"THIS IS BLOODY embarrassing..." James mumbled under his breath. 

"My dad's beaming! He's so excited about Mr. Harry it's adorable." Alice giggled, and just so Professor Longbottom seemed to be glowing as Harry Potter sat next to him waving to the students of Hogwarts as he was just introduced as the new Defense Against Dark Arts professor by Headmistress McGonagall.

"It's Professor Potter, now." Hugo snickered, enjoying James's discomfort. 

"Well, hopefully, Uncle Harry will go easier on us than McGonagall..." Roxanne stabbed at her chocolate chip pancakes. "Still not over the P she gave me on my report on Red Caps..."

"Well," James smirked, quickly going back into a good mood as his classmates around him finally stopped clapping for the new Professor Potter, "if you would've studied as hard as Rose is right now, maybe you'd have gotten an O."

Roxanne rolled her eyes and pushed her pancakes away, "Shove off."

The four looked at the curly-haired red-head beside them whose head was hidden behind a multitude of books and parchment paper. Rose's face had smudges of ink on her face from her quill and Roxanne couldn't help but feel a little discomforted from the look in Rose's eyes. 

"You doing alright their cuz?" 

Rose mumbled something as she furiously annotated her The Standard  Book of Spells. The OWLs were coming and Rose was very behind on all her assignments, papers, and needed to make up a lot of study time. Right now, the only time she had to think about the Morgana situation was to curse Morgana for not leaving her alone during the most crucial part of her Hogwarts career. She would've loved it if Morgana would've waited until she finished her OWLs to show up and cause mayhem. 

"I think we've lost her..." Hugo sighed and started to fake cry and dab his eyes with a napkin. "Th-the books... the books got her!"

Rose shot a furious look at her little brother. "Want to help me?"

Hugo gulped, "Nah, looks like you got it together." 

"You going to be ready for the last Quidditch match this weekend?" Alice asked. 

Rose sighed, her attention now back on her books. "Not sure I will be attending this match."

"WHAT?" A goblet of pumpkin juice fell on the table, spilling on Alice's and Roxanne's plate of food. ("JAMES!"). "Not attending? Bloody likely Rose, you are on the team. You committed. You're playing."

"James... I have so much to do I don't have time for practice nor a game." 

"You tried out for the team. You accepted the position. We almost lost the last game because of you -"

"James..." Roxanne warned. 

"You have a responsibility to your teammates to see this to the end! You're playing -"

"Bloody hell, James! Fine!" Rose threw her hands up in defeat and then began to collect her books and parchment. "Guess what I'm battling against isn't as important as a precious Quidditch match."

"Rose, it's the finals..."

"What are you battling against?" Alice asked, and the whole table went quiet. Rose froze and the four gave each other a look. "Is there something you all aren't telling me?"

Rose shoved everything in her bag. "It doesn't matter. I'll be at the match." 

She left the table in frustration, and Alice got up as well and followed Rose out of the Great Hall. 

"Rose! I know something is going on!" Alice kept up with Rose's pace as Rose walked towards the Library. "Rose! Stop ignoring me and just tell me what's going on!"

Rose continued onward, pretending she heard nothing. She didn't need this... she didn't want to fight with Alice again... 

"ROSE!"

"IT DOESN'T CONCERN YOU!" Rose stopped abruptly and looked Alice in the face. 

"Bloody hell it doesn't concern me," Alice spat back. "Everyone around me knows what's going on with you Rose. James, Lily, Hugo... even the Slytherins know what's up with you."

"Not this again..."

"If you want me to stop talking about this then just tell me!"

"It's a family matter -"

"Your Slytherin friends  know... don't they?" Her voice was now a whisper. An angry whisper as if she spoke any louder she would burst into tears. "They aren't family and yet they know... I would've thought with our history you would've considered me family." 

Rose's fierce demeanor softened. "When you accept that Scorpius and Eloise are in my life... then I will tell you."

The red-headed girl turned to continue her walk towards the library and left her friend alone in the hallway. 

"And stop referring them as the Slytherins," Rose called out. "They have names you know..."

