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Piper was in a major funk.
Rose was not.
This made Rose mad.
"Just get up," Rose snarled, standing above Piper's bed with her hands on her delicate hips. "Or, Merlin help me, I'll-"
"Go away, Rose," Piper mumbled. "Don't you have other friends you can do shit with?"
Rose bared her teeth at Piper in a snarl, her tiny frame shaking with fury. "Yes, I do, thank you. But that's not important. After a while, they all get boring. You're my best friend, Piper. I want to spend time with you, and at the moment you're acting like a depressed troll."
Piper grunted, pulling her covers over her head, and Rose huffed, her brown hair swinging over her shoulder as she pulled the covers off Piper and carried on talking.
Curling up into a ball to conserve warmth, Piper squeaked and closed her eyes as Rose started to lecture.
"Get up," Rose commanded. "You're only proving my depressed troll theory. You'll get up and go to Hogsmede with me, and I'll buy you some Butterbeer and chocolate from Honeydukes. Sound like a deal?"
Piper opened her eyes a crack. "How much chocolate?"
Rose grinned. "Atta girl. I knew my best friend was in there somewhere."
****
Forty minutes later, with lots of yelling from Piper ("You've used all the hot water again, you bitch,") and lots of shouting back from Rose ("If you'd gotten up earlier, you would have got the hot water to yourself!") they were ready.
Piper had her house scarf wrapped tightly around her, and was bundled up in a huge fluffy coat and matching mittens, along with a hat. Money jingled in the purse in her pocket, and she'd already had a bar of Honeydukes chocolate from Rose's last Hogsmede visit.
"It's bribery," Rose had told her. "I'm giving you chocolate to get you out of your depressed troll state."
"I'm not a depressed troll," Piper mumbled as they left Hogwarts and started the trek to Hogsmede.
"Yes, you are." Rose grinned, but suddenly her entire face changed. "Oh, oh no."
"What?" Piper asked, but then she saw for herself.
Albus Potter was standing talking to someone. In their huge coat, Piper couldn't tell exactly who it was, just that they had a long Slytherin scarf wrapped around their neck.
"It's fine," Piper mumbled. "We're both adults, right? We can pass each other in the path and I can manage to not cry."
Rose eyed her doubtfully, and then it happened.
Albus leant forwards and gently, slowly, like the universe was making a point about how not into Piper Albus was, he kissed the person in the Slytherin scarf. It started off just a quick kiss, a quick few second thing, but the Slytherin pulled Albus closer, so close Piper couldn't even tell who was who, and they were intertwined, someone's hands on someone else's back, someone's hands round the back of someone else's neck.
