AN: Again, my apologies, I'm the worst. I know. But I've realized that as much as I love writing this fic, I can't make it a big priority in my life right now because I work full time five days a week, I'm studying for the LSAT, and getting ready to apply to Law School. But I do promise that I am in NO WAY abandoning it. I'm constantly thinking of ideas for future chapters, and I'm going to try and make updates as close to each other and as consistent as I can. Also each update will be pretty long (which is why it takes me so long to write them), so I hope that makes it kind of worth the wait.

Brief recap: The gang is back at school. Ella's ex-party date, Andrew Turner, is now dating the girl he cheated on Ella with (Amy Peakes). Al has decided that he wants to tell Darcy how he feels about her, but has yet to do it. Al also told Rose about how Zach and his friends were insulting Scorpius and his family. She felt super bad and apologized to Scorpius for it, and she admits that she does see him as a friend, but she has yet to confront Zach about it. James and Ella had a Quidditch meeting which ended in a confession of feelings from James and a kiss, and then Ella running from it all because it was all to much to deal with. Lastly, on patrols Rose and Darcy caught Darcy's boyfriend, Callum Davies, cheating on her with Lauren Montague, and Darcy prompty dumped him.

So here's chapter 7. I edited it myself, so if there are mess ups and mistakes, I am to blame. Also there's still a link to a character page on my profile for those of you who are a little lost with the multitudes of characters I have in this fic. It links to a post I made on my tumblr and has the main characters that you need to keep track of.
Anyways, I actually really love this chapter so I hope you guys do to! Enjoy :)

Friday, 7:30am

Friday morning, the Hogwarts rumor mill provided to be just as efficient as ever, despite the long holiday break that the students had just returned from. However, as usual its efficiency did not ensure accuracy, which Rose learned when she overheard a hushed conversation that morning regarding an (unfortunately) familiar sounding event.

Approaching the tops of the steps leading to the Owlery, Rose caught a few snippets of conversation going in inside the room.

"…telling you Marisa, I heard Darcy caught him with two other girls right in the middle of it, if you know what I mean. Apparently she only really freaked out when he tried to get her to join them."

"Are you really surprised Claire?" the girl named Marisa, who Rose recognized as a fifth year Slytherin housemate of her cousin Roxanne's, asked. "Their relationship always seemed so boring. Maybe Davies finally decided he needed some excitement thrown into it." They both laughed.

"Well that'll certainly do the job I suppose. I wonder who the other two girls were though," Claire mused. "Couldn't get Katie to tell me who it might have been…"

Rose stopped listening and groaned in exasperation. Katie La Fleur, a fifth year Gryffindor, was the resident gossip queen at Hogwarts. She made it her mission in life to know what was happening in everyone's social lives, but never seemed to care about where the source of her information came from or the amount of truth to it. How she had found out about the events from the previous night before, Rose had no clue, but she was definitely not surprised in the least.

"… but get this, Katie said that Rose Weasley was there and…"

Damn, Rose swore internally. Before the two girls could carry on, Rose stomped up the last few steps, making her presence known to both of them. "Better hurry girls or you'll miss breakfast."

The two girls whirled around, surprised by the intrusion. Rose recognized Marisa's companion to be a Hufflepuff named Claire Williams who she frequently saw hanging around Katie and her group.

"Oh, uh hello Rose," Marisa stuttered, looking embarrassed that Rose may have overheard them. Claire simply smiled innocently at Rose. "Thanks, we'll just be going then."

"Of course. Have a good breakfast," Rose said sweetly. "Be sure to get to your classes on time."

Both girls nodded and rushed out of the Owlery quickly without another glance at Rose. Sighing, she turned around to seal her letter and coax her owl, Isis, from the perch. Not even twenty-four hours and the whole bloody school apparently knew some skewed version of what had happened during her patrol. And of course they'd gotten it wrong. She could always trust the rumors to get out of hand and practically become a completely different story.

As Rose left the tower she thought about whether or not the rumors had reached Darcy yet. The night before they'd spent almost two hours in the kitchens because Darcy hadn't wanted to return to her dorm. Maybe she should go warn the Hufflepuff before she found out about the rumors; give her fellow prefect a heads up so she wasn't completely blindsided at breakfast. Though, she thought, if Claire knew about them then there was a good chance a the majority of the Hufflepuff house did as well, and Darcy's friends would be able to tell her what was spreading around the school. Rose made a quick decision to go back to her dorm then see if Darcy was okay at breakfast.

Entering her dorm, she found her four dorm mates all up and rushing around the room.

"Em, where on earth did you put my mascara?" Ella called as she was digging through her amenities kit. Off to the side Rose could see Mia braiding Charlotte's hair as fast as she could, while Charlotte quickly touched up her own make up.

"I told you, it's by the sink where I used it!" Emily replied as she pulled her stockings on. "Oh, hey Rose. Where were you?" she asked, noticing her friend come in.

"Had to mail a letter out to my Grandma Jean. Did you guys all wake up late?" Usually Emily or Rose were the earliest to wake up and then proceeded to get the other girls awake, but today Rose hadn't since she'd left so early to mail her letter.

"Yeah," Emily said, sounding exasperated. "I got in really late last night so I didn't get much sleep." Rose nodded and crossed towards her bed to pick up her scarf. "Speaking of which," Emily continued, "you got in way later than me last night. Were patrols okay?"

Rose hesitated. Was it alright for her to tell the other girls what had happened? Her initial response would normally have been no, since it wasn't her business. But given that the rest of the school was spreading some other story, maybe it was a good idea for her to tell the correct one to her roommates.

"Uh well, Darcy and I ran into a… situation last night."

"Situation?" Ella's head popped out from the bathroom with raised eyebrows. "Do tell." Mia and Charlotte also paused what they were doing to turn around and listen.

"Well practically all of Hogwarts already knows some weird version of it, so I may as well tell you the right story." She proceeded to tell them what she and Darcy had encountered the night before.

Ella was the first to respond. "What an arsehole. Stupid Ravenclaws, I swear to Merlin, why can't they all just keep it in their pants?" she bit out scathingly.

"You're brother is a Ravenclaw Ella," Mia pointed out.

"You know who I mean," Ella replied quickly. "How is Darcy?"

"Justifiably upset," Rose mused. She had decided to leave out the part about Darcy wanting to break up with Callum. No matter what her intentions had been, Darcy didn't deserve to be cheated on in any capacity, and the rumors floating around didn't need any added fuel. "That's why I got in late last night, we were in the kitchens binging on ice cream."

The others nodded sympathetically and began getting ready again. Ten minutes later they were all heading down to the Great Hall. Just before they walked into the dining area, however, Ella quickly halted upon seeing the Gryffindor table.

"Uh, actually guys I forgot I need to, uh- I'm just- I mean, I have to talk to Professor Ramsay. About the Runes essay. I'll catch up with you later," she stuttered, rushing off without another glance.

Rose and Emily looked at each other and were about to say something when they heard another voice.

"Was that Ella?" They turned to see James coming towards them. When they nodded he asked, "Is she coming back to breakfast?"

"Don't think so," Rose answered. "She said something about needing to ask a professor about an essay."

"But we don't have a Runes essay," Emily pointed out, looking confused. "He hasn't assigned us one since we got back from break. And Professor Ramsay is right over there," she said, lifting her hand to point at the staff table.

"Maybe it was some other professor," Rose offered.

"It's okay, I'll just catch her later," James said, sounding disappointed before walking back into the hall.