+++

Rose woke up and looked over at Scorpius sitting next to her. The blonde-haired boy motioned up to the front where Professor Potter was writing down on the chalkboard and going over possible testing scenarios for the OWLs. Something Rose should be paying attention to. 

Thankfully she sat at the back of the classroom where her uncle wouldn't notice her drifting off. 

"Rough night?" Scorpius whispered as he continued to take diligent notes on the lecture. 

Rose couldn't help but smile at him. Since the beginning of class, Scorpius had been an even more exceptional student. His posture was perfect, he made sure to write down every important note, and when he answered a question he made sure his voice was steady and strong. Rose had a slight suspicion that Scorpius was on his best behavior to impress her Uncle. She thought it was adorable. 

"I had Lysander pop quiz me on History of Magic while we did our rounds," Rose whispered back, sitting up straighter in her chair. "Then James went over the allotted training time by a couple of hours going over the same strategies until we perfected it."

Scorpius gave off a low chuckle and slid his first filled parchment of notes towards her. "I'll make a study guide for us if you'd like."

Rose perked up a bit and began copying the notes that Scorpius had been writing down. She silently thanked Merlin that he didn't adopt the handwriting style that Albus adorned.

Rose was pleasantly surprised at how good of a professor her uncle was. He was passionate enough to keep the students excited. He knew his stuff and gave extensive answers to each question that was thrown at him. Harry stood in front of the classroom, with a brown tweed jacket, a black button-up collared shirt, black slacks, and a tie that had the golden snitch flying around. Ginny had given that tie to him last Christmas. It was finally seeing the light of day. 

"Are you ready for the match tomorrow?" Scorpius asked, making Rose's chest cave within itself. 

She practiced her ass off just to make James not yell at her anymore. The dire need to not let her team down was the only thing keeping her motivated to win the match against Ravenclaw. The final match. The championship of the year. She didn't need reminding of how important this match was for her House, James and every Gryffindor managed to remind her every chance they had. Though it wasn't the match she was frightened of, she was used to the nerves and adrenaline it came when playing the championship game, it was the conversation she needed to have with James about Quidditch that made her chest cave in like that. 

"Ready as I'll ever be," Rose mumbled as she continued copying down the notes, keeping an eye on her uncle/professor to make sure he was unaware of their conversation. 

"You sure you're making the right decision?"

Rose stopped writing with her quill and took in a deep breath. It wasn't an easy decision, but she knew it was the correct one. She gave Scorpius a sad smile, "It just doesn't give me joy like it use to." 

+++

The Gryffindor team dressed in their golden and maroon Quidditch uniforms as James went over their strategies. Roxanne and Tiya kept whispering, between Rose, different Chaser moves that have worked in the pass against Ravenclaw. Rose tried to join in the conversation. She tried to listen to every detail James shared. Yet, all she could do was focus on the buttons on her uniform and make sure her broom bristles were combed back nicely. 

"Alright, team!" James's voice interrupted the silence. The Gryffindor team excitedly formed a semi-circle around their captain who was standing on a wooden bench to overlook them all.   

Everyone was gathered around their captain. Everyone except Rose, who was looking in the mirror as she carefully braided her red hair trying to go over the speech she had prepared to give James once the game was over.  

"This is the game of all games," James began. The championship speech James gave every time they embarked on this game. Although he said the same speech every time the team entered the final game (which has been every year since James has been on the team), it still held the same power each time. The power to uplift the team and get them ready for the game ahead. To destroy whichever opposing team lay outside the Quidditch pitch and stood in front of them. 

This, Rose thought sadly, would be something she would miss. To see James rally up the team and lead them into victory. 

But as she tied the end of her braid off, she refused to think of any more sad thoughts as she joined the rest of her teammates. Tiya and Roxanne both smiled at her and put an arm around Rose's shoulders on each side. 

"This..." James continued, "is how we bring pride to the Gryffindor name. The lion in all of us fueled by Godric himself will be how we win this match against our opponent..."

"So bloody dramatic," Nolan Wood laughed, but looked up at his captain admiringly. 

