gaze travel over the first year students still gathered, still laughing, still talking cheerfully amongst themselves. "No. I think that'll be it."

"Great. See you in Herbology," Scorpius manages to get a few words in edgewise around his laughter and Rose herding Neville out the door.

"So," Alex begins conversationally, slamming his book shut and turning to the trio standing in the doorway.

"Shut up!"

"I hardly said anything yet!"

"…Still. Shut up."

Gryffindor to Hufflepuff

"Hey, do you mind helping me with my Transfiguration? I don't get that theory we learned last week."

"Sure! Have a seat!"

Rose beams and jots a note down in her notebook.

Ravenclaw to Slytherin

"You know, if you want my help, you could ask politely."

"Just tell me what the answer is!"

Albus shrugs, decides it counts, and writes down the exchange.

Hufflepuff to Ravenclaw

"So, hey, you wanna go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Only if you help me with my Charms homework."

Scorpius makes a face, but scribbles it down anyway.

Slytherin to Gryffindor

"I cannot believe I'm saying this. But, in the spirit of the inter-House study group, will you be my Potions partner?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this either, but…yes."

Albus, Rose, and Scorpius grin at each other and exchange high fives.

"She's a Ravenclaw."

"He's a Slytherin."

"And Malfoy's kid is a Hufflepuff."

"…"

"…"

"He's a what now?"

Rose trades a grin with Albus and giggles. "Daddy, Scorpius Malfoy is a Hufflepuff," she says, speaking deliberately slowly. "You know, black and yellow, badgers, Helga Hufflepuff?"

Ron rubs a hand over his face. "Rosie, I know what a Hufflepuff is," he mutters, and Harry snorts in amusement. "But how on Earth did Malfoy's son end up in Hufflepuff?"

"Well," begins Albus, pretending to think. "Maybe because he's loyal? And fair? And hardworking? I don't know, I'm just throwing that out there."

Lily hops on his back with a shriek of laughter. "You're silly," she informs him brightly.

"Me?" he protests in mock-outrage. "No, no, Lily-flower, I'm only being logical. I'm a Slytherin, now, it's what I do."

"Ahem," Rose clears her throat, shooting the disbelieving adults a smile. "I'm a Ravenclaw. I would say that's what we do."

Albus sticks his tongue out at her, about to retort when James interrupts. "I still don't understand why you didn't choose Gryffindor?"

Lily props her chin on top of Albus's head. "Maybe they didn't want to?" she suggests, giggling in delight as Albus swings her around in circles.

"Yeah, maybe they didn't want to," Hugo repeats, laughing at the disgruntled look on James's face.

"How could you not want to?" he asks in disbelief.

"Because then we'd be stuck in the same House as you," Rose teases, inciting laughter from the adults and Hugo and Lily.

"Rosie, that was mean," Hermione admonishes on principle.

"Yeah!" James huffs. "And what about that study group of yours? What's it about?"

"Isn't it about studying?" Hugo asks in confusion.

Rose ruffles her brother's hair with an affectionate smile on her face. "Yes, it is. What else would it be about?"

James looks perplexed. "But…you let everyone join! No matter what House!"

"That was kind of the point, James," Albus snorts, bouncing Lily around the room as she squealed in glee. "We wanted an inter-House study group. You're welcome to join us."

"You started an inter-House study group?" Hermione interjects, beaming. "Oh, you two, that's wonderful! Is it like the DA?"

"No," James sulks, shooting his siblings a glare. "All they do is study."

"Nothing wrong with that," Ginny comments mildly, steering Albus away from the kitchen counter lest he bump into it. "I think it's wonderful."

Rose flashes James an innocent smile. "See?"

"Shut up," he grumbles.

"You sound like Rose," Albus pipes up, then bursts into laughter when James makes a horrified face.

It was a good summer.

"Quidditch," drawls Scorpius one afternoon at the beginning of their second year, "is remarkably boring, if you think about it."

"True," Albus agrees, flipping onto his stomach and gazing up at the cloudy skies above. "We should make that our new project."