Rose and Emily followed him. As they did, Rose looked over at the other tables. She noticed Darcy sitting with a few of her friends at the Hufflepuff table, a neutral and calm look on her face as her two friends Penny and Phoebe rapidly talked to her in low voices, no doubt informing her of what they'd already heard. She was facing away from the Ravenclaw table, where a few seats down Lauren was sitting with Christina Goyle and their usual posse. Lauren didn't seem to be as involved in the conversation that was going on, but was instead looking at people passing by as though she dared them to say something. Occasionally she'd throw a glance towards the entrance, as though she was waiting for someone. Rose casually noticed that Callum didn't seem to be sitting with Zach and their friends at breakfast that morning. Realizing that she had to tell Albus about what happened, she looked towards the Slytherin table. Albus was also missing from his usual seat beside Scorpius, who sat with some of his other dorm mates. As she looked over, Scorpius caught her eye and waved, which she returned with a small smile.

Breakfast passed quickly and afterwards Rose and Emily met Aiden, Lorcan, and Scorpius at the doors to walk to Charms.

"Where's Al?" Rose asked Scorpius as the group walked to the Charms room.

"The bloody nut sacrificed his morning to work out some new drills on the pitch," Scorpius yawned. "Woke the rest of us up in the process too."

She laughed as they entered the classroom and went to sit at their tables. Ella and Albus were already seated in the classroom, talking to each other from their respective tables. The latter had his legs propped up on his and Scorpius' desk and was tipping his chair back casually. Rose walked towards Ella, while Scorpius headed over to Albus. Aiden and Emily went to their table and Lorcan went to join one of his other dorm mates.

"Mr. Potter, feet down if you please," came Professor Clearwater's light voice from the doorway of her office, as the rest of the class filtered in.

"Sorry Professor," Albus said hastily, sitting up properly.

"You look quite normal for someone who was muttering to himself and pacing back and forth at five a.m. this morning," Scorpius whispered, putting his bag down by his seat.

"That's because I came up with two new killer plays that are definitely going to throw the other team during our next match," Albus grinned. Scorpius raised his eyes and nodded in appreciation.

"Today we'll continue practicing the spell that turns vinegar into wine, which we started before the break," Professor Clearwater chimed. "I hope you all did the supplemental reading, because it will greatly help you in this endeavor."

Most of the class rolled their eyes when the professor turned her back. If she actually though they would do reading during their winter hols, she'd obviously been out of school way too long.

Rose went to the work station to fetch two classes of vinegar for herself and Ella. When she returned, Ella took one glass and began practicing.

"So, any particular reason you skipped out on breakfast?" Rose asked nonchalantly. "Seeing as we don't have a Runes essay yet."

"Oh right, I uh- I meant I had a question for Professor Ramsay. Just a general one," Ella replied, still looking at her glass.

"Ramsay was at breakfast, like he always is."

Ella stiffened slightly. "Guess that's why he wasn't in his office when I checked. The Great Hall was so far away, so I just decided to come to class instead. Plus I wasn't very hungry." Just as she finished, her stomach gave a soft rumble. Looking up she grinned sheepishly. "Wasn't hungry then," she amended.

"Right," Rose said, with a skeptical look on her face, before turning to concentrate on her glass. Before starting she turned back to Ella. "El," she said softly. "You know you can tell me anything right?"

Ella didn't turn, but nodded after a few moments. "I know. Thanks Rose."

Friday, 10:30am

An hour later Scorpius was trying to concentrate on his glass, but his attention was being diverted by his best friend. "You're staring," he whispered under his breath. Al's head snapped away from the curly haired blonde sitting across the room.

"No I'm not," Albus said hastily, pulling his glass in front of him and jabbing his wand at it, though still glancing to his right.

"Al, it's supposed to be a swish, not a jab," Scorpius corrected.

"What?"

"I said-"

Albus' flask exploded, causing the boys to quickly drop to the ground. Luckily Professor Clearwater, demonstrating her expertise in wandwork, quickly froze the pieces mid-air.

"He said, Mr. Potter, it's supposed to be a swish, not jab," Professor Clearwater said, as the boys got up slowly.

"Sorry Professor," Albus muttered guiltily.

"Quite alright Mr. Potter, these things happen," she said good naturedly. "Though it is the reason for your homework today. Class, I want twelve inches on why the proper motion is a swish of the wand, and the other possible results that can occur to the vinegar if the wandwork is not done properly."

A few students groaned and sent accusatory looks towards Albus.

"Don't blame Mr. Potter. There's always at least one student that this happens to in each class, which is why I assign the essay," the professor called out as she went to her office. "It'll be due next Friday. That's all for today."

The students slowly began packing their things and leaving the classroom. Ella hurried out of the classroom before the others were ready, shouting another quick excuse to her friends.

"What is up with Ella?" Emily asked Rose as they walked out of the classroom.

"No clue. Though she did seem a bit spacey on the train. You think it has anything to do with Andrew dating Amy?"

"I dunno, she didn't seem to broken up over that when we heard," Emily answered. "If it's important, she'll tell us, yeah?" Rose nodded. "Alright, we," Emily indicated herself and Aiden, "are off to the library. Who wants to join?"

"We'll come," Lorcan said, grabbing Albus' arm. "Gotta make up- I mean write about our dreams for that Divination dream journal thingy before the next class. Scor?"

"Nah, I need to talk to Finnegan about my patrols. Natalie's got detention and I dunno if they're assigning me a temporary partner."

"Rose?" Emily asked.

"Can't. Professor Smith wants to talk to me about joining Potions club if I have the time. I'll see you later." She waved and headed towards the Potions classroom while Scorpius headed the other way to the Prefect's common room.

"Guess that leaves us," Lorcan said, slinging an arm around Emily and Albus. "Let's go."

The four of them walked to the Library where (thankfully) it didn't seem to crowded, and found a table to accommodate them all.

"So Al, how long until you ask Darcy out then?" Lorcan inquired, as he sat down and leaned back in his chair, eyeing a fifth year at another table.

"What?! What are you- Bloody hell!" Albus, who had just been about to sit down, spluttered violently and completely missed the chair, landing on the ground. Swearing he got up quickly and sat down properly. "What are you on about?" he demanded.

"You didn't hear?" Lorcan asked distractedly, winking at the fifth year when she returned his look.

Albus waved his hands around for Lorcan to elaborate. When he saw his friend's attention was solely on the pretty brunette who was smiling coyly at him from the other table, he kicked Lorcan's chair so that it almost tipped back.

Lorcan gave a cry before leaning forward and gripping onto the table. "Bloody hell, what was that for?"

"What do you mean when am I going to ask out Darcy?" Al gritted out.

"I mean now that she's single, when are you going to pounce?" Al just gaped at him, mouth slightly open like he couldn't decide what to say.

"You do know that she's single, right?" Aiden asked carefully.

"No?!" Albus turned to him. "Is that why she seemed off this morning? What happened? When did it happen? Oh bloody hell, what if someone has already asked her out? But is she okay? Should I go find her?" Albus kept firing out questions rapidly without giving anyone a chance to respond.

"Al! Take a breath and calm down," Emily commanded, putting a hand on his shoulder. She looked around to make sure no one else was paying attention to Albus' mild hysterics. "They broke up last night. Darcy and Rose caught Davies in a… compromising position with Lauren Montague last night on patrols."

"He what?" Albus practically shouted, shooting up from his seat.

"Sshhhh! Are you trying to get us thrown out?!" Emily hissed and pushed him back down into his seat as she looked around to see if Madam Winters was anywhere near. Satisfied that the librarian wasn't in the nearby vicinity, she turned back to Al. "They found Davies and Montague without half their clothes together last night in a broom cupboard. Rose said Darcy broke up with him on the spot."

