By the time Helios and Rose returned to Grimmauld Place, the entire house already knew the outcome of the trial.
News travelled quickly in the wizarding world. But gossip travelled even faster.
The moment they stepped through the door, the murmur of voices stopped. Several heads turned toward them at once.
Fred and George were leaning against the kitchen doorway. Percy stood stiffly beside the table. Ginny sat with her arms crossed. Ron stood near the fireplace, while Neville—who had apparently arrived not long before them—hovered awkwardly beside him.
Everyone had heard the news.
Rose Potter had been cleared.
The Ministry had been humiliated.
And yet—
That was not what anyone was talking about.
Fred broke the silence first.
"Well," he said slowly, folding his arms. "The trial was impressive."
George nodded solemnly. "Very impressive."
Fred tilted his head toward Helios.
"But that part in the Ministry atrium…"
George finished the sentence.
"…was even more impressive."
Rose rolled her eyes.
Ginny tried to hide a smile.
Ron, however, looked as though he had swallowed a lemon.
"The entire Wizarding Wireless Network is talking about it," he said flatly.
Neville nodded nervously. "They kept retelling it. Over and over."
Percy cleared his throat stiffly.
"The commentators described him as 'a mysterious dark-haired boy seen in intimate contact with Miss Potter.'"
George snorted.
"That's one way to say it."
Fred grinned.
"They also called him her mysterious boyfriend."
Helios blinked.
"My what?"
Rose suddenly looked very interested in the floor.
"Apparently," Fred continued cheerfully, "the wizarding public would like to know who the mysterious boy is."
George added helpfully, "They're running speculation."
Helios sighed.
"I was in the visitor's gallery five minutes earlier."
"Yes," George said. "But you were kissing her five minutes later."
Helios rubbed his temple slowly.
"This was not part of the plan."
Rose glanced at him with a guilty smile.
"Sorry."
Ron's jaw tightened.
He hadn't said much since they walked in, but his expression spoke volumes. Neville looked equally uncomfortable.
It wasn't just them.
Even the twins' amusement had an edge to it now.
Percy stepped forward stiffly, his voice clipped.
"You seem remarkably comfortable involving yourself in matters surrounding Rose."
Helios raised an eyebrow.
"She also antagonized half the Wizengamot," Percy replied coldly.
Fred muttered quietly to George, "That part was brilliant though."
George nodded. "Spectacular."
But Ron wasn't amused.
"You think this is funny?" he snapped suddenly. "You barely know her!"
Helios looked at him calmly.
"I know her well enough."
"That's not the point!" Ron said.
"The point," Neville added carefully, "is that we're… protective."
That was the truth of it.
Rose had grown up with them.
Studied with them.
Fought alongside them.
And now some mysterious boy had appeared out of nowhere and—within days—seemed closer to her than they were.
They didn't like it.
At all.
The only person in the room who looked delighted was Sirius.
Sirius leaned comfortably against the wall, watching the entire exchange like it was the most entertaining play he had seen in years.
"Oh, relax," he said finally.
Everyone turned toward him.
Sirius grinned.
"James and I had a pact, you know."
Ron frowned. "A pact?"
"Yes," Sirius said proudly. "Once the war was over, if we had children, we'd marry them into each other."
Fred blinked.
"You're serious."
"Absolutely."
George grinned. "Co-in-laws."
"Exactly!" Sirius said, clearly pleased.
He clapped Helios on the shoulder.
"Honestly, son, you're just speeding up the timeline."
Rose buried her face in her hands.
"Please stop encouraging him."
But Sirius looked positively thrilled.
"James would be delighted."
Ron looked like he might explode.
"That's ridiculous!"
Helios, meanwhile, stood in the middle of the room looking genuinely confused.
He glanced from Sirius to Rose, then back to the twins who were trying not to laugh.
"This escalated very quickly," he said quietly.
Fred leaned toward George again.
"Ten galleons says the Daily Prophet prints wedding predictions tomorrow."
George nodded thoughtfully.
"Minimum."
Neville rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
Ron looked ready to start a duel.
Sirius looked ready to start planning a family reunion.
Helios did not stay long in the common areas of Grimmauld Place.
After the storm of reactions, accusations, jokes, and Sirius's enthusiastic declarations, he quietly slipped away upstairs.
The door to his room closed softly behind him.
For the first time since the trial ended, the house was silent around him.
Helios lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
He had replayed the scene in the Ministry atrium at least twenty times already.
Rose running toward him.
Her arms wrapping around him.
The warmth of her breath.
And then—
The kiss.
He exhaled slowly.
"Merlin…"
He dragged a hand over his face.
As far as he knew, he had never shown Rose any romantic interest.
Not once.
He went through every memory carefully, like analyzing a duel after it ended.
Their conversations.
Their study sessions.
