Rose Weasley, perhaps she should pick her friends more carefully, or perhaps she is exactly where she needs to be, though she can't see why. Only a first year, she becomes all too closely involved with the unfortunate son of a lunatic. A boy whose...
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Max was a very interesting house guest. Rose had tried, at first, to show him around the neighborhood. She found out quickly that this was a bad idea. Max had interrupted the stroll by insisting they take to exploring the woods behind old Hepworth's house. Albus was more than happy to jump in and Rose, not wanting to be alone, followed apprehensively.
"We're not supposed to be back here," Rose whispered crouching behind a bush so Hepworth wouldn't see them cross his yard.
"Why not? Were you ever told not to?" Max grinned.
"There's this thing called common sense, Max. 98% of people are born with it."
Max turned around and shook Rose's hand. "Congratulations, you just met a 2%."
He did end up getting them lost, attacked by blue jays, and washed downstream. It was during the silence while the three of them were having to cross back up the neighborhood, soaking wet and freezing cold because of the snow, that Max said, "This'll make a story, though..." Al laughed in disbelief before breaking into a cough that released feathers, and Rose scowled.
"What on earth happened to you?" Hermione exclaimed watching them enter the house covered in mud.
Max replied with, "...Which part?"
While Hermione and Ron were at work one day, Hermione at the Ministry, Ron helping run his brother's joke shop, Max had bet Al that he could get further to the ground without a broom. So, they took turns jumping out of Hugo's window with brooms to see how close they can get to the ground before pulling up; Al won.
Another time, they had taken Ron's wand after her parents went to bed, and snuck it into Rose's room, but to be fair, that was Al's idea.
"Can't the Ministry of Magic tell if we do underage magic?" Max whispered.
"They can tell where it's done, and whose wand it's done by," Said Al. "Not who it's done by, I need help with Transfiguration."
"I'm gonna get in so much trouble if we're caught," Rose panicked.
"Then don't get caught," Max advised settling himself on top of Rose's pile of stuffed animals. "Al, if you need help in Transfiguration, then you'll need Scor, I'm the worst."
"Max," Rose scorned. "There is a chair right next to you, literally, two feet away."
"But that chairs not made of plush," Max shrugged.
"Rose? Will you help me?" Al asked.
"No, Al!" Max sat up quickly. "If you ask her she'll start trying to teach you Transfiguration-"
"Theory, that's the first thing you have to understand before even grabbing a wand, Max here, if the perfect example of that." She gestured toward him as he fell back on top of the plush toys which squeaked a bit. "Max has never stopped to understand it and emerges every class wounded or with extra homework, sometimes each. I have an excellent book around somewhere."
"Whoa! Look at that! I'm brilliant at Transfiguration! Thanks, Rose!" said Al dropping the wand on her bed and covering his ears.
"Shhh."
They stopped to hear footsteps coming up the stairs.
"It's dad!" Rose whispered.
"You can tell that just by his footsteps?" Max asked.
Rose blew out the candle that was giving light to the room, opened the door, threw the wand over the balcony and shut it silently. Knock, knock, knock
"Come in."
Ron entered the room with half flat hair and striped pajamas and looked around.
"Have you guys seen my wand?" he asked tiredly.
"No."
"No."
"Yes."
Rose looked at Max worriedly, forgetting that he doesn't lie.
"You have?"
"Yes. It's brown and long and has little dots near the bottom."
Ron sighed. "Have you seen it today?"
"Yup. You carried it outside to weed the garden remember?" Max smiled.
"Do you know where it is?"
"Not the exact location."
"Did you guys take it...?" Rose's eyes widened.
"No, us guys did not take it."
"...Alright, I'll have Hermione summon it. You two best be getting to bed soon," he nodded to Al and Max, and he shut the door behind him.
"You- you lied!" Rose gasped.
"No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did! You said that we didn't take it! When we did!"
"I said us guys didn't take it because it was actually you who did... girl."
Rose couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. She had become so excited to hear him tell a lie finally. She couldn't help but think now, that it wasn't a mental choice. She knew Max wasn't a very 'moral' person, so it wasn't against his beliefs to lie. Now adding another question to her and Al's growing list.
Rose and Al had taken Max flying outside a couple of days before the new year. Neither of them had ever seen him fly outside of lessons, but since they had joined their teams, they were no longer involved in flying lessons. Ron had taken to the air to join the play late in the afternoon after he had come back from work. Because it was so dark, they used Rose's glowing orb that they had bought specifically for this reason, and simply played a game of catch with Max in the air. He was very mediocre, catching the orb most of the time, but very sloppily or almost falling off his broom. He had a good attitude about it, though. Max would laugh when missing the orb and wasn't at all off-put or embarrassed.
Every night when they came inside, Hermione would have a full meal waiting for them on the table which they all ate gratefully. Max would sleep in Hugo's room, and Al would choose between the couch downstairs or in Rose's room, typically on the pile of stuffed animals.
"I can't do this anymore!" said Hugo barging into Rose's room early one morning.
"Hugo?" Rose sat up rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Your friend!" he exclaimed widening his puffy eyes.
"I thought you liked Max."
"I like him when I'm not tired! But he hums all night long - doesn't get to sleep until around two in the morning - then he scribbles with his new quill singing "Oh Forever to the Ministry" until I wake up early where he's like "Oh Hugo, You're up early. How'd you sleep?"