"But is she okay?" Albus pushed.

"I dunno," Emily said. "She looked relatively… neutral this morning. Davies wasn't at breakfast though and Lauren looked like she was daring people to say something to her."

"But Rose knew? And she didn't tell me?"

"Well you weren't exactly around this morning for her to tell you," Aiden pointed out.

"Oh. Right."

"So, when are you gonna ask her out then?" Lorcan repeated.

"Lorcan, he can't ask her now," Emily scolded. "She's vulnerable. Al can't just go ask her out a day after she broke up with her long time boyfriend. If he does, he's either going to be the rebound boyfriend or get turned down. He needs to wait a while."

"Yeah, and what's wrong with being the rebound?" Lorcan asked before turning to Al. "Look mate, rebound or not she'll still be with you. Isn't that what you want?" Al looked skeptical, so Lorcan continued. "I'm only saying this because given her past history, she's not likely stay single for a while.

"Yeah but what if she turns him down? I mean her break up was yesterday, and it wasn't an amicable one," Aiden pointed out. "I agree with Em, you need to bide your time Al. Maybe wait a while until it's not so recent and she's not so hurt."

Albus pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He'd been waiting for Darcy to be single for forever, but he'd hoped that when she was it'd be an easier path to dating her. But the way she and Davies had broken up caused complications with that.

"I see all of your points to be honest," he began. "Lorcan's right about one thing, Darcy isn't going to remain single. There have always been other guys that wanted to date her, not just me. But-" he hesitated momentarily, "I don't want to be lumped in with all of those other blokes who are just waiting to pounce. I want whatever happens between us- if anything does happen between us- to be real."

They sat in silence for a while before Emily spoke up again. "I have a suggestion if you're open to it." Albus nodded for her to continue. "The problem here is that you need to get Darcy to see you as more than a friend now that she's single, but you also need to spend time with her outside of just class so that other guys have limited time to approach her, right? So here's my idea; ask her to tutor you in some class, like Potions or something. Darcy is really good at Potions and we all know that's not one of your better classes."

"Hey! I do pretty well in Potions," Albus said defensively.

"That's not the point," Emily sighed. "I'm not saying your terrible in Potions, but it's not one of your stronger classes like Charms or even Transfiguration. So have her tutor you. That way you spend time together outside of class and it limits the amount of time other guys have to approach her."

"That's perfect," grinned Lorcan. "Emily Longbottom, who knew you had it in you."

"I do my best," she said, shrugging casually.

"That was so devious," Aiden said in praise. "I'm so turned on right now. Come on."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Lorcan groaned as Emily blushed heavily.

"Way too much information," Albus complained.

Aiden grinned and merely shrugged as he pulled his stuff together and took Emily's hand to leave. "Al, think about it though," Emily said as she let Aiden pull her away.

"It was a pretty good idea," Lorcan grudgingly admitted after the couple had left. "You can kind of take both of our ideas though."

"How so?"

"While she's tutoring you, flirt with her," Lorcan said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Compliment her. Slowly make it obvious that you like her as more than a friend. Then after a month or so, you can make your move."

Albus stared at the table thinking. "You make a good point, mate. I need to stop letting her see me as a friend. I think- oh, hey Scorp." Scorpius had just rushed over to their table looking like he'd run a marathon. "You okay?"

"Darcy. She's not... with… Davies... any-" Scorpius panted as he clutched the table.

"I know. Mate, breathe."

"You... heard? I... ran over here... as soon as Christa... told me," Scorpius gasped, still breathing hard as he sat down.

"Yeah I just found out. We were just trying to figure out what I should do." Albus took the next five minutes to explains what Lorcan and Emily had suggested as Scorpius caught his breath.

"It's a good idea," Scorpius finally commented. "But one change; I think you should get her to tutor you in Charms."

"But that's his best subject," Lorcan pointed out.

"Yeah, so he won't actually have to pay attention to what she's teaching him. And he can pretend to be bad at it at first then 'improve' with her 'teaching'," he remarked.

Albus and Lorcan gaped at him. "My friends are evil geniuses," Lorcan muttered. "That scheme is worthy of me. I'm so proud of you Malfoy."

"But I don't want to deceive her," Albus maintained. "I'm not sure I want to start out whatever relationship we might have by lying to her."

"It's not necessarily lying," Lorcan reasoned. "It's just bending the truth to help you out."

Albus looked at him skeptically. "I dunno, I'll think about it. It sounds good but knowing my luck it'll all backfire on me."

"We'll see mate," Scorpius said, gathering up his stuff. "In the mean time, we need to get to Transfiguration."

Friday, 9pm

That night the Slytherin Quidditch team was practicing fiercely on the pitch.

"Connor! You gotta fake to the left more or else they're gonna know you're throwing it to Derrick!"

Connor O'Brien nodded at Albus' instruction as he caught the quaffle once more and sped off towards the goal hoops. As he approached them, he turned almost completely to the left before springing around and snapping the quaffle straight to his fellow chaser Derrick Montague, who caught it quickly and shot it past their keeper Ellie Robins.

"Much better," Albus shouted as he flew over to Connor and clapped him on the back.

"Thanks," grinned Connor.

"Alright team, that's good for today. Meeting back in the locker room before we're done for the night," Albus called as he flew over towards where Scorpius and Roxanne were. As the three of them landed, he asked, "So how do you think we're looking?"

"Really good Al," Roxanne answered encouragingly. "You're doing a great job."

Scorpius nodded as they walked towards the Slytherin locker room. "Yeah definitely. Though Flint didn't seem to happy, as usual," he said.

Albus rolled his eyes. "Yeah I know, I need to talk to him. It's not my fault McGonagall took away his captaincy because he was failing practically four classes. It's definitely affecting his playing though."

"Let me talk to him," Roxanne said with an angry glint in her eyes. "I can't deal with all the bludgers, and if he's not there backing me up we'll lose. Not to mention his utter fuck up during the match against Hufflepuff."

"Thanks Rox," Albus interrupted, "but I should probably talk to him. I think he resents that I got captain after it was taken from him."

They reached the locker room and entered to find the rest of the team waiting for them.

"Great practice today team. Ellie you're doing great, just keep remembering not to let the chasers fool you with their feints before they try to score. Other Chasers are going to do the same thing. Scorp, Derrick, Connor, you guys are working really well together. Try to mix it up as much as you can so the other team isn't able to predict what you're going to do. Next time, we'll practice those new plays I showed you. If we keep having these kinds of practices I think we'll do really well during the next match."

Michael Flint snorted from the corner.

Albus grimaced and turned towards the seventh year. "Something you want to say Flint?"

"Nah. I mean other than the fact that if I was captain like I should be, then we'd more than do well," he said cockily. "We'd flatten them."

"Yeah well you're not captain are you?" Roxanne snapped at him. "It's not Al's fault you're so bloody stupid that you can't pass-"

"Rox," Al warned, though he sent her a thankful glance. Turning back to the other Beater, he asked, "Flint, do we have a problem here?"

Flint moved forward, looking like he very much wanted to argue more, but before he could say anything Derrick Montague pulled him back and muttered something to him. Flint scowled and turned back to glare at Albus. "Nope. Nothing, Captain," he said lacing the last word with as much sarcasm as he could.

"Good, then we're done here," Albus said coolly. Turning back to the others he said, "It'd be a good idea to check out the match tomorrow for everyone. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are the only teams we have left to play."

The others nodded, after which Albus dismissed them all. Flint left with Montague, but not before throwing another scathing look at Albus.

