Rose, Vanessa, Gabrielle, Albus, James and Scorpius were sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, making plans for Jacob’s birthday party. “Jake’s birthday falls next week and I was thinking of throwing him a little surprise birthday party here, in the common room! What say, guys?” Albus started in his deep, debate-like voice.

“I say that’s a great idea, Scorp! But how are we going to keep it a secret?” Rose said, blushing slightly.

“You don’t have to worry about that! Just don’t discuss it in front of him! Now, I need to know what time we can have this party. Of course, everyone in Gryffindor is invited,” Scorpius replied.

“We can have it at around midnight, you know, like a midnight feast. Those who are awake can help us while the others sleep away. Of course, we also need to find a way to help Jake stay awake without getting suspicious,” Rose said.

“A midnight feast! Ooh, Rosie, I leave it to you to bring whatever food items you need. Now for the others--” Scorpius stopped in mid-sentence, thinking of the tasks he was going to assign to each of them.

Everyone was staring at Rose and Scorpius, smiling slightly, as they spoke to each other without arguing. Scorpius was excluding the others from the discussion but no one seemed to mind that. Everyone could sense the little something that was going on between Rose and Scorpius. James, the humourous one of the group, jumped at the word “others”.

“Jeez, Scorp, did you just say others? I wonder what you meant by that! You were having such a serious conversation with my cousin here, that I thought you’d forgotten Albus, Vanessa, Gabrielle and I are sitting here as well,” James joked, causing Rose to blush even more. Scorpius punched James in his belly. Rose just gave him one of her “looks”.

“As I was saying, James is responsible for inviting everyone without letting Jake know. Al, you will do all the decorations in the common room on the night of the party. Vanessa and Gabrielle… well, you can help Rose decide the menu for the party. Does that suit everyone?” Scorpius asked.

“It sure does. Now, I’ll just go check our time table and see what we have first on the morning after the party. Although, you think five days is enough to make all the arrangements?” Albus said.

“Oh, certainly! How long do you think you need? It’s just a small surprise party, after all. Now get to work, all of you,” Scorpius ordered.

“Yeah right, we’ll get to work as Mister Malfoy here, will sit and give orders,” Vanessa muttered under her breath. However, Scorpius was able to hear her and just as he was about to snap back at her, just as he spotted his father’s owl, Scram. Scram flew into the common room with a letter between his beaks. Scorpius gently took the letter and fed him some snacks. Then he folded the letter open and started reading it. It was from his mother. Scorpius smiled at first, and then tears filled his eyes as he finished reading it. He tried to blink them away but he couldn’t hide them from Albus and Rose.

Rose looked at Albus and then went to sit beside Scorpius. She put her hand on his shoulder as if to console him. ‘Are you all right, Scorp?” she said.

Scorpius looked up at her sadly, and tried to sound cheerful as he replied, “Oh yeah, my mother wrote that she missed me a lot and so does father. I miss them too, but I don’t feel like writing back to them right now.” He tried to meet her eyes but turned away immediately.

Rose looked at Albus, who was studying both their expressions, and both of them silently decided that it was best to leave Scorpius on his own right now. Albus went over to Vanessa and Gabrielle and asked them to go to the library with him. Both of them agreed and left Rose and Scorpius alone in the common room.