Rose tried to act sorry for her brother, but couldn't help suppressing a smile. She knew very well that Max was never up early or late until he came to Hogwarts where it was her that kept him up until two in the morning doing homework, her that wakes him up early for breakfast, and her that taught him the song "Oh Forever to the Ministry."
"Just two more nights, Hugo," she said. "You only have to put up with him for two more nights."
"Why can't he sleep in here with you?"
"Because that'll be inappropriate."
"Why?"
"Because he's a boy."
"Al's a boy!" Hugo argued.
"That's different. Look, if you want, you can sleep on the couch, or ask Max to sleep there."
Hugo rolled his eyes and left the room. She laid back down to go back to sleep but was woken up thirty-seconds later by Max jumping onto her bed.
"I don't know if I can do this anymore," he said holding his face. "I like your brother and all, but Rosie, he snores like there's an Augurey in his throat. Keeps me up all hours of the night and wakes me early in the morning. I would move to the couch, but I don't want to hurt his feelings."
"May I suggest something?" she yawned.
"Please!"
"Move to the couch, I promise you, Hugo won't take it too hard."
Ten seconds later.
"Rosie!" said Al.
"Ugh, what?" she cried into her pillow.
"I can't do this anymore! I would sleep on the couch, but Max is moving his stuff down there. Every time I roll over on your toys, something from under me begins to move and say, Mama, I'm hungry! It scares the hairs off me. We need to switch beds."
"No."
"You gave Hugo and Max a solution!"
"It's Pasty. My baby doll Pasty, she had a little orange hat and overalls. Just find her and put her somewhere else." Rose rolled over finally and closed her eyes.
"Rosie?"
"WHAT!" she yelled from under her blankets. "What? What? What? What?"
"Excuse me?"
She poked her head out of the covers to see her mom's stern face through the doorway.
"Sorry."
"I need you to help de-gnome the garden. Your father and I are off to work, and we just spotted them getting into our pomegranate tree. I've sent Hugo out already; why don't you take the boys with you?"
"Hugo?" Rose couldn't find him when she got outside with an unenthusiastic Al and a positively excited Max.
"I've never de-gnomed before." He whispered to Al.
"Yeah? Well don't get too excited, it's nothing to write home about."
"Hugo!" she found him hiding in the pomegranate tree with red fruit juice all around his mouth, all bundled up in winter clothes and hat.
"Awa, I was hoping you would find me," he said climbing down grudgingly.
"There's one," said Max pointing at a tiny potato-like creature scurry across the ground holding a pomegranate.
"Don't just point!" said Al. "Grab 'em! NO! Not by the head - oh - well, I guess the heads fine."
Max had picked the gnome up by the top of its horizontal potato head, and though its tiny brown body and arms were swinging and scratching madly at him, they couldn't reach.
"Huh, I've never thought of that," Al laughed leaning in.
"Let me do this one!" said Hugo grabbing the gnome by the leg and swinging it in wide circles above his head, then letting go and watching it fly across the street.
"And that doesn't break their ankles off or anything?" Max asked looking slightly disturbed.
"Nope!" Hugo smiled dusting off his hands. "Well, I don't think so, I've never asked one afterward. You want to get them nice and dizzy, so they don't know their way back to your yard, stupid little things, gnomes. Go ahead and grab that one," he said gesturing to a fat gnome chewing on Max's shoelaces. Max picked it up by the feet this time and started spinning it in circles above his head.
"Excellent, now be sure to aim it at that house across the street. They have nicer fruits anyway and their jerks. Bronta stole my cauldron cakes in third grade. She denied she ever did it, but I saw the icing all around her mouth, and I told her, I said-"
"Great story dude," Max interrupted. "But may I throw it now? Only, my arms are really starting to hurt."
"Yup, let 'em have it! Uh, but try'n get it either in front of, or pass their garden. Gnomes are farsighted, so if you get directly in their garden, the thing won't know where it is, and it'll try to get back."
Max threw it directly where Hugo had told him to, it flew across the street, pass Bronta's driveway, pass their garden, and smashed through their window.
"Shoot!" said Max throwing his hands into the air.
There were loud shrieks heard coming from the smashed window.
"Well, you got it passed the garden," Hugo grinned.
Rose grabbed her brother by the arm and ran from their yard and into the side door. The other two followed and peered through the living room window at a very fat man staggering from the house holding the gnome by the ankle as it shrieked and squirmed.
"WHO THREW THIS!" he bellowed shaking the tiny creature at the neighborhood. "IF I EVER FIND OUT WHICH ONE OF YOU THREW THIS, I'LL DESTROY YOU! I'LL GRAB ALL OUR GNOMES AND DROP 'EM DOWN YOUR CHIMNEY! THEN I'LL CUNFOND YOU SO YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE YOU ARE OR WHY THERE ARE GNOMES RUNNING ALL OVER YOUR HOUSE! THEN I'LL HIRE AN ILLUSTRATOR TO PAINT A PICTURE OF THE SCENE! DO YOU HEAR ME! I'LL FIND YOU!"
They watched through the window as the man attempted to throw it in anger, but it latched onto his finger causing him to curse and drop it on the ground. "I SUSPECT YOU WEASLEY!" he said before turning into the house and slamming the door.
The four of them crouched down, and all failed to suppress grins. Rose knew that it was an empty threat, he was too large to touch his knees let alone catch gnomes.
All the sudden, there was this gust of green fire from behind them and someone toppled from their fireplace over Al who was directly in front of it; Rose screamed in surprise. Scorpius Malfoy staggered back up again, dusting off soot from his otherwise perfect robes and coughing.