"Roxie, I love you for defending me, but you can't antagonize Flint," Albus told his cousin. "He's your partner and no matter how you feel about the guy, out there you have to be a team."

"I know but he's such a troll," Roxanne complained. "Plus no one picks on my favorite cousin. You're doing a great job as captain."

Albus grinned at her before throwing an arm over her shoulder and ruffling her hair. "Thanks Rox." She grinned back and the three Slytherins began walked back to the castle. As they did, they spotted someone familiar ahead of them, and Roxanne called out to her.

"Oi, Melly."

Melanie Nott turned around and waited for them to catch up to her. "I thought I told you not to call me 'Melly,' shortstack," she said, though there was a hint of amusement to her comment.

Roxanne shrugged nonchalantly. "What are you doing out here?"

"Just walking. My dorm mates were bugging me with all the rumors about why Wood broke up with Davies. Latest I hear is that Davies is a member of some secret group that has orgies in the spare classrooms, and when Wood found out about it she wanted to join but they wouldn't let her," Melanie quipped. Roxanne burst out laughing while Scorpius and Albus looked at Melanie skeptically and slightly horrified respectively. "Needless to say I got out of there pretty quickly when the topic of discussion turned to who else was possibly involved in that 'secret group,' and the names of people I know started being included."

"Merlin, the rumors are really getting out of hand," Albus said. "Poor Darcy."

Melanie rolled her eyes. "I thought we were done with the lovesick Albus," she muttered. "Al, I'm sure Darcy is fine. She's a big girl, she can take care of herself."

Albus didn't argue back knowing it was pointless. "I need to talk to Rose and hear what actually happened. You think she'd be up to meeting in the kitchens later?"

"I don't see why not," Scorpius said. "It's Friday night she's probably not doing homework."

Melanie snorted. "Doubt that."

"Mels, be nice," Albus warned her. "I'll just drop by Gryffindor and see if she's up for it. Also, Scorp don't you have patrols in like twenty minutes?"

"Shit," Scorpius swore, "I forgot. And Natalie has detention, so it's just me. I'll see you lot later." He waved and sprinted towards the castle. The other three followed at a slower pace, not talking about much in particular, and when they reached the castle Roxanne and Melanie headed towards the Slytherin dungeons while Albus walked towards the staircases leading to Gryffindor tower.

Once at the painting, he gave the Fat Lady the password that Rose had told him when they'd gotten back to school, and she let him in. Technically passwords weren't supposed to be shared between houses, but the Hogwarts students had become pretty relaxed about it given that a lot of them had family in different houses. As he stepped through the portrait, he found Rose sitting with Emily on a couch, whispering quietly.

"Am I interrupting?" he asked.

"Oh, hi Al," Rose greeted. "Not really, we were just talking about class. What's up?"

"So I hear you had an interesting night yesterday," he said, without any preamble.

"You could say that. I was going to tell you, but you weren't at breakfast. I figured someone would eventually tell you."

Albus waved his hand. "It's okay, I just came to see if you wanted to go to the kitchens. I've been hearing all sorts of versions of the story all day and I thought maybe you could tell me the right one?"

Rose hesitated for a moment before nodding her head. She wasn't sure how much she should tell Albus, whether she should tell him about Darcy's other concerns even before the break up. She decided that it was still Darcy's business and she had no right to tell Albus what the other girl had confided in her. "Um sure, let's go. Em do you want to come?"

"Nah, you guys go ahead. I've already heard the story, and I need to get my beauty sleep before the match tomorrow morning."

"You're not hanging out with Aiden tonight?" Albus asked.

"Nope. Tonight I am apparently 'the enemy'," she said sarcastically, referring to the Quidditch match between her boyfriend and her house the next day. "Have fun." She turned and walked towards the stairs that led up to the girl's dorm.

Albus turned back to Rose and offered his arm. "Shall we?"

She smiled and took his arm. "We shall."

Saturday, 8:30am

Ella hurried through the castle corridors on her way to the Entrance Hall. She'd woken up extra early that morning so that she could go down to the kitchens for breakfast and skip the Great Hall altogether. Ever since Thursday night, she'd been avoiding James (not that she'd acknowledge that to anyone of course). She knew that Rose and Emily were suspicious that something was going on, but they had yet to figure it out and she was going to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Reaching the front doors of the castle, she peeked outside quickly and looked over the grounds. It was still a bit early for anyone to be heading to the locker rooms for a match that started at ten, and her plan was to get their early and hide out in the girl's section of the Gryffindor locker room until the entire team was there, thereby avoiding any alone time with James.

Was she going to great lengths to avoid an awkward conversation that was bound to eventually happen? Yes, and she knew that. But she couldn't help it, and she was doing everything possible to put the talk off for as long as she could. James was her best friend's cousin, her other friend's brother, her team mate, and more importantly her friend. In her opinion all her efforts were for good purpose. She didn't want to lose his friendship and make things weird between them. Additionally, she still didn't know what to say to him. She'd barely been able to come up with reasons for why they couldn't date during their last conversation, and Ella didn't think she'd be able to even concentrate properly in his presence if he tried to persuade her of the opposite again.

But why was she so adamantly opposed to the idea of dating James? Ella knew she could come up with a million (flimsy) reasons- not reasons, excuses. She also knew that like last time, he would argue against all of them and probably be right. But she couldn't help it. She was terrified of the idea of opening herself up to James. It had been different with Andrew and her other past dates. None of them had made her feel the way James did. None of them had connected with her as quickly as James had. And that scared her, that in just such a short time James could make her feel so comfortable and read her better than anyone else ever had before.

As she approached the Gryffindor locker room, she scanned the area around her. So far so good she thought as she paced towards the door and let herself in quickly. Hurrying over to her locker, she fumbled around with the lock on it so she could retrieve the book she'd stored in it the previous day and retreat to the girl's changing rooms.

"You've been avoiding me," came an amused voice from behind her.

Ella froze. Fuck fuck fuck she mentally swore as she slowly turned around. Please let this be a hallucination.

But it wasn't. James stood in the doorway of the Captain's office, arms crossed as he leaned against the door frame, an eyebrow raised as he looked at Ella.

She groaned in frustration. "How are you even here?" she demanded, not bothering with any pretenses. "I sent a second year up to your dorm to make sure you were still sleeping."

He folded an old looking piece of parchment up and put it in his robes pocket before answering. "I know. I heard him come in and check. So after he explained why he was there, I bribed him with ten chocolate frogs and some free Weasley joke products to tell you I was still asleep," he answered cheekily.

Ella gaped at him. "Can't trust anyone anymore," she muttered.

"Oh come off it Ella," James groaned. "Hasn't this gone on for long enough? Will you just talk to me?"

"We are talking," she said obstinately, mentally praying that someone would walk through the door and interrupt them.

James frowned. "You know what I mean. You've been avoiding me ever since we kissed and I told you that I fancied you."

"I haven't been avoiding you James," she lied automatically. "I've just been busy."

He rolled his eyes. "So you were just 'busy' yesterday when you skipped breakfast because you saw me at the Gryffindor table? Or what about when you sprinted in the other direction when you saw me in the Transfiguration corridor?" he asked skeptically. "Really Ella, you can do better than that."

She glared at him, but then eventually gave up. "Fine," she sighed. "Yes I've been avoiding you. And if you really liked me, you'd let me avoid you."

His face scrunched up in confusion. "That makes no sense," James said dryly.

"Yes it does," Ella declared. "If you really liked me, you'd let me avoid you until this wasn't awkward anymore." Merlin, I am really pulling this out of nowhere, she thought.