The way he trained her for the trial.
The way he walked with her around London.
The way he stayed beside her when she needed someone.
None of it, in his mind, had been romantic.
It was simply what he did for people he cared about.
And Rose had been very alone.
But somewhere along the way—
She had interpreted it differently.
Helios closed his eyes briefly.
The kiss itself had not been unpleasant.
That was the troubling part.
It had been warm.
Sudden.
Unexpected.
And for a brief moment, he had not even thought about stopping it.
But enjoyment was not the same thing as love.
That was the part that bothered him.
Because if he was honest with himself—
His heart was not confused about Rose.
Rose felt like family.
Like someone who needed someone standing beside her when everyone else stepped away.
But the person who truly unsettled him—
The person who had occupied his thoughts more than he liked to admit—
Was Hermione.
He turned his head toward the window.
Even now he could picture her expression earlier that evening.
The moment their eyes met after the atrium incident.
There had been something there.
Not curiosity.
Disdain.
And that hurt more than he expected.
Helios had been trying, quietly and carefully, to repair the distance between Hermione and Rose.
Not because he wanted to play peacemaker.
But because Rose was the bridge.
Without Rose, Hermione would never willingly come near him.
And Hermione…
Hermione was not someone who lacked admirers.
She was brilliant.
Beautiful in a way that many people didn't immediately notice until they spent time with her.
Helios knew very well that if he wanted even the smallest chance of getting close to her, he needed to approach it carefully.
But Rose's kiss had changed the entire situation.
The entire wizarding world now believed he was Rose Potter's mysterious boyfriend.
And Hermione—
Hermione believed it too.
Helios sighed and stared back at the ceiling.
"This is a disaster."
He was not even sure what he felt anymore.
Rose was important to him.
That much was true.
He cared about her deeply.
But that care had never crossed into romance.
At least—
He didn't think it had.
He turned onto his side, staring at the wall now.
And that was the real problem.
For the first time in a long while, Helios Black was unsure about something.
His own feelings.
And that was far more complicated than any Wizengamot trial.
Downstairs, Grimmauld Place was still buzzing with arguments and speculation.
Morning arrived with the sound of an owl tapping sharply against the kitchen window of Grimmauld Place.
Kreacher muttered irritably as he opened it, snatching the newspaper from the owl's leg and dropping it onto the long kitchen table where breakfast had already begun.
Fred reached for it first.
He unfolded the Daily Prophet and immediately burst out laughing.
"Oh, this is brilliant."
George leaned over his shoulder.
"Let me see."
The moment the paper opened fully, several people at the table groaned.
The entire front page was filled with a single enormous headline.
"ROSE POTTER AND HER MYSTERIOUS BOYFRIEND."
Under the headline were multiple photographs taken from different angles in the Ministry atrium.
Rose running forward.
Rose hugging Helios.
And the final one—
The kiss.
The photos moved slightly, repeating the moment over and over.
Fred slid the paper across the table.
"Congratulations," he said cheerfully. "You've made the front page."
Rose stared at the newspaper.
There were at least five different pictures printed across the page, each zoomed in from different angles. One showed the moment she jumped into his arms. Another captured the exact instant their lips met.
George whistled softly.
"They even slowed the moment down."
Rose dropped her head onto the table.
"Kill me."
But the headline wasn't the worst part.
The article itself was filled with speculation.
The Prophet clearly understood its readers.
Instead of focusing on the trial or the Ministry's attempt to trap Rose in a manipulated hearing, the paper had chosen the far more entertaining angle.
Gossip.
Romance.
Mystery.
"Wizarding Britain woke this morning not to legal controversy," the article read, "but to a far more delightful revelation — the romantic life of the Girl Who Lived."
Helios rubbed his forehead.
"Oh, this is going to be bad."
Fred continued reading aloud dramatically.
"'Witnesses at the Ministry report that immediately following her courtroom victory, Miss Potter ran into the arms of a dark-haired young wizard and kissed him passionately in full public view.'"
George added, "They used the word passionately."
Ron looked deeply offended.
Hermione looked mortified.
Ginny looked like she was trying not to laugh.
Fred turned the page.
"Here we go."
He held it up for everyone to see.
The actual trial coverage was buried near the back of the newspaper.
Page twelve.
A tiny boxed column barely larger than a chocolate frog card.
The headline simply read:
"Rose Potter Cleared of Underage Magic Violation."
The article itself was only three sentences long.
"Miss Rose Potter was cleared yesterday of alleged underage magic performed in a Muggle area. The Wizengamot determined insufficient evidence to support the accusation. No further action will be taken."
That was it.
No mention of the Ministry's procedural manipulation.
No mention of her legal argument.
No mention of the public embarrassment suffered by the minister of magic.
All of it—
Reduced to a footnote.
