Rose Weasley is starting her first year at Hogwarts, but she and her friends become tangled in ransom, betrayal, and kidnap; problems that are not their own but of an Unfortunate Son of a Lunatic.
It had taken eleven years, eleven very long years, but the waiting was almost over. Rose Weasley, a girl who carries a main of strawberry curls on her shoulders, presently haloed around her round freckled face, laid in bed that night wide awake in the dark, tapping her finger against her wrist, thinking about what is soon to come.
Her Uncle, Harry, was a very kind man very humble despite his involuntary fame. For he was known throughout the Wizarding world, as a hero.
Yes, Rose was a witch who lived in a family all blessed with magic. But the community of magical people was forced to hide their powers from the outside world in fear of prosecution.
Thirty-six years ago, there was a wizard, a malevolent dark wizard who was hellbent on power and attempted overthrowing the Ministry of Magic, (The magical government.) His name, for years, was feared to be even uttered in the quietest manner. He called himself, Voldemort.
But his reign of terror, of killing, was seemingly over when he had attempted to murder an innocent child, a baby that was prophesied to one day destroy him; this baby was Harry. Harry's parents were killed in the attack of Godric's Hollow, Halloween night, 1981. But due to the power of a mother's love, and the sacrifice of her own life, little Harry survived the killing curse which rebounded, destroying Voldemort instead. The child emerged from his demolished home in the arms of a giant. The boy not only received a life of trauma, unwanted attention and a world without loving parents, be he gained a scar on his forehead, a gash the shape of a lightning bolt. The entire wizarding world celebrated that night, and gave little Harry Potter the title of 'the boy who lived.'
That would have been an excellent end to the story, unfortunately, unlike everyone had thought, Voldemort had not died. He returned, more powerful and more terrible than ever before, thirteen years later. But again, through much pain, much sacrifice, yes, sacrifice, Harry again defeated Voldemort. This time, he did not do it alone, friends, mentors, teachers, and leaders stood by him. Two of these friends, of Harry's best friends, were named Ron and Hermione, and that is who Rose was, she was the daughter of Ron and Hermione. A witch and a wizard who had second handily defeated Voldemort. Both her mother and her father had worked at the Ministry of Magic after that, both with high positions. Presently, her mother works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and her father worked as an Auror, a dark wizard catcher, before quitting to help his brother run a popular joke shop.
In ten hours' time, Rose would be leaving to go to a place most muggle children called a prison but of which the sons and daughters of wizards dreamed of going, school. It was a thrilling thing to be excepted to this school. Rose had been alive for over eleven years and had not lived a day in which the thought of her present tomorrow had not crossed her mind. Atop a mountain, across a lake and through a forest Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry resided. This enchanted castle was known to be the best school in Britain, the best in the world she would argue from mere stories of the place. At this palace was where the final battle between darkness and light had taken place. The battle of Hogwarts when Harry faced Voldemort and destroyed him. The end of the second wizarding war only increased the school's popularity. There was now a small museum dedicated to the wizarding wars, Voldemort, and Harry Potter inside the walls of Hogwarts to be visited at will by admiring students. Maybe slightly awkward for Rose to be seeing a man she remembered showing up to her sixth birthday party dressed as a unicorn because Professor Hagrid's had run away and couldn't make it to the party. She, of course, knew that he wasn't a real unicorn and found the humor to be much preferred over the magical beast anyway. He was asked to do children's birthday parties after that. But she looked forward to laughing at the plaques describing her Uncle's heroism. He deserved it, of course, but she anticipated making fun of him.
Rose was attending Hogwarts as a first year tomorrow. Nearly all of her family, not including the Granger Grandparents who had no magic, had once attended the school and were nearly all sorted into Gryffindor house. Hogwarts had four houses in which the students were separated to ensure a safe and dynamic learning experience for each student. These houses were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.
During the first year, the students were sorted into one of these four houses where they would spend the next six years of their life. This was a frightening prospect for any first-time student which would include Rose. What if she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor house as most of her cousins had been? What happened if it became her turn to be sorted and they found that she wasn't fit for any of the houses and must go home? What if she made an enemy on the way to Hogwarts and was sorted into their house and forced to share a dorm? What if she wasn't smart enough to be in Ravenclaw, brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Patient and loyal enough to be in Hufflepuff, or cunning enough to be in Slytherin? What if she was placed in the wrong house and failed every exam because of it? What if she made no friends where she was?