"You're the one that's making it awkward by avoiding me," he argued back. "Dear Merlin, are you really that opposed to this?" he asked, pointing back and forth between them. "Ella, just talk to me. We've always been able to talk before, what's different now?"

"What's different? You ruined everything!" she cried. "We were good friends and you ruined that by making me feel all these… feelings."

James looked at her incredulously and shook his head. "Are you serious? You're blaming me for your feelings? Christ, Ella I knew it was going to be hard to make you see, but now you're just making it hard for no reason."

"Well if I'm making this so hard, why are you still trying?" she asked weakly.

"Because I bloody well fancy you, don't I. A lot actually," he exclaimed. "I have for a while, and I want to give us a chance." Walking towards her, he grasped her hands softly. "I'd stop if I knew you didn't feel the same way. But you can't tell me that you don't Ella. I felt it in that kiss, and I know you did too. You couldn't tell me that you didn't fancy me Thursday night because you do. Why are you lying to yourself?"

"I'm not," she protested feebly, though she knew it was a lie. "James, we're friends. That's it."

"No, it's not," he replied softly. He dropped her hands and moved backwards slightly. "But there's something else that's stopping you from letting yourself just feel. So until that's gone, I'm backing down. Because that's what you think you want, and I'm not going to push you. I never ever want to make you feel uncomfortable."

She stared at him with a surprised look. "You- you're giving up?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Not giving up. Just waiting." She looked confused. "Waiting until you realize that there's more here than just friendship. Waiting until you realize that I didn't make you have feelings, you developed them all on your own. Waiting until you're not scared anymore."

Ella exhaled in frustration "James, I'm not scared, I just-"

She was interrupted by the door to the locker room swinging open and Liam Finnegan and JD Wood entering.

"Oh, there you are," Liam said to James. "We looked for you at breakfast."

"Yeah, sorry mates. I just had to talk to Ella about one of the plays before the match," he said smoothly, not taking his eyes off Ella's. She dropped her gaze and turned to her locker.

The other two nodded without question as more of their teammates began trickling in.

Before going back to his office, James moved closer to Ella while the others were chatting loudly and not paying any attention to them. "And Ella?" She barely turned her head, but he knew she was listening. "I'm a very patient guy. I can wait a long time," he murmured softly in her ear.

She shuddered slightly at the feel of his breath on her skin, but when she turned around he was already retreating. Turning back to her locker, she closed her eyes and momentarily leaned her forehead against the surface before she grabbed her robes and went to the girl's changing area.

Saturday, 9:30am

Scorpius hurried towards the Quidditch pitch. He had gotten back so late from patrols the night before that when Albus shook him awake in the morning he'd told his best friend to just save him a seat in the stands so that he could sleep in more.

As he rushed through the corridor, he began to hear voices up ahead of him.

"Callum, go away!" the female voice hissed.

"Darce, please just listen to me, I prom-"

"No!"

As Scorpius rounded the corner, he saw Darcy and Callum in an argument. Callum appeared to be holding onto Darcy's arm as she struggled to push him away.

"Just leave me alone," Darcy snapped, pulling away from him. "I told you I don't want to talk to you."

"But if you'll just list-"

"She said leave her alone," Scorpius declared as he walked towards them.

"This is none of your business Malfoy," Callum sneered, turning to glare at him.

"Maybe not, Davies" Scorpius agreed, "but she said to leave her alone, and you're not listening. That makes it my business." Callum stared defiantly at Scorpius, who raised his eyebrows as if challenging the Ravenclaw seventh year. "Plus you're probably running late for your match," Scorpius added, knowing he'd care about that. Callum looked at his watch quickly before quietly swearing and letting go of Darcy's arm.

"This isn't over Darce. You have to talk to me sometime," Callum said as he turned around and left.

"Keep thinking that," Darcy called after him, a frown crossing her pretty face as she glared at her ex-boyfriend's back. "Thank you," she said turning to Scorpius. "He doesn't seem to be taking the hint."

"No problem," Scorpius replied. "I have plenty of experience with unwanted advances from an ex."

Darcy laughed softly. "I'm sure you do. Ava did seem pretty unrelenting during New Years. Are you going to the match?" Scorpius nodded. "Good, we can walk together so I'm not surprise attacked again," she joked. Scorpius smiled, and they turned to walk towards the Entrance Hall. "So where's Al?" Darcy asked. "Usually where one of you is, the other isn't far behind."

"He got up early to get good seats for the match," Scorpius answered. "I had late patrols last night so I wanted to sleep in, but he's in full on captain mode trying to scout the other teams." Darcy nodded, taking a scarf out from the pocket of her coat. "Are those Gryffindor colors?" Scorpius asked.

Darcy nodded. "Well, my brother is on the team."

Scorpius hid his skeptical look. "Right."

"It just so happens that my ex-boyfriend is on the opposing team," she shrugged casually and he nodded. After a few moments of silence as they walked, she sighed. "Would it make me a total spiteful ex if, hypothetically, I happened to be rooting against him?"

Scorpius laughed. "Not at all. I mean you are rooting for your brother, right?" he asked, smirking. "Not necessarily against Ravenclaw…"

"Of course," she affirmed, trying to keep a straight face as Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "Then again, given the circumstances, I'd probably be totally justified in actually rooting against Ravenclaw," she mused.

"Completely," Scorpius agreed. "And of course I'm rooting for both teams to just knock each other out so that Slytherin will eventually win."

"You'd still have to face us again," she reminded him. "And you barely beat us last time."

"Two hundred and fifty to two hundred is not barely beating you."

"Yeah but we were up by a hundred points when Al caught the snitch, so I'd say it was close."

"Only because Ellie got knocked out by that stray bludger and we didn't have a reserve player!" he argued.

"And it was Flint who hit that stray bludger, not us," she prompted.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I was barely able to restrain Al from killing him after the match."

Darcy laughed. "Well we're going to just have to agree to disagree and hope that the points work out to put us back in the finals against each other, yeah?"

"I can live with that," he smiled as they reached the stands at the pitch. Thinking of Al, he asked, "Do you want to sit with us?"

Darcy hesitated before answering. "I would, but my friends are saving me a seat. And Christa wants a full report on both teams after the match because she can't be here, so I should probably pay attention to the game."

So sitting with Al would be distracting for her, he thought. That's a good sign. "No problem, I'll see you around then."

"Scorpius, thanks again. For, you know, helping me."

"Anytime Wood."

Before he turned around, she called out after him. "Scorpius, um, will- will you tell Al I said hi?"

"'Course," he replied. "Anything else?" She shook her head. "Okay. I'll see ya."

Making his way up to the Slytherin stands, he smiled. Maybe Al's crush wasn't so hopeless after all.

Saturday, 11:30am

Two hours later, the game was in full swing and the spectators screaming at and for the players.

"AND THERE'S LILY POTTER, STREAKING UP THE FIELD, BOTH TURNERS ARE ON HER TRAIL AND- OH THAT WAS CLOSE!" Lysander Scamander exclaimed into the megaphone as a bludger almost hit the youngest Potter. "POTTER DROPS THE QUAFFLE, WITH PEAKES OF RAVENCLAW RETRIEVING IT."

Ella immediately set off after Amy Peakes, who was flanked by the Andrew and Evie Turner. Looking to her right, she saw Lily and James were even with her, all of them about 15 feet behind the opposing Chasers. Shouting out to Lily and Ella, James yelled "Defense 7!" The two girls nodded and both accelerated to both sides of Peakes, while James dropped below her and yelled the same thing to Freddie and JD, the Gryffindor beaters.