"What do you mean 'new project'?" Rose demands, busily taking notes for Transfiguration in her notebook. "We're still working on the study group thing! We don't need a new project."

"Besides, what would we even do?" Scorpius adds, twirling a blade of grass around his finger. "We're never gonna get people less interested in Quidditch."

"Unless," Albus says, sitting up straight with a gleam in his eyes. "Unless we find something more fun than Quidditch."

"Why would we do that?" Rose asks blithely, taking a break from her notes to frown over at her cousin.

"Because everyone at this school is too obsessed with Quidditch," Albus points out with the intensity of a boy who's had James to deal with his whole life. "Not to mention the Quidditch Cup. Have you seen the way the Wood brothers look at the thing? And there's absolutely nothing for us non-Quidditch-fanatics to do during the games."

Scorpius drums his fingers on the grass. "There's things for us to do," he says validly. "We can study or hang out or eat or—"

"But there's nothing fun to do!" Albus protests.

"Studying is fun!" Rose says defensively.

Albus sends her a look.

Rose huffs and returns to her notes.

"Besides, our study group is doing great, and didn't we say we wanted to change the world?" Albus challenges them. "Come on, guys. Let's get changing."

"So, what's this, again?" Gracelyn asks cheerfully, poking her head into the Room of Requirement where Albus, Rose, and Scorpius are lounging. "I'm rather confused."

Scorpius waves his House-mate in and then blinks in surprise at the swarm of second years from assorted Houses following her. "Erm, come on in, everybody."

"I have to admit," Rose says to her cousin, "I did not expect such a turnout."

Albus grins, swinging his chair around in circles. "Clearly, you've been spending too much time with James."

Rose snorts. "Don't be silly. James still won't talk to any of us."

"It's odd," agrees Ophelia Urquhart, suddenly standing right in front of them. "He can't even look me in the eyes. He just sort of shudders and walks away. Your brother is very strange."

Albus frowns, glancing down at the blue and bronze tie around her neck. "That's odd. Does that extend to the whole study group?"

"Yes!" chorus the other children who're paying attention to their conversation and not to the foosball table or the air hockey table or the multitude of other Muggle arcade games scattered around the room.

"I don't think he likes what we're doing," Perdita, Ophelia's twin sister, comments lightly, taking a seat on a beanbag chair next to Rose. "He seems like the sort to stick to the status quo."

"He is," Rose mutters. "So is the majority of our family. Which is weird, considering our parents are famous for changing the status quo."

"So, it's us against the world," remarks Scorpius casually. "What else is new? Now, a show of hands, how many of you would rather be at the Quidditch game?"

One boy, a blond Gryffindor way in the back by the ping pong table hesitantly raises his hand.

"Get out," Rose orders him cheerfully.

"Never mind," he says hastily and puts his hand down.

Scorpius snorts, but wisely stays silent under Rose's sharp look.

"Well, now, you don't have to spend afternoons during Quidditch matches inside with nothing fun to do!" Albus announces brightly. "We'll have this room set up every time there's a Quidditch match so you can come here and hang out and have fun without having to waste a perfectly good afternoon because some idiots decided it would be fun to throw balls at each other while flying on a stick of wood."

"Your brother is one of those idiots," points out Perdita, blinking her disconcertingly blue eyes at him.

Albus raises an eyebrow. "So what?"

"Nothing," she giggles and returns to her examination of the basketball hoops.

"Have at it!" Rose says, beaming, and the children scatter.

"Phase Three complete," Albus whispers to his friends, grinning.

Scorpius gives him an odd look. "What was Phase One?"

"Getting Sorted, of course," Albus stares at him, astonished. "Didn't you get the memo?"

"Oh, yes," says Scorpius dryly. "My mistake."

"What do you think you're doing?" James explodes at them one nice, normal day in the middle of their second year. "There aren't supposed to be less people on the pitch than inside during a Quidditch game!"

Albus sighs, restraining Rose with one hand so she didn't leap at him and claw his eyes out or something equally Rose-like. "We're simply providing entertainment for our fellow unathletic students, James."

James glares at the three of them for a moment. "You guys are turning this school upside down! What's next, Muggle classes?"