The questions above that had been asked by each of her cousins during their dawn but strangely enough, were not fears of Rose, at least not outwardly. She wasn't afraid. Rose Weasley felt peace about being sorted but at the same time felt sick. She had this gut-wrenching pain in her stomach that stretched in her mind all the way to the sorting ceremony and no further. So, despite the peculiar calm she had for herself, she was dreading it? That didn't make sense to her. Was the feeling even for herself?
Rose had already visited Diagon Ally, a wizarding market square, and bought her books, uniform, a plethora of other things she needed for school, but most importantly, she bought her magic wand. Her wand was made of ash wood, had a unicorn tail hair as its core, and measured 10½ inches in length. The slightly darker than beige wood twisted down the handle in a messy braid and spiraled over a marble like knot of wood that the bottom of her grip. This was the magical artifact that she was most excited about owning. Rose had been warned by her mother not to do any magic with it before school because if the spell worked, she could get into trouble by the Ministry for underage magic. Any witch or wizard under the age of seventeen were minors and therefore were not permitted to perform wand-held spells outside of school, cast any magic (with or without a wand) in the presence of a non-magic person so called, a muggle. Also, you were not permitted to purchase ninety percent of the merchandise sold at apothecaries, a wand, or a broomstick without a legal guardian's permission. If you were under seventeen, you were technically not allowed to fly on a broom without adult supervision, but nobody followed that law nor did the Ministry see it important enough to be enforced.
Of course, Rose had done magic before without a wand, but couldn't control what she did. One time, in particular, she had turned Harry Potter's son, her cousin James' hair a bright pink because he was picking fun at her red hair. He still made fun of her sometimes, but now called her 'red' rather than 'carrot.' Harry had laughed himself red as neither he nor his wife, Ginny, were able to extract the color from his usually auburn curls. Both parents agreed that he deserved what he had gotten as his mother's hair was red itself. James led a recreational Quidditch team of a rag-tag band of boys from the neighborhood and finally understood how it felt to be teased for something you can't control. Rose wrote this incident very explicitly in her diary and visited it when James pissed her off, which was often.
Though she respected her mom, she had tried to do magic with her wand anyway when she was at the Potter's house with her cousin, Albus, second son of Harry who she got on with much better. They had been on Al's bed with their heads together as she had dared to emit sparks from the end of her wand which tingled in her fingers. Perhaps it was fortunate that her Aunt Ginny had entered the room to announce lunch before Rose could try a more powerful spell or else she would have received a much more severe letter from the Ministry of Magic stating that if any more magic was detected from her wand outside of the confines of school, she would be suspended from it until the start of term.
Rose had slept with her wand next to her since the day they bought it and cleaned it at least twice a day though it couldn't get any shinier. Her trunk of books clothes, telescope, cauldron, writing material and many other things she needed for Hogwarts classes, was sitting at the foot of her bed locked and ready to go. She had laid out her school uniform over her protruding dresser drawer to be ready when she had to wear it tomorrow on the train. The students at Hogwarts took take a train to get to school every year, the Hogwarts Express it was called and left from platform 9 and ¾ at King's Cross Station, on 1, September at eleven o'clock every year.
Rose tossed and turned now but couldn't get to sleep. Her mattress wasn't lumpy, she had checked it for peas which her little brother had actually hidden under her mattress one Christmas, and she was shocked to have noticed they were there. Was excitement the reason she couldn't get to sleep? It wasn't anything like Christmas Eve so; she didn't think it was. A faint buzzing was echoing in her ears. She assumed it was technology from the muggle neighbors as she threw her head under her pillow. Rose growled slightly into her baby blue pillow and sat up with a scowl at whatever the noise could be as she found the noise was in her bedroom. Her eyes scanned over her desk in the corner where she'd study, over a large pile of assorted stuffed animals, and over a smaller stack of half-read books some of which were entitled, 'So You Wanna Be the Best?' '101 Easy and Impressive Spells to Stun Your Friends', 'Magic for Morons', and 'How to Cope.'
She tried to step from of bed in the dark to light her candle, but her foot became captured in her bedsheet causing her to fall head first onto her board game, Pirates and Voyagers, well, the empty box anyway as she never could keep up with the pieces. Her hand caught onto her Belinda Boxy doll's vanity that she never could give away because of sentiment. The vanity struck a thought in her head an idea as to the source of the buzzing – the hand mirror!