"THERE GOES WEASLEY AND WOOD TOWARDS THE BLUDGERS. LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE SWINGING AND- OH, RIGHT IN THE ARM!" Both Freddie and JD had hit the bludgers straight at the Turners. Forced to veer off path, they'd both halted slightly, forgetting that Peakes was in the middle of them. While one bludger missed, the other hit Amy's arm, and she dropped the quaffle straight into James' hands.

"AND POTTER, JAMES THAT IS, RACES OFF TOWARDS THE RAVENCLAW GOALS WITH THE QUAFFLE, FLANKED BY HIS SISTER AND ZABINI- WHOOPS AND THE OTHER ZABINI AIMS A BLUDGER STRAIGHT AT JAMES POTTER BUT THERE'S WOOD AND HE'S DEFLECTED IT AND- GOAL TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Though Aiden had sent a bludger towards James, JD was able to intercept it and hit it towards the Ravenclaw keeper, Ben Taylor, instead. Forced to dodge the bludger, Taylor left the hoops unguarded and James shot the quaffle straight through.

"AND THAT'S AN EVEN SCORE, THIRTY TO THIRTY."

After momentarily celebrating the goal, the game resumed once more. Andrew Turner streaked through the other players with the quaffle, dodging bludgers and the opposing team members. Lily tailed him and was close enough that he couldn't take a chance at throwing the quaffle without the possibility of her intercepting it. Flying around the hoops, he tried to lose her, but was stopped when Madame Hooch's whistle blew.

"AND THAT'S A FOUL ON RAVENCLAW BEATER CORNER!" While Andrew and Lily had been flying behind the hoops, Zach had aimed a bludger at the Gryffindor keeper, Liam Finnegan, though he wasn't supposed to when the chasers were outside of a thirty foot radius of the goals. "REFEREE CALLS A TIMEOUT."

James quickly flew down to where Liam had landed and was holding his head. The rest of the team followed. "Are you okay?" he asked his friend.

"What?" Liam replied, seeming dazed. He winced when James lightly touched his head. "Fuck, ow!"

"Shit," James swore. "You might have a concussion."

Just then the school nurse, Madame Weatherly, arrived and began to take a look at Liam. After a few minutes she turned to James. "Sorry Mr. Potter, he can't play anymore today."

James sighed and nodded. "Coote," he turned to the fourth year reserve player, "I know most of your experience is in Chasing, but can you play Keeper for the rest of the game?"

Devon Coote nodded, though he looked a little pale. "Sure captain."

James turned to the rest of the team. "Alright, here's the plan. Freddie, JD, concentrate on aiming bludgers constantly at their chasers. Throw them off as much as you can. If you get the chance, take out Taylor. Even if you need to foul him like Corner did to us and they get a penalty shot. We need to even this up. Charlotte, any idea where the snitch is?"

"I saw it once, but then I lost it in the sun," Charlotte replied. "The only good thing is Davies seems really distracted, so I don't think he'll find it."

"Okay, well try to catch it as fast as you can. Taylor's not gonna let us score much more and their Chasers are playing well. We're gonna need that hundred and fifty points."

James nodded to Madame Hooch, who signaled the time out was over. Taking the quaffle, she threw it to James. He then threw it to his sister for the penalty shot. She waited for a few seconds before flying towards the left hoop, Taylor's weak side. Just as Lily was about the throw it through, she faked the throw, then sent the quaffle straight through the middle hoop.

"GOAL! LILY POTTER FAKES OUT TAYLOR AND SENDS IT THROUGH THE CENTER HOOP. FORTY TO THIRTY FOR GRYFFINDOR."

After that, however, things went south for the Gryffindors. The Ravenclaw Chasers proved to be too good for Coote, and were able to get the majority of their shots past him. On the other hand, Taylor seemed to be improving on the other side of the field. He was able to stop every single goal attempt after the penalty, and the Gryffindors soon found themselves down 40-200.

"Charlotte, the snitch!" James shouted towards his seeker as she flew near him.

"I'm trying!" she yelled back, still scouring everywhere. "I just-" Charlotte broke off and immediately shot off across the field.

"AND I THINK- YES THAT'S RIGHT JONES HAS SPOTTED THE SNITCH. DAVIES IS RACING AFTER HER, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S TOO FAR BEHIND AND- HOLY CIRCE DID YOU SEE THAT?! ELLA ZABINI IS DOWN FROM A BLUDGER HIT BY CORNER!"

"Ella!" James and Lily shouted at the same time as they saw their teammate get hit straight on in the arm. James immediately shot towards Ella as she lost hold of her broom and slid off. Catching her in mid-air, he held onto her tightly with one arm, while roughly steering with the other. He didn't even bother to see what had happened to the quaffle she had been holding.

"BUT WAIT- YES THAT'S THE SNITCH, AND THE GAME IS OVER! CHARLOTTE JONES HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH FOR GRYFFINDOR BUT RAVENCLAW WINS TWO HUNDRED TO ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY!"

James landed as best he could and gently set Ella down, but kept his arms supporting her. "Are you okay?" he asked frantically. She nodded her head, but he could see that she was trying to hold back the tears. "Merlin, Ella… you gave me a fucking heart attack," he breathed as he tried to sit her down. She gave a sort of whimpered laugh as she sat down on the ground carefully.

The rest of the team landed beside them as Madame Weatherly arrived, muttering something about how barbaric Quidditch was and that it should be outlawed. She began to examine Ella's arm carefully, waving her wand and muttering a few spells under her breath.

"Is she okay?" James demanded, but the nurse just waved her hand at him as she concentrated.

"Ella!" Aiden made his way through the crowd towards his sister, followed by Rose, Emily, Albus, Scorpius and Lorcan. Some of the Ravenclaw team members also hovered close by. "Oh Merlin, I'm gonna kill Zach."

"I'll join you," James muttered, looking darkly at Zach.

"It's Quidditch!" Zach protested weakly from nearby.

Ella gave a shaky laugh. "Aiden, he's your team mate. He was just doing his job guys. I'm fine, I- Ahhh!" she suddenly yelled out.

"Sorry Miss Zabini," the nurse apologized tersely. "I need to take you to the hospital wing. Your arm is fractured badly, and you're going to need to stay overnight at the least as it heals." Ella nodded as Madame Weatherly conjured a stretcher. "You can all come visit her later, not now."

Immediately everyone began to protest.

"I'm her brother I should be allowed-"

"But we're her best friends-"

"I'm not leaving her!"

"Silence!" Professor McGonagall had arrived along with Madame Hooch, and everyone stopped yelling. "Those who wish to visit Miss Zabini will listen to Madame Weatherly or not be allowed to visit at all, understood?"

The group nodded reluctantly.

"Good, now everyone can disperse to where they need to be."

The Ravenclaw team headed back to their locker rooms, with Zach sending one last apologetic look toward Ella. The Gryffindor team all promised to come and visit Ella later as they too headed back to their locker room, only James staying behind.

"You really scared us," Rose said as Ella climbed onto the stretcher.

"It's fine, really," Ella replied. "And please tell Zach not to listen to my brother or James. I don't blame him."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about him, just feel better okay? We'll come by the hospital wing later." She and Emily hugged Ella as delicately as they could and the others did the same before leaving. The only one who remained was James.

As Madame Weatherly went to collect her things from the medical tent, he moved closer to the floating stretcher. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Ella smiled and looked down. "Yeah James, I'm fine. But I suppose if I'd fallen on the ground it could've been worse, so thanks for catching me."

James sighed sharply and massaged his temples with his fingers before taking her non-injured hand in his. He looked down as he played with her fingers. "Christ, you have no idea how scared I was," he murmured.