Rose's eyes light up. "Ooh, there's an idea!"

James smacks his forehead. "Would you guys just stop? Has it ever occurred to you that people are happy with the way things were before you three waltzed in here?"

"We weren't," Scorpius chimes in. "And you don't have to change, you know. You can just keep living your life the way you want to. Nobody's forcing you to change."

James gesticulates wildly for a moment. "You three are! Do you have any idea how weird it is to look out at the bleachers and find them only half full?"

"We apologize for disrupting your life," Rose says sarcastically. "I do believe I saw Ellie in the Room of Requirement during the last game, though."

James splutters at the mention of his best friend. "Ellie? She would never!"

"Would too!" Albus retorts on instinct, then cringes as James prepares to shoot back in kind. "Er, never mind. Forget I said that. The point is, she was there, and the rest of the school seems to be adapting well enough to our changes."

"Fine," James grinds out and stomps away.

"I do believe," begins Scorpius cheerfully, "we have found ourselves a dragon to fight."

Rose's Muggle classes plan doesn't really come to fruition until their third year. And by then, Scorpius has taken over the plan.

"You two got your study group and recreation room," he tells them indignantly. "Let me handle the Muggle classes."

Albus draws Rose away and lets him handle it.

"So, thank you all for coming," Scorpius greets the crowd in the Room of Requirement very professionally indeed. Their usual friends from their year are there, along with most of the lower classes and a couple of upperclassmen. Their social circle has grown considerably since the time they were three scared eleven-year-olds on a boat ride to a castle.

"What's this for?" asks Darren Perzin, a regular from the early days of the study group, from his spot next to a table with paints and sketchpads.

"We have decided that this school does not offer enough Muggle courses," Scorpius tells him. "Astronomy is all well and good in small doses, but what about math? Science? Fine arts?"

"You're a pureblood," calls out Ariana Dare, a newer recruit and a fourth year Hufflepuff. "Why do you care?"

"One should always care about culture," Scorpius retorts, raising an eyebrow at her. "No matter what kind of culture it is. Now, if there is anyone who doesn't want to be here, feel free to leave."

At the doorway, Albus grins cheerfully at the room, twirling his wand between his fingers.

Nobody moves.

Rose claps a hand over her mouth to hide her giggles.

"All right, then," Scorpius says, smothering his own grin. "Rose will be manning—sorry, womanning—the Language Arts table, Al will be working at science, I will be helping folks out at the painting table, and assorted others who have kindly volunteered to help will be at the rest. Enjoy!"

The crowd scatters around the room, and there are a number of red-haired heads in the midst. Dominique, silver-haired and beaming, seeks out her cousins in the throng.

"Guys, this is really awesome!" she tells them, smiling at all three of the third years. "And look who made it here."

She nods over in the direction of the pottery table and, simultaneously, Albus, Rose, and Scorpius turn and look. James is sitting there, next to Ellie Longbottom, a reluctant smile on his face as he picks up some clay at Gracelyn's command and places it on the wheel.

"Huh," Rose says after a minute of disbelief. "Guess he wasn't such a formidable dragon, after all."

"You are the most annoying prat I have ever had the misfortune to meet!"

"Yeah, well, you're the most stuck-up know-it-all I know!"

"Will you both just shut up?"

Ginny eyes her youngest son's bedroom door nervously. "Harry, dear, I think we have a problem. Or, at least, Al does."

"It was bound to happen eventually," Harry sighs, walking down the hallway and stopping next to her. "Hormones and whatnot. They'll get over it. We did."

Something explodes inside the room.

Ginny sends her husband a flat look and yanks it open to reveal a three furious teenagers, all with their wands out. Al's bed is missing under a layer of ash, but he doesn't even spare it a glance.

"Put your wands down!" Harry commands.

Three wands clatter to the floor. Scorpius and Rose look sheepish, but Albus just scowls, picks up his wand, and stows it away in his pocket.

"What is going on here?" Ginny demands, rushing in.

"They got in a fight," Albus explains, shooting his two best friends dark looks.