Her Uncle Harry had given both Rose and Al two identical magic hand mirrors last Christmas. They worked similarly to muggle video call, though Rose had never tried it. They'd buzz and become hot when one would try to get in touch with the other when you would swipe your hand across the mirror's face, it would ripple, and if answered right away, the other person's face would appear on the glass. She and her cousin were gifted these hand mirrors because her dad Ron, and Al's mom, Ginny -- who happened to be siblings -- were often complaining about how their delivery owls, which acted as wizard post, were never around when they needed them for something important like Ron needing to send out order forms to his brother, George for the joke shop, or Ginny needing to turn in her Quidditch article to be ready to publish in the morning's paper. Rose and Al were always sending them out with letters to each other though they lived but a couple of miles apart. The letters became so frequent that Harry had to figure out a solution for them to communicate without always using the delivery owls and for his best mate and his wife to stop whining. So, he bought two ordinary hand mirrors from a muggle thrift store, used spells to make them two-way, and gifted them to Al and Rose. It had been a lot easier and faster to talk, and they no longer had to duck across the kitchen so not to be spotted and questioned about the location of the family's bird.
Rose untethered her leg from her cotton blanket and stood in the middle of the room trying to remember where she had last left the thing. The sound carried her to dresser also where the candle resided. She struck a match and lit the stub she had left. Something tickled her elbow, and she looked to where it rested. Under her sleeve was an odd reflection of light. The mirror! Rose snatched the silver handle in her grasp and swiped her hand across the face. She jumped into bed and waited for crisscross-applesauce for the bright green light to subside, and Albus' face appear.
Al greatly resembled his father. He had a slightly square jaw and hair that was usually black and untamable but incredibly soft, perfect for tying in bows as Rose had done to him until she was eight. He had inherited his father's bright green eyes and dark lashes. Albus appeared on her mirror leaning against his three-panel window atop his ledge. He wore a white t-shirt and confessed a face of great distress rather than his usual bright and friendly expression. He had been distraught for the past three weeks, the three weeks since their visit to Diagon Alley and the prospect of school, leaving home, and the sorting finally became a reality rather than amused fantasy. Albus was also eleven and would be attending Hogwarts for the first time with Rose.
Rose readied herself for the conversation that had been rehearsed one-sided in the mirror every night through a mouth full of foam while she brushed her teeth. He had been calling nearly every evening to discuss his worries, and perhaps this wouldn't be an issue if she was frightened too, but no matter what she said, he held it like water in his hands. She had been asked on more than one occasion by her brother why she was talking to herself more often. She would confess angrily that she was talking to Al as though her brother should be able to see their cousin in at the breakfast table with them. Hugo had decided she was a bit loony. But she had her bit down-pat. Though, she knew Albus wouldn't listen.
"Like you were really asleep," he replied, knowing her to be a night owl like himself.
"I'm going to be put in Slytherin, I know it!" he said, quickly.
Rose sighed. What little hope that this would be his call to announce peace with school and would be spent on their bellies talking for hours about what they're excited about, sparked and went out. Slytherin was the house at Hogwarts that had produced more dark wizards than any other and had a reputation to house the 'bad' kids. It was the house that nearly all the villains from their bedtime and war stories had resided. It was the house that homes the conniving Malfoy family, the lunatic Lestranges, the demented Drurys, and Voldemort himself. Somehow, Albus had been struck with the fear and unlikely idea that he will be sorted into Slytherin. Rose wasn't going to point fingers, but, it was James. James loved to tease his little brother and loved arguing almost as much. Rose thought the idea of Slytherin was ludicrous; Albus was one of the kindest people she knew. And, of course, there are kind Slytherins, more now than there were during the reign of Voldemort, but Rose did not see the serpent house in her cousin, not at all.
"I know I've said it before, but I'm sure of it, I have this terrible feeling Rosie, I really do." His shoulders were arched to neighbor his head, and his green eyes were wide with waiting fear.
Rose had tried and tried to assure him that the sorting does not matter that much, though she didn't believe that; it was one of the most important events in a wizard's life. She had argued that Slytherin wasn't all bad and has changed since the end of Voldemort and that whatever house he was in would not matter in the slightest to her or to the rest of the family who would all still see him the way he is, with the exception of James. Nothing that she said ever seemed helped. Rose knew that what he really wanted was for her to tell him that he was for sure going to be in Gryffindor like his brother, but she, of course, wouldn't do that. Rose had no doubt that he would be placed in Gryffindor house, being so like his father who was a born bred Gryffindor, but she also wasn't going to predict something that was not set in stone, at least not something as important as this.
"Aren't are you afraid, Rose?" Al asked quietly.
"Not Slytherin," Al mumbled with a nervous glance to his feet.