Ella's breath hitched. "James, I'm fine. Really," she insisted.

He nodded, still looking at her fingers as he played with them. Before she could say anything else, he brought her hand up to his mouth and quickly kissed the back of it. "I'll come see you later," he promised, and then walked away before she could react.

Ella sat staring at his retreating back, her heart fluttering, the back of her hand tingling slightly. Madame Weatherly returned and took her uninjured wrist. "Miss Zabini, are you okay? Your pulse is racing."

Ella looked at the nurse and yanked her wrist back immediately. "Um yeah. Sorry, I'm fine. Just adrenaline… left from the match."

The nurse looked at her strangely before using her wand to direct the stretcher back to the castle.

Saturday, 7:30pm

"Rose!"

Rose and Emily both turned around when they heard her name being called to find Zach walking over to them. They'd just finished visiting Ella in the hospital wing, and learned she had to stay there until her arm had healed. The rest of the team had also visited her, as well as Aiden, Albus, Scorpius and Lorcan, until Madame Weatherly told them visiting hours were drawing to a close. Lucky for Ella, she at least had Liam Finnegan to keep her company overnight, though he was still pretty out of it from being hit in the head with a bludger.

"I've been looking for you everywhere," he said when he caught up to them. "How is Ella? Is she okay?"

"She's fine Zach." Rose smiled at his thoughtfulness. "She wanted me to tell you it's okay and not to listen to Aiden and James."

Zach sighed. "I still feel terrible. I mean not just because it's Ella, I'd feel bad breaking anyone's arm, but still."

"She's fine," Emily assured him. "She just needs to stay for a few nights because fractures take a little longer to heal than broken bones, that's all."

Zach nodded. "Okay, well we're having our victory party in a while. I know your team lost, but do you guys want to come? I'm sure Aiden wants you there Emily."

"He and I actually have our own plans," Emily replied. "But thanks Zach. Rose, I have to go meet Aiden now, so I'll see you later?" Rose nodded and Emily left the two to go meet her boyfriend.

"So, are you up for it babe? It'll be fun," Zach said, taking Rose's hands in his and drawing her close to him. "I want to spend some time with you." He trailed a few kisses down her neck.

"I can't Zach, I have to study," she said apologetically.

He groaned. "Rose, it's Saturday!"

"Yeah, and if I come to the party and drink, I won't be able to study tomorrow," she countered. "Plus I… I'm not very happy with your friends."

Zach looked at her quizzically.

"Andrew and Callum," she clarified. "I'd rather not hang out around them after what they did to two of my friends."

"Rose, you can't hold that against them," he replied without thinking.

Rose raised her eyebrows and moved backwards. "What are you talking about, of course I can. They both cheated on two of my close friends and I'd rather not be around them at all. Or Amy and Lauren for that matter."

"Look Rose, I understand," Zach said, carefully backtracking. "It's just… they're not bad people okay? They made mistakes."

"Yeah and those mistakes hurt my friends. I'm not saying they're bad people Zach, or that you can't hang out with them. I'm just saying that I don't want to hang out with them. And considering that they're all Ravenclaws, I'm assuming that they'll be at the party."

"So that's it? You're just never going to come to any of the parties my house throws?" Zach asked incredulously.

"Maybe. It's not like we need a party to hang out," Rose retorted. "If you want, we can just spend time together."

Zach snorted lightly. "Doing what, studying?"

Rose dropped his hands and narrowed her eyes at him. "No. I was going to say we could have a dinner date, just the two of us," she said coolly. "But obviously you just want to party with your arsehole friends so why don't you go do that." She turned and began walking down the hall.

"Rose, that's not fair. Of course I want to go to my house's party, we just won our match today! You can't be mad at me for that!"

"I didn't say you couldn't go Zach," she snapped. "And I'm not mad at you for wanting to go. I told you why I didn't want to go and then you started defending your friends' actions. That's what I'm mad about, that you would defend their cheating as 'mistakes.' That you would defend them when they actively hurt others. They hurt people and they need to own up to it, not make excuses." Zach stood speechless, not sure what to say. "Just like you hurt Scorpius when you and Eddie verbally attacked his family," she finished.

Zach blanched. "He told you about that?"

"No. Because being the decent person he is, he didn't want to get me involved. Al told me, because your attack was completely unwarranted. I couldn't even believe it, that you would be that awful to him."

"Why are you defending Malfoy, his family was evil Rose!"

"He is not defined by his family," Rose snapped. "Just like I'm not defined by mine. And I happen to like his family, they've always been nice to me. They have changed. You don't even get it do you? You and your friends criticized Al for defending Scorpius. Tell him his parents shouldn't even allow him to be friends with Scorpius, but don't you get it? Our parents fought to make sure there wouldn't be prejudices like that anymore. And you guys just mocked it."

"Rose, I'm sorry I didn't think-"

"No you didn't," she interrupted him. She pinched the bridge of her nose, sufficiently annoyed with how her evening was progressing. "I just- just go to your party Zach," Rose sighed. "I'm not in the mood to do this right now, and you should go celebrate your victory. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Rose, I don't want to leave it like this."

"Yeah well I don't want to talk about it anymore today. Just go Zach. We'll talk tomorrow," she repeated. She turned and started walking back towards her dorms. As she turned around the corner, she hesitated for a second, but then continued on without looking back.

As she walked, she thought about what had happened. Why did it seem like lately everything with Zach was so hard. Their relationship had started out really well in the beginning, but ever since the party before winter holidays, they just seemed to be fighting most of the time. Was it supposed to be this way? All couples fought, she supposed. Merlin knew her parents and most of her aunt and uncles definitely did. And Victoire had always told her that some fighting was a healthy part of being a couple. But her older cousin had also cautioned her that it shouldn't be a majority of the relationship, and that seemed to be the problem in this case. She and Zach seemed to be fighting more than they got along presently. And it always seemed to be over a difference of opinion, which was not likely to be something easily resolved. It also was almost always about his friends, who she was less than fond of.

Lost in her troubled relationship thoughts, Rose didn't look ahead as she climbed up the moving staircases. Consequently, she forgot to jump over the trick step just before the top of the staircase.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, as her left foot fell through. Luckily she put her hands out to avoid hitting her head on the steps, but when she recovered she found that she was stuck up to her waist in the staircase. "Damn it," she swore.

After ten minutes of attempting to lift herself out of the step in various ways, she finally gave up and prayed that someone to come along to help her. Of course it was about eight at night and her fellow Gryffindors (whose common room she was nearest) were more than likely sulking together from their defeat. The other nearest common room belonged to the Ravenclaws, who were probably all already well into their victory party.

Luckily, five minutes later she heard some footsteps behind her and a soft chuckle. "Oh Weasels," came a familiar voice. Scorpius stepped around her and she looked up at him pitifully as he sat on the stairs beside her, smiling. "Stuck are we?"

Rose send him a quick glare, but then laughed when she saw his playful expression. "I thought I'd be stuck here for the entire night," she sighed. "Help? Please?"

He shot her an amused look before putting his hands under her arms. "I'm gonna lift you, but you need to hold onto me, okay?" She nodded immediately and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Okay, one… two… three!" On the last count he quickly sprang up and lifted her along with him. However, Scorpius forgot to take into account the last step behind him, and he ended up falling backwards onto the landing, with Rose on top of him. "Oomph!"

"Oh Merlin, Scorpius I'm so sorry," Rose exclaimed as she loosened her arms from around his neck. She lifted her head up to see his face. "Are you okay?"

He was staring at her with a peculiar expression that she couldn't read. "Um yeah, fine."