"Hard to believe," James sneers, wandering by. "You three are just such a perfect little trio, aren't you?"

Albus lunges.

"That it!" Harry decides on the spot, restraining his two sons from attacking one another. "There are way too many hormones in this house. James, stop provoking your brother. Albus, Rose, Scorpius, I want you three to spend some time away from each other this summer. There is such a thing as being too close to your friends."

"But we have plans!" Rose cries as James saunters away. "We need to get organized, to work, to—"

"Rosie, chill," Ginny says, kneeling down beside niece and placing her hands on Rose's shaking shoulder. "You three have wrapped yourselves up in each other and now you need to break free, just a little. Otherwise, your friendship is going to fall apart."

"Scorpius," Harry adds gently, "maybe you should go home and relax. Rose, you should, too. It'll be good for you all. I promise."

Rose sighs and stalks out, Scorpius following with an apologetic look at Albus.

"Well," Albus quips once they're both out of the room, "that went well."

Study group? Going strong.

Recreation room? Going strong.

Muggle classes? Going strong.

The Power Trio? Not so much.

Lily corners Scorpius in the library one afternoon half-way into their fourth year, her second, and slams her hands on the table where he's working.

"I ought to start calling you 'Firework' instead of 'Strawberry'," Scorpius remarks dryly, looking up into her flashing hazel eyes. "Since you make so much noise and all. What's up?"

"You," she snaps. "You and Al and Rose and you three fighting and not being together, that's what's up, Malfoy!"

Scorpius raises an eyebrow. "Your parents said we needed to take a break from each other. That's exactly what we're doing."

"It's been six months!" Lily huffs. "Get over that little funk and go back to being you! It's driving me crazy seeing Al with a different girl on his arm every week and Rose standing around flirting with guys and you just sitting here, studying! You're supposed to be a trio! You're supposed to be together forever, like Teddy and Victoire, only less romantic."

"Look, we'll, ah, go back to being 'together forever' when the time is right," Scorpius tells her.

Lily crosses her arms. "Now," she insists and hauls him out of the library.

He figures now's not the best time to think about how cute Al's little sister is.

"So, your little break thing isn't working," Lily announces once she's gathered them all in the Room of Requirement. "You guys need to go back to being best friends forever."

"Lils, this really isn't your decision," Rose points out validly.

Lily rolls her eyes. "Whatever. I've made it my decision. You three were this close to ruling the school—or at least your class and the ones below—just last year. Now you're all fractured and your little projects are waning and I don't like it. Make up."

None of them move.

"Now!" Lily demands, narrowing her eyes.

"I'm sorry," says Albus hastily.

"Me, too," Scorpius follows, just as quickly.

"Yeah, same here," Rose nods, plastering a bright smile on her face. "Can we go now?"

Lily smirks in a manner that makes all three of them think she'd be better off with a green and silver tie around her neck instead of a bronze and blue one. "Nope. I think the school needs proof."

"Well, then," Albus grins genuinely for the first time all year. "The school will bloody get its proof, now, won't it?"

The school gets its proof.

Hufflepuff becomes Slytherin becomes Ravenclaw becomes Gryffindor becomes Hufflepuff.

It's glorious.

Everyone's walking around confused, and Albus, Rose, and Scorpius stand in the center of it, neither refuting the claims nor accepting the praise.

Lily, now sporting a Gryffindor tie, walks up to them, kisses Al on the cheek, beams, and dances away, laughing in delight as she passes some House-confused Slytherins. Or were they Hufflepuffs? Ravenclaws? Did it matter? Nah, not really.

"This was fun," Rose says brightly as they wander through the snowy grounds, their mismatched scarves wrapped around their necks. "We should do more like this!"

"We need a new project," Albus agrees. "What next?"

"Maybe," Scorpius offers hesitantly, "we should focus on our own lives for a change. I mean, just be kids instead of revolutionaries."

"I don't want to do that!" Rose protests. "That doesn't sound fun at all."

"We can't be working all the time!" Scorpius retorts. "Look, we're best friends again. But don't you think we need to find some individuality, too?"

Albus frowns. "We're completely different people."