Fred folded the paper slowly.
"Well," he said, "that's journalism for you."
George nodded.
"They know exactly what people want to read."
Across the wizarding world, the same newspaper was now circulating through breakfast tables, wizarding cafés, and Ministry offices.
And almost everywhere, the conversation was identical.
Not about justice.
Not about the Ministry's conduct.
Not about legal procedure.
People were talking about Rose Potter's mysterious boyfriend.
Some claimed the boy was a Durmstrang student she met during the Triwizard Tournament.
Others believed he must be from Beauxbatons.
A few insisted he was a visiting foreign wizard.
George grinned.
"They're getting warmer."
Rose buried her face in her hands again.
"This is a nightmare."
Helios leaned back in his chair.
"They've successfully buried the real story."
Hermione looked up sharply.
"Of course they did."
Her voice carried quiet frustration.
"The Ministry's failure is embarrassing. Gossip is easier."
Ron crossed his arms.
"So now everyone thinks you two are dating."
Fred nodded thoughtfully.
"Internationally, probably."
George grinned.
"Congratulations again."
Helios sighed and picked up the paper again, studying the photographs with reluctant fascination.
Every angle.
There was no denying what it looked like.
Helios had been trying to find a moment alone with Rose.
It turned out to be far more difficult than he expected.
Whenever they were surrounded by people—especially the Weasleys or Hermione—Rose behaved almost normally. She laughed at Fred and George's jokes, argued lightly with Ginny, and spoke casually to Hermione and Ron, as though nothing unusual had happened in the Ministry atrium.
She did not call them her close friends the way she once had, but she was no longer distant either. The tension that had lingered between them earlier in the summer had softened.
Helios had insisted she patch things up with them.
Rose had listened.
But the moment they were alone, everything changed.
Rose would suddenly remember something she needed to do.
Or claim she had to return to her room.
Or simply disappear down a different corridor before Helios could even begin speaking.
On the rare occasions when he managed to approach her, the reaction was even stranger.
Rose would blush.
Deeply.
Her ears turned red, her eyes dropped to the floor, and within seconds she would excuse herself and flee the room.
Helios watched her retreat one evening from the drawing room and sighed quietly.
"This is getting ridiculous."
He did not want to embarrass her.
But the situation could not remain unresolved.
At the same time, the thought of confronting her directly made him uneasy.
He knew Rose's life better than most people did.
He knew the cupboard under the stairs.
He knew the loneliness.
The constant fear.
The sacrifices.
And he knew how easily trust could break when someone who stood beside you suddenly pulled away.
Hurting her heart outright was something he did not want to do.
Yet leaving the misunderstanding untouched would hurt her even more later.
That was the dilemma.
To make matters even more complicated, Hermione had begun acting differently as well.
Since Helios had helped restore communication between Rose and the others, Hermione seemed relieved.
Even grateful.
The group dynamic had slowly returned.
Conversations flowed again.
Ron joked with Rose more freely.
Neville relaxed.
Hermione even smiled at Helios sometimes now.
But enough to show she appreciated what he had done.
More than once she had quietly thanked him.
"You didn't have to do that," she told him one afternoon while the others were arguing over a game of wizard chess.
Helios shrugged lightly.
"It was necessary."
She studied him carefully for a moment, then nodded.
"I'm glad you did."
Moments like that only made things worse for Helios.
Because every time Hermione smiled like that, something inside his chest tightened.
And he found himself looking at her longer than he meant to.
He tried not to make it obvious.
But sometimes—
When no one else was watching—
His gaze lingered.
Hermione never seemed to notice.
Ron, however, had started spending more time near her.
Too much time.
Helios noticed the pattern quickly.
Ron sat beside her during meals.
Ron partnered with her during discussions.
Ron volunteered to accompany her on errands around Grimmauld Place.
It was subtle.
But Helios recognized the signs immediately.
Ron was trying to move closer.
Trying to become something more than a friend.
Helios watched them one evening from across the room as Hermione leaned over a book while Ron attempted to help her solve a runic puzzle.
Ron scratched his head.
Hermione laughed softly.
And Helios felt something unpleasant twist inside him.
He turned away quickly.
"Not good," he muttered to himself.
Ron and Hermione together did not feel right.
Yet despite all that—
His mind refused to accept the possibility.
Because if he did nothing…
If he left things unresolved with Rose…
If the world continued believing he was Rose's boyfriend…
Then Hermione might never look at him the way he wanted her to.
He might lose the chance entirely.
Helios exhaled slowly.
"This is worse than leading Phoenix Legion."
Fighting was easy.
Dark wizards were straightforward.
But this—
This tangle of feelings and misunderstandings—
Was something he had never truly prepared for.
And unless he found a way to resolve this matter…
The situation might grow beyond anything he could control.
Author's Note:
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