"Okay. Good. Sorry again," she repeated.

"It's fine," he assured her again.

"So, uh…" she stammered, not knowing what to say and not noticing him trying to shift from beneath her.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Um, well you're still on me and-"

"Oh Christ, sorry." Rose immediately got off of Scorpius and helped him up. He immediately regretted the loss of her touch when she let go of his hand, but was also thankful as he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable with his physical reaction to their body contact. "So what are you doing up here anyways?" she asked.

"Christa wants me to tell Natalie that if she get's anymore detentions on our patrol night, they're going to have to take away her prefect badge."

"You had to patrol alone last night?"

"Yeah. Neither Christa or O'Connor could do it with me, so I told them I'd be fine alone," Scorpius said. "Wasn't too bad. A little lonely, but I made up for it by making the couples I found walk with me," he joked.

Rose laughed with him. "Well, I mean, if you want I can patrol with you next time if you're alone," she offered.

Scorpius looked surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah," she answered. "Could be fun. And it'll show McGonagall, Christa, and Killian that we work well together. You know, for next year."

Scorpius smirked. "Good idea. Alright, I'll let our Head Girl know. It'll be hard and pointless to replace Natalie halfway through her last year as prefect anyway."

"Perfect." She smiled and turned in the direction of her dorm. "See you later then?"

"Definitely," he replied. She smiled and then walked away, leaving him behind with that pesky fluttering feeling in his stomach. Well, he thought to himself, there goes four whole days of progress in trying to suppress those feelings.

Sunday, 3am

Ella awoke suddenly when she heard a creaking sound in the Hospital Wing. The curtains around her bed weren't drawn, and she looked to her left to see Liam still in his cot sleeping peacefully. He had taken a sleep potion from Madame Weatherly, but Ella hadn't wanted one. She hadn't counted on a storm starting outside though. Ever since she was little, she'd been scared of thunder and lightning. Back at home, when she was much younger (and even sometimes still), she'd go to Aiden's room whenever there was a storm. He'd always let her stay with him, telling her stories until she fell asleep. Now she wished that she'd taken Madame Weatherly up on her offer of a sleep potion.

But instead she was alone with a knocked out teammate and creepy sounding noises. Grabbing her wand from her bedside table, she cast a lighting charm and looked around warily.

"Is anyone there?" she whispered. She turned to look to her left again to look down the Wing. When she turned back to her right, her light shined on a person and she screamed, then immediately clapped her hand over her mouth. James was standing before her, pulling off a cloak.

"Sshhh, shhhh," he whispered, holding out his hands. "Sorry, it's just me."

She dropped her hand and clutched her chest and breathed heavily. Sending him a glare, she asked, "What in the bloody hell are you doing? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly. "I just… I remembered you didn't take the sleeping potion earlier, and I know you don't like storms. So I thought I'd come and check on you."

"Oh." Her glare immediately softened at his thoughtfulness and she took another deep breath. "Um, thanks."

He smiled. "No problem. Can I sit?" She nodded and he sat on the chair by her bed. "I really didn't mean to scare you," he repeated. "Probably should've taken off the cloak before I came in."

"It's fine, really," she reassured him. "Merlin knows Al and the boys have used it enough that I should be used to it. I was just a little on edge because of the storm. And Liam's totally out, so he's no help."

James laughed softly. "Oh, I brought some sustenance." He lifted a basket that he'd been holding and started taking items out of it out of it. "I wasn't sure if you were hungry, but…" he trailed off as she just stared at the food. "You don't have to eat it," he added quickly.

"No, it's- thank you," she offered quickly. "Actually I am a little hungry. Healing takes energy and food would probably help with that."

James smiled and tossed her a blueberry muffin, which she caught easily one handed. "The elves were already making breakfast when I went to the kitchens," he explained as he took one for himself.

They chatted a bit as they ate, mostly about the Quidditch standings and what chances Gryffindor still had, strategically avoiding the other topic that both of them were still thinking about.

"The good thing is that we only lost by ten points. So Slytherin is in first with two fifty, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are tied for second at two hundred, but we're only ten points behind them with one ninety. If we beat Hufflepuff by a large margin in the next game and the Slytherin-Ravenclaw game is close, we still stand a chance of making it to the finals."

"Yeah," Ella agreed, "but Hufflepuff is looking pretty strong, especially with Darcy as keeper. She blocked a lot of their goal attempts in the last game, and the only reason Slytherin won was because Al caught the snitch at a good time. I do think Slytherin can beat Ravenclaw, but it'll be close. As much as I hate to admit it, the Ravenclaw chasers are really strong together."

James nodded and then chuckled. "Yeah, but Roxie is a really precise beater. She's knocked multiple people out on more than one occasion."

Ella laughed and looked down, fiddling around with the muffin wrapper. They sat in silence for a few moments, and when she looked up James was staring at her. When she met his eyes, he looked away quickly.

"James," she began, deciding to bite the bullet. He nodded, indicating that he was listening, but still avoided her eyes. "James, look at me please." He slowly lifted his gaze to meet hers. "I'm sorry. About earlier," she clarified. "You're right, I am scared. I'm scared about what all of this means; you, me, these... feelings. You have to realize given everything that's happening in my life right now, I'm not in a good position to be in a relationship."

"What do you-" he began, but she cut him off.

"I mean with what's going on with my parents. And that whole thing with Andrew. I feel like I can't trust my own judgment anymore. I mean I thought Andrew was a great guy, and look what happened. And then this whole thing with my parents. I thought my dad was… I mean they've been married for seventeen years and even they're having issues, so what makes you think that we can make it?"

James' face look pained. "Ella, I'm not your dad. And I'm definitely not Turner," he told her firmly.

"But look at your past James," she said without thinking. "You go through girls so quickly. Who's to say I'm not just another one." A look of hurt crossed James' face, and Ella immediately regretted it. "James, I-I'm sorry. I mean- I didn't mean-"

"That's not fair," James cut her off. "First of all, I am not that guy anymore. Sure, I used to date a lot of girls in fifth and sixth year, but that's all in the past. I haven't even had a girlfriend or dated anyone in over a year. Secondly, I have never cheated on any of them. Ever. So how is that even relevant?" He stared defiantly at her and she looked surprised. "You have no idea how I feel about you. How for the past six months, ever since you visited last July, I haven't even been able to think about another girl. So don't you dare bring up my past when I haven't been like that for quite a while. It's not relevant to our situation."

Ella gaped at him. "James, I'm- I'm sorry, I didn't- I shouldn't have-" He cut her off again by raising a hand.

"I know you're scared. I understand that you're hurt and you're having a hard time trusting people right now," he said. "But you know you can trust me. Why else would you have told me about your parents Ella? Me and no one else," he reminded her. She sat speechless. "It's because you do trust me. You're grasping at straws right now because you're scared of what you're feeling, not because you think you can't trust me or yourself."

She caught her breath, not knowing what to say.

"But it's okay. I told you I'd wait and I meant it. I'll wait until you realize that I would never hurt you. I'll wait until you realize that I'm completely serious about all of this. I'll wait until you realize that you and I have a connection that's not so easy to just brush aside." He stood up and moved closer to her bed. "I'll wait because you're worth it, and you're going to realize this all very soon," he whispered. She closed her eyes as he leaned forwards, smoothed her hair back, and softly kissed her forehead. "In the mean time, I'll be your friend. I'll be whatever you want me to be. Sleep well Ella."

When she opened her eyes, he was already gone.

AN: So, worth the wait? Or do you want to totally kill me ;). Any kind of review would be lovely!

xoxo Tara