"Bull," Scorpius snaps. "You heard Lily. According to everyone else, we only work if we're together. They look at us and think 'AlbusRoseScorpius' instead of 'Albus and Rose and Scorpius'. Is that what you want?"

"Isn't that what you want?" Rose demands, leveling him with her now-infamous glare.

Scorpius doesn't answer.

"Are you guys doing this on purpose?" Lily demands of Scorpius one afternoon while she's subbing for his painting class. "I thought once we got over that break thing, you guys would finally be happy."

"We are happy," Scorpius insists, waving his arm in the direction of his best friends. "Al's got a girlfriend or something—"

"A penpal," Lily corrects, "until I've had a chance to meet her."

"Right," Scorpius snorts. "And Rose has got a new boyfriend each week."

"You think that makes her happy?" Lily huffs. "You're stupid."

Scorpius stares at her, stung. "Gee, thanks, I love you, too, Strawberry."

"Well, what's making you happy, then?" she challenges, ignoring the blow she'd dealt to his ego with the skill of James Potter's little sister. "Since this was your idea and all."

Scorpius ducks his head and paints a golden arc across his paper. "I don't know. I'm making more friends and stuff," he mumbles.

Lily rolls her eyes. "Please. You're not making any more friends than you already had. All you are is miserable, Malfoy. This whole thing is as silly as your break. You guys belong together."

"Well, what if I don't want to belong with them?" he explodes.

Lily stares at him. "Why wouldn't you?" she asks, sincerely confused.

"I'm sick of being just a part of a trio," Scorpius snaps. "I just want to be known as me, not the perfect power trio."

"Yeah?" Lily gathers up her materials and swings on her book bag. "And how's that working out for you?"

Scorpius sighs. "Not so well," he says as he watches her walk away.

Lysander Scamander has this thing about popping up randomly and giving people heart attacks.

Rose Weasley has this thing about hating people who give her heart attacks.

They don't get along too well.

"Hey, Rosie!" Lysander greets cheerfully.

Rose jumps and nearly whacks him with her Herbology textbook. "Lysander! Stop doing that!"

"Sorry," he grins insolently and hops onto the couch next to her, draping himself over it. "I had some news I thought you might, erm, want to hear."

Rose frowns at him suspiciously. "What?"

Lysander hesitates. "Just, um, you know that new Minister that got voted in last year? Marus Deztroi? He is, ah, not too fond of your Muggle classes thing. He sent an order to Headmistress Sprout telling her to shut it down. This is your last year."

"What?" Rose shrieks in outrage, bounding to her feet.

"Calm down, Rosie," Lysander says quickly, jumping up in attempt to calm her down.

Rose shakes herself out of his grasp. "I most certainly will not calm down!" she snaps, beginning to pace. "I don't believe this—how dare he—this is ridiculous—argh!"

Her current boyfriend, a Ravenclaw named Edan Fravotti in the year above her wanders over. "Baby, what's wrong?" he asks, attempting to steal a kiss.

Rose shoves him away and whirls to face Lysander. "We're doing something about this," she tells him authoritively. "Edan, get lost, I am not in the mood for a make-out session. Lysander, grab everyone and tell them to meet in the Room of Requirement in fifteen minutes. This is war."

Edan slouches off, sending Lysander a dark look as the younger boy grins eagerly and darts off.

Rose stands very still in the middle of the Ravenclaw Common Room and plots.

"This is outrageous!"

"Ridiculous!"

"Damned if we just let them win!"

"Let's do something!"

"Do what?" Albus points out quietly and effectively silences the room.

"We can meet in secret," James pipes up, then flushes red under the trio's befuddled gazes. "What? Okay, so this was kind of a good idea, I'll admit. Geez. It's been, what, two years now?"

Roxanne laughs and ruffles his hair. "You're silly, you know that?" she says fondly, and then her expression darkens. "All right, kids, what's the plan?"

"So far, we have 'meet in secret'," Scorpius says dryly. James makes a face at him.

"We could stage an open rebellion," Dominique suggests. "Maybe gather the whole school in the Great Hall and protest that we want to learn Muggle subjects?"