"Freddie and Eric will go out there with their warrior bats and protect us from those nasty bludgers. Rose, Tiya, and Roxanne will fly against the wind carrying those Quaffles away from our enemies and throwing them through the hoops, and Nolan will guard our hoops with justice that no points will go against us. And I... I will make sure to make it my mission to bring pride to us all and catch that golden snitch as fast as I can to guarantee us victory!" 

The room erupted in cheers as James raised his broom in the air at the end of his mighty speech. 

"Every year it's the same stupid speech," Roxanne muttered to her twin, Freddie. 

"It makes me think we're going into war," Freddie said back but continued to raise his broom in the air in solidarity with James. "It works though."

"Yeah, because it makes us think we're bloody greek warriors," Tiya laughed and copied Freddie and James and raised up her own broom. 

"Let's make Godric proud," Rose too raised up her broom in the air. 

The team erupted in another round of roars as they ran out of the locker room and towards the Quidditch pitch to get into position. 

James stood back to admire the sight of his teammates running onto the field and into their specific positions. He was about to join his team, but something made him turn around and he found his cousin Rose looking back at him with wide glossy eyes. He made a step towards her as she began to speak, but James cut off his cousin. 

"Ready for the final match?" James asked as she walked over to stand next to him at the exit of the locker room. 

"James... I--" she began, but James interrupted her again. 

"I know..." James mumbled as he kept his gaze out on the field where his team was. "This is it for you, isn't it? This is your last game?"

Rose nodded, her gaze on the team as well. 

"I'm sorry for being so hard on you," James's voice felt thin. Like, it was taking everything out of him to say these words. Words he's wanted to say for so long. "Yelling at you about Scorpius and getting upset that you weren't spending as much with Gryffindors as I wanted you to... mostly because... well... it felt weird to me not having you around the common room like usual."

Rose adverted her gaze from her teammates on the field towards her cousin next to her. He met her gaze. 

"I just..." he continued, giving her a soft smile. "I now know how much you have to deal with in your life. You have your own goals and your own problems... I got selfish. I focused too much on my dreams with Quidditch and how I wanted my life to be. I admit... I put a lot of that anger towards you. I didn't think you had your head on straight... I thought you were sabotaging my life by not being the best chaser you could be... from distancing yourself from the Gryffindors and blatantly rebelling against the Weasley and Potter name by being a little more than friendly to Scorpius Malfoy."

Rose couldn't help but snort at the fact that James could ever think dating Scorpius was a part of her rebellious phase. That boy was too wholesome to be a part of any rebellious phase. 

"I felt like I was losing you," James finally admitted. "And I couldn't lose the one person that understood the kind of pressure I'm under. The pressure of being the firstborn of a man who brought down an evil wizard and a woman who made her name to be highly respected within the Quidditch community."

"A woman who is considered to be the brightest witch of her time and a man who would fight to the ends of the earth for his family..." Rose continued, thinking of her own reign. "It's a tough act to follow."

James nodded, "And you taught me that it isn't achieving everything our parents have done and more to make us our own person. It's finding what truly makes us... us, and to go forward with what makes you happy."

Rose couldn't help but blush at her cousin's compliment. As the firstborns, they held a special bond and an unmerited amount of self-induced stress to make their families proud. 

"I will admit," Rose said, "that this change is inspired by a life-threatening problem we've discovered this year."

James threw his head back and laughed. "Ah yes, we should thank Morgana for making you step out of your comfort zone."

Rose laughed at this as well. Yet, the laughter stopped and the two cousins stood there watching their friends out on the Quidditch pitch laughing and talking to one another. Nolan had caught the gaze of the two and motioned them to join the rest of the team.   

"I'm scared James," Rose admitted, shocking herself to even say the words out loud. 

James walked to the Quidditch pitch with his broomstick in hand, "It's just the Ravenclaw team. You have nothing to worry about."

"James!"

"I know, I know," He smirked at his cousin and offered her his hand. "It's scary... this whole situation is scary... just don't let Morgana take away the fun of today. Let yourself be a carefree kid on that field." 

Rose's smile beamed as she took his hand and walked out onto the pitch with him.