"So then, Al. Cannons or Harpies?"
Ron helped himself to another Chocolate Frog as he grinned at his nephew, throwing the all-important question to him. Harry raised his head in interest. Hugo hid his snigger. All four boys were currently sitting in Harry, Ron, Hugo and James' shared room, hiding from Mrs Weasley, Hermione and anyone else who might rope them into cleaning the house or researching in the library.
"Neither," Al replied. Ron and Harry's jaws dropped.
"But – what – you must like Quidditch!" Ron spluttered. "You can't be a wizard and not like Quidditch!"
"Are you sure you're my son?" Harry asked worriedly, the same look of horror twisting his face.
Al burst out laughing. "I never said I didn't like Quidditch! I play Seeker, remember?" he pointed out, and both boys flushed and offered him sheepish grins. "There are more than two teams, y'know!"
"Well, you've got to support the Cannons or the Harpies, don't you?" This was obviously confusing Ron a great deal. "I mean, you're either a loyal Chudley Cannons supporter, like me –" Harry snorted and Ron elbowed him – "or you prefer the Harpies because of Ginny. Lily told us she played for them for over ten years."
Al nodded. "She did, but the Harpies aren't my favourite team, much to Mum's annoyance," he shrugged. "Neither are the Cannons, because quite honestly, they'd still be a better team if half the players were replaced by Blast-Ended Skrewts."
"Oi!" Hugo and Ron protested, but Ron smiled at his son's support of the Cannons.
"Nah, I support Puddlemere," Al revealed. "Since I was about five."
"Puddlemere?" Harry and Ron repeated, before Harry shrugged. "They are doing quite well at the moment. Didn't Wood sign over to them recently?"
Ron nodded. "For the reserve squad, I think." He swallowed the last of his Chocolate Frog and reached for another one.
"Oliver Wood? He retired four years ago – in our time, I mean. His son plays Keeper for them now," Al said. "But Antony Rodrick – he's the star, isn't he, Hugo? Fastest record for catching the Snitch ever, as of March 2020, and right under the other Seeker's nose as well. He's why Puddlemere are top of the league right now. They're set to win the Championship for the fourth time straight, I'm telling you now. Rodrick was a Slytherin, too."
"Yeah, yeah, you harp on your boyfriend," Hugo joked, and Al rudely gave him the finger. "But the Cannons will catch up next year, you mark my words. They've just signed McAllister on."
"Any good?" Ron asked.
"He's getting on a bit, but it's just more experience, isn't it? McAllister was the best Chaser the Tornadoes ever saw," Hugo replied, and Ron looked satisfied at this.
"Who does everyone else support, then?" Harry asked.
"Teddy – whoever's winning at the moment, Victoire – nobody, Dominique – Harpies, Louis – whoever's doing really badly at the moment, he's a bit weird like that, Molly – nobody, Lucy – Tornadoes," Hugo began.
"And Fred – Falmouth Falcons, he likes the motto, Roxanne – Harpies, James – Cannons, Lily – Harpies, and Rose – Puddlemere," Al finished.
"What? My own daughter doesn't support the Cannons?" Ron was outraged.
"I got her converted in the end," Al grinned, and Harry chuckled while Ron just scowled.
"Actually, I think it might be more to do with the fact she fancies Darren Wood," Hugo said.
"And talking of fancying people, what's this I hear about you and Germa Finnegan?" Al raised his eyebrow at Hugo, who was blushing furiously. Ron looked up in interest.
"Finnegan? Any relation of Seamus's?" he asked.
"He's her dad. And Lavender Brown's her mum," Al replied.
Ron's jaw dropped open. "Seamus marries Lavender? I knew he fancied her, but I didn't think anyone would actually be able to stand living with her!" Hugo and Al shared a look, amusement in their eyes. The irony was stifling. "They named their kid Germa?" Ron wrinkled up his nose in disgust. "Poor girl. Sounds like a disease."
"She is," Al said pleasantly. "I'm not even sure why Hugo worships her that much."
"I don't worship her! I don't even like her that much," Hugo protested, but even Ron could see through that lie.
"You like her enough to snog her face off," Al said nonchalantly. Hugo tried not to blush much more – in all honesty, he couldn't – as he met the onslaught of howling laughter.
"And there I was thinking you were a Hufflepuff through and through!" Harry exclaimed teasingly.
"He is. But he's also gullible," Al said matter-of-factly, earning him a half-hearted punch to the arm.
"Moving on," Hugo put in pointedly, "I haven't seen you around with anyone lately, Al. Of the opposite gender, I mean."