"How are we going to get the whole school involved?" Albus asks.

"Um, hello?" Lily smacks her brother lightly on the head. "You have almost the whole school squeezed in here!"

Albus looks around. The only students missing are assorted upperclassmen who never joined their group or were studying for tests. "Oh. Fancy that."

"Indeed," Rose giggles. "Who's in favor of meeting in secret? Open rebellion?"

The results are half and half.

Scorpius sighs. "Right, then. We need a tiebreaker."

"I'm in," Neville says before Rose even finishes her question.

"Huh?" Rose blinks, trading confused glances with Albus and Scorpius and the rest of the Potter-Weasley clan squeezed into Neville's office behind them.

"I said," Neville repeats calmly, smiling at the looks on his favorite students' faces. "I'm in."

"Why?" Louis asks in confusion. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but…you don't even know what we're going to ask."

"Does it have anything to do with our esteemed Minister Deztroi?" Neville asks, raising an eyebrow.

Several people nod at once.

"Then, yes, I'm in," Neville smirks. "What do you need me to do?"

"Vote," says Rose innocently.

Neville sighs. "Right. Vote for what."

"Should we meet in secret or do an open rebellion?"

"Both," he answers with years of expertise. "Do open rebellion first. If that doesn't work, meet in secret. If that doesn't work, kill them all."

"We should skip to the third one," Lily decides cheerfully.

"We should not," Scorpius retorts quickly. Lily sticks her tongue out at him. "All right, then. Open rebellion it is. Thanks, Professor!"

Rose beams and rubs her hands together. "Let's get planning!"

October 8th, 2023

Dear Minister Deztroi,

This is an urgent message. I need you to come to Hogwarts. Right now.

Regards,

Headmistress Pomona Sprout

"Hey, guys?" Scorpius asks, his voice masked under the excited whispering of the crowds as he beckons to Albus and Rose. "Can we talk? In private?"

"I don't think there is a 'private' around here," Albus snorts but weaves his way through the crowd with Rose at his side. "What's up?"

Scorpius sighs, sending Lily a look over their shoulders. Lily beams and gives him a thumbs up before returning to her attempt to strangle James.

"I'm sorry," he says as soon as they're both standing in front of him and a good distance away from the rest of the crowd. "I'm sorry I thought we needed to find our individuality. I'm sorry we stopped being best friends for two years. Those were the most lonely two years of my life. You guys are—"

"Save it," says Albus, grinning.

"No, keep going," Rose urges.

Scorpius looks between the two of them. "Erm."

Rose bursts out laughing and drags both boys into a hug. "Let's never do that again," she decides.

"Let's not," Albus agrees. "And while we're on the subject, I'm sorry, too."

"Me, too," Rose pulls back and swipes at something that looks suspiciously like a tear on her cheek. "Now, let's go kick some Ministry butt, yeah?"

Scorpius and Albus trade grins. "Yeah, lets."

The three of them charge back into the crowd and Lily lets go of her brother to smile proudly at them.

"Only took them two years," she mutters and makes her way to the front of the crowd, ready to, as Rose put it, kick some Ministry butt.

Deztroi enters the Great Hall, takes one look at the shouting crowd, and runs for it.

Hell if he's going to take on Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy.

He's not suicidal, you know.

"That was easy," Rose says, disappointed. "Where's the adversity? Where's the drama? The danger? The dragons?"

"You're speaking too soon," Albus warns.

The Muggle classes still get cancelled.

Deztroi spends the rest of the year hiding in his house.

"I have to admit," says a fifth year Slytherin during one of their not-so-secret meetings in the Room of Requirement, "you three have done some great things for the school."

"Why'd you do it?" asks Reese Finnigan, lounging in an armchair next to his Hufflepuff girlfriend.

The sight makes Rose smile. "We wanted to change the world."

"Just for the fun of it," Albus adds, frowning at the Gryffindor boy chatting with his sister. "Oi, Wood! Get away from my sister."

Lily aims a hex at him. He dodges. Everyone bursts into laughter.