Al frowned obliviously. "I hang around with Rose all the time."
Hugo resisted the urge to facepalm. "I mean as in the me-and-Germa type of relationship."
"I… well – I'm not interested in anyone," Al said bluntly.
"We're starting to think he plays for the other team," Hugo said to Harry and Ron matter-of-factly. Ron burst out laughing, while Harry just looked horrified.
"I'm not!" Al was bright red, and furious, trying to splutter out an explanation. "I'm not gay!"
"Oh, really?" Hugo raised his eyebrows at him. "Are you sure about that, or is there something you and Scorpius need to tell Rose?"
Al was glaring at his cousin as fiercely as he could now, and Ron was struggling to breathe he was laughing so much. He had no idea where Hugo had got his sense of humour from, but he was glad it wasn't Hermione – not that he'd ever tell her that.
"I'll have you know I have dated plenty of girls!" Al insisted indignantly. "They're queuing up round the corner wherever I go, in fact!"
"Is that so? Funny, because I can only remember seeing you with one girl in your entire life." Ron wondered how Hugo kept a straight face as he kept this up. "What was she called again? Lauren Sommers?"
"Louise Sommers," Al corrected, "and I don't know why you're smiling like that. She was pretty."
"She looked like one of Peter Thomas' potions had blown up in her face and the surgery afterwards had gone horribly wrong," Hugo said. Harry and Ron caught each other's eye, remembering Seamus' disastrous attempts at potion-making and the unfortunate accident that was Eloise Midgen's face, and went off guffawing all over again.
"Alright, I get it! Maybe she wasn't that pretty! Can we please stop talking about my love life?" Al begged.
"What love life?" Hugo asked innocently, looking bewildered.
Al, seeing that there was no way for this to stop except to let the three of them get it all off their chest at his expense, stuffed a Chocolate Frog and sulked in the corner while Hugo, Ron and Harry had a good laugh about his miserable experience with affairs of the heart.
Something caught his eye as he chewed on the wriggling chocolate. The card that had fluttered to the floor when he opened the packet seemed to be calling for his attention. The very old-fashioned, well-to-do wizard in the picture, who looked to be in his twenties, wore fine clothes and a scowl on his handsome face. 'Deangelo Penzance' was written above his various arrogant poses, but still Al had no idea why the card seemed important to him. He'd never even heard of Deangelo Penzance.
And then he noticed what had caught his attention in the first place.
"Guys," he called urgently, scrambling on to his feet with the card in his hand, "look at this."
Hugo, Harry and Ron managed to stop their laughter long enough to turn to him.
"What?" Hugo asked.
"Do any of you know who this is?" Al thrust the card in their faces.
"Deangelo Penzance?" The name seemed to ring a bell somewhere in Ron's head. "That moody old bloke? Yeah, I've got about fifteen of him. Why?"
"Read it. Read his description," Al demanded, and the three boys obeyed, scanning through the text quickly. The young man in the picture made no effort to hide his annoyance, and disappeared out of sight, irritated at being gawped at by so many people.
Harry was the quickest reader. When he'd finished, he looked up at Al with wide eyes, and Hugo and Ron weren't far behind, their jaws hanging open and looking so alike it was almost scary. Al nodded, as if understanding their amazement.
"I think we've found him."
+.+.+
"Come on then, dear niece of mine. Spill!" Ginny was perched on the end of the sofa, looking as giddy as a kid in a sweet shop. "I want details."
"Oh, Ginny, give it a rest," Hermione said half-heartedly, smiling apologetically at Rose who looked exasperated but amused. "She's not even talking to Ron again yet! Which I don't blame her for."
"Yes, yes, we all know far too well that my brother is a fabulous git and his idiocy has no competition," Ginny said impatiently, waving this away with her hand. "But we're not here to talk about him. We're here to talk about a certain Mr Malfoy." She raised her eyebrows expectantly at Rose, a smirk playing on her lips.
From her position in between Lily and Victoire, Rose lowered her head and massaged her temples. She'd managed to avoid any kind of interrogation so far, what with the arrival of Dumbledore and McGonagall, but Ginny had finally trapped her. The five girls had claimed the living room for the afternoon, and Ginny had strategically placed herself nearest to the door, blocking Rose's only means of making a break for it. Well, she supposed she could scurry up the fireplace, but she wasn't quite that desperate.
Yet.
Because the look on Ginny's face made her absolutely terrified.
Lifting her head again, Rose plastered on a smile. "Which Mr Malfoy?" she asked, stalling for time.
Ginny hit her niece's arm gently. "You know which one, missy! The ridiculously good-looking one you brought with you on your little excursion to the past!"