"It's great, isn't it?" Scorpius grins, looking around at all the students mingled with people from other Houses. "Look at you guys! This is nothing like how you were six years ago, is it?"

"Not really," James agrees, arm around Ellie's shoulders and a smile on his face. "Good job, little brother. And Rosie. And Malfoy."

"Gee, thanks," Scorpius mutters, exchanging a grin with Rose and Albus.

"So, there doesn't seem to be much learning going on here," Albus points out. "I think we should dedicate today—what is it, May 2nd?—to inter-House unity."

"Oh, it's Victoire's birthday!" Louis groans. "I forgot to send her a card!" His Slytherin girlfriend smiles affectionately at him.

"It's also the anniversary of the Final Battle," Fred points out, smiling charmingly at a Ravenclaw girl who giggles and blushes. "I think that means something. It's fate, or whatever."

Rose claps her hands in delight. "It is!" she exclaims. "We should celebrate this every year! It could become a Hogwarts tradition!"

"And to think," Scorpius adds, grinning lazily at his two best friends. "It all started with three children on a boat."

On their graduation day, the entire school comes out to cheer them on.

Deztroi is there as well, looking jumpy, and he seems horrified to note everyone intermingling with people of other Houses and heritage.

Neville grins at them as they line up on the stage. "Congrats, you guys. You managed to change the world and take over the castle at the same time."

Lily practically flies onto the stage to attack her brother with a hug. "I turned the Minister's hair pink!" she tells him.

Deztroi's hair is, indeed, neon pink and attracting quite a lot of attention and laughter.

Albus smiles proudly at her. "Way to go, Lily-flower."

Rose intercepts Lily's next flying hug with ease. "Where are our parents?"

"Over there, wondering why hardly anybody is talking to someone from the same House," Lily replies, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "It's so awesome! Nobody even cares about Houses anymore!"

"Almost nobody," Scorpius corrects, then grunts as she launches herself onto him. "Ow! Strawberry! Watch the hair!"

Lily draws back to stick her tongue out at him. "Man up, Malfoy," she giggles before dancing off the stage and into her father's arms.

"Well, I don't know how you three did it," Ginny smiles, ascending the steps to the stage where the graduates are gathered. "But you did it very well indeed."

"We had a lot of help," Rose points out, grinning at James who's insulting the Minister in a loud voice behind his back—directly behind his back. "We couldn't have done it on our own."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Harry says, shaking Lily off so he can go hug Albus. "The study group, the recreation room, the Muggle classes…they were all your ideas, weren't they? And you pulled them off without any help from anyone else. Even the Ministry can't make changes that fast."

"Because the Ministry is run by an idiot!" Roxanne calls loudly from below the stage. Deztroi's furious head whips around in her direction, but she runs into the crowd, laughing.

Albus laughs. "No, see, we had the best friends ever to help us pull it off."

"Yeah," Rose nods, pulling both boys closer. "Each other. And the rest of those lunatics."

As she speaks, Dominique and Fred levitate a bucket of slime over the Minister's head and dump it over him.

Scorpius grins. "These seven years were the best years of my life."

Headmistress Sprout doesn't even bother to call them up separately.

The whole school cheers for them.

Long live the walls we crashed through
All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you

Author's Notes: You guys wanna hear another, truer story? When I first finished Deathly Hallows, I thought 'Albus, Rose, and Scorpius should totally become best friends and do awesome stuff together in Hogwarts!' So, I started writing fanfiction. And now, here I am, 50 stories later, having finally written out their amazing tale of changing the world :)

I thought this would be perfect for my 50th fic, and I really hope you all enjoyed this! I had so much fun writing it and if you had fun reading it, please review and tell me what you think! Thank you so much in advance!

Please don't favorite without reviewing! Thanks! :)

Updated A/N: I've gotten several people lamenting the lack of Rose/Scorpius in this fic, and I'm totally glad you all enjoyed the fic, but I thought I'd just put you out of your misery - I really don't ship Rose/Scorpius. At all. If you reread it, you might notice the inclination towards Lily/Scorpius and Rose/Lysander ;) Thanks for reviewing (everyone), though!