Lily spat out the pumpkin juice she was sipping. "Mum!" she squealed, horrified. "In our time, you're over double his age! And he's Rose's boyfriend! And what about Dad –"
"Lils, calm down, it's just a joke," Victoire consoled the sickened fourteen-year-old.
Ginny simply shrugged. "What? You can't deny he's –"
"Enough!" Rose exclaimed, tired of this already. "Can we just get this over with, please?"
Hermione looked sympathetically at her daughter, before sending Ginny a glare. The redhead pretended not to notice. "I'm so happy you're cooperating. First thing's first: Is he a good kisser?"
Even Hermione was interested now.
Rose smirked. They wanted answers; she'd give them answers. "Brilliant," she boasted smugly. 'Amazing, gorgeous, absolutely divine. And hilarious when he kisses me when Dad or Hugo are around."
Lily and Victoire giggled. "Why?" Hermione asked; was this another thing she was going to have to reprimand Ron about in the future?
"Well, they get incredibly protective, you see," Rose said. "And whenever Scorpius kisses me, they make this funny grind noise with their teeth, like wild animals trying not to attack him and tear him to shreds."
The girls burst out laughing.
"I would pay to see that!" Ginny declared.
"It's really funny. The whole room's quiet, and then Scorpius gives Rose a kiss on the cheek and all you can hear is this faint grating noise in the corner of the room," Victoire chuckled.
"Oh, do you remember when Uncle Ron found out about Rose and Scorpius?" Lily asked Victoire, whose face lit up with a grin.
"That memory is going nowhere, Lily," the blonde promised, and Rose groaned.
"What happened?" Ginny prompted, sensing a story.
"Oh, I've already told Dad about it," Victoire said. "Rose and Scorpius were dating for nearly six months before Uncle Ron found out."
"Six months?" Ginny gaped at a blushing Rose. "Bloody hell, Rose! I've misjudged you!"
"Merlin," Hermione groaned, "I feel sorry for my future self having to deal with Ron."
"Scorpius and I were at the receiving end of it," Rose grimaced. "Though I suppose it was quite funny…"
"Uncle Ron found out in the most humiliating way possible," Lily said, feeling somewhat sorry for her uncle. It wasn't the best way to find out about your daughter's secret relationship with the son of your lifelong enemy. "It was all over Witch Weekly."
"No," Ginny gasped. "How did they even find out?"
"Merlin knows," Victoire sighed.
"Actually, we think it was James," Lily admitted. "We think he leaked it to the magazine just to see Uncle Ron's reaction."
"That's awful!" Hermione cried, clearly angry. "How dare he?"
"It might not have been him," Rose said quietly. Lily raised her eyebrows at her cousin. Was she defending James for once? "Witch Weekly must have reporters hidden everywhere, ready and waiting with a camera."
"I suppose," Lily shrugged; maybe they'd never know, since James wasn't spilling the beans and the adults didn't believe their theory. "Point is, this meant the whole Wizarding world knew overnight about Rose and Scorpius, and the paparazzi were terrible for weeks afterwards. It got to the point where Uncle Ron and Dad actually went outside and started threatening them. I've never seen Dad so angry."
"Of course, Dad went absolutely berserk, grounded me for my whole life, and I don't think there was a part of him that wasn't bright red," Rose snorted. "He nearly Flooed over to the Malfoys', threatening to take Scorpius to court and murder him very slowly and painfully. In fact he said, and I quote, 'I'm going to snap his ferrety neck and give his severed head as compensation to his parents when I sue them for every penny they own in court!'"
Ginny went wide-eyed. "What do you mean, 'nearly Floeed over to the Malfoys'?"
"Aunt Hermione cast a full body-bind curse on him and shoved him under the stairs where he couldn't hurt anyone before he could get to the fireplace," Victoire told her.
"We have to tell Ron about all this!" Ginny spluttered out between her laughter.
"Well, Ginny, I hope you don't have your work cut out with Harry when Lily starts dating as much as I obviously do with Ron," Hermione teased.
Lily went red.
"What?" Ginny asked, suddenly serious again. "You're not dating anyone, are you?"
"I –"
But she was saved by a herd of feet stampeding down the stairs and the living room door being flung open. Ginny regretted sitting closest to the door when it nearly smacked her in the face and she let out a shriek and toppled to the hard wooden floor. A flustered Al barely even noticed her as he held up a Chocolate Frog card triumphantly. This perplexed the four other girls.
"Did you complete your collection at last, Al?" Lily asked uncertainly.
"No," Al said, "but I think we've found who sent us back in time."