Rose rolled her eyes and readied to begin again. "Slytherin is a house home to some of the most successful entrepreneurs. They are resourceful and often brilliant in their mind and ideas. They can accomplish anything when they put their mind to it and are respected individuals at school if they decide they want respect." She said this in a tone that was flat and rehearsed with her eyes closed to remember all she had said last time.
"I don't understand how you can't be even a bit nervous," he said slightly embarrassed as he felt like the scary cat next to his female cousin.
"I'm just not," she shrugged. "I thought I would be, but I'm only excited."
Al did not reply to this, and due to the low light on Al's side, she was unable to make out his expression.
"Al, you need to stop worrying about the sorting," she breathed.
"But what if I am put in Slytherin?" he asked desperately.
"So, what? You need to be placed wherever you'd do best!"
"So, if they put me in Slytherin that would mean that I'd do best being evil?"
"Al, you're being ridiculous, not all Slytherins are bad you know, you're named after one," she huffed.
"Rosie, you need to help me," Albus croaked.
"How can I help?" she asked.
"I don't know!" Al started to become frantic, and his voice became higher like it always did when he was scared. "You always have the answer. You're not about to say that you don't know."
"Albus, lower your voice I don't want us to get restricted again. And I don't know." The words tasted bad in her mouth, she hated not knowing. "Everything the sorting hat will judge is all in your head, I can't change what's in your head." There was another pause. "Al, no matter what happens I'll be right by your side. Even if you are in Slytherin, I know you, and I know you're not bad; you're not a bad person Al," she finished. Still more silence. "Have you talked to Harry about it?"
"No," he answered quietly.
"Are you going to?" she in a firm mother way.
"I'm thinking about doing it tomorrow," he confessed halfheartedly.
"I don't know why you're so worried about asking him," said Rose, leaning against her cedar headboard. "he is your dad."
"I don't want him to think that I am weak," Albus replied hurriedly.
Rose sat up again; this was something that he had not confessed in their past discussions. "Al," said Rose quietly. "He's your dad, he's not going to think you were weak, and being afraid doesn't make you weak either. Besides your parents are supposed to mentor you, to help you through these things not judge you for them."
"Thanks, Rosie," he said, but she could tell that what she had said hadn't done much to calm his anxiety.
Rose sighed "Alright, Al, you should go to sleep, and I mean actually go to sleep, don't lie awake in bed all hours of the night thinking. You'll fall asleep on the Hogwarts express and I won't have anyone to talk to."
"You'll have James," said Albus with a mildly amused smirk.
"James?" she laughed. "What a great conversationalist he is, doing all the talking more like, won't let me get a word in."
Al laughed, "That's what he says about you. Goodnight." The hand mirror went blank meaning Albus had double tapped the glass and was finished.
She understood why he would be afraid and was slightly off put by her unexplained calm; she should be terrified too. Rose slid her feet under her covers and laid down her matted red-haired head onto her pillow and fell almost instantly to sleep. Though, her slumber was disturbed when she awoke with a start later in the night. She had dreamed that she was falling from a great height and woke right before she hit the ground. She looked at her digital watch that her grandfather had given her and saw that she had been asleep for three minutes. She laid back on her pillow in exasperation, she hated these helpless, sleepless nights. What had she forgotten? Her lack of sleep was usually because she had neglected to do something. She thought. Her uniform was on her dresser, yes. Her trunk lay at the bottom of her bed. Had she packed her potion viles? Yes. And her cauldron and all of her school books that had already been read, her empty wand box and her telescope. She had a broomstick but wasn't going to pack it due to the first year rule prohibiting them to bring their own broomstick because of two stupid first years sneaking out of the castle with theirs and breaking a couple of ribs somewhere in 1981. She had a baggy of toiletries and pajamas, of hairs pins and socks locked in her trunk. Thanks to her dad for adding an expansion spell to her trunk allowing it to hold such a large variety of items though being just as heavy. Maybe she was forgetting money for the train ride. Rose sat up quickly. The train ride! She had forgotten her travel bag!
swung the covers from her body and bothered not to relight her candle as she had forgotten to extinguish three minutes
"Let's see.'"
She always packed a travel bag of random stuff to keep her occupied in case she got bored on a trip. She had forgotten it one time and had to travel all the way to Wales in a muggle car with nothing to do but listen to James talk and pick on Albus. The vehicle had been pulled to the side of a busy interstate so Hermione and Ginny could fight Rose and James apart as they were trying to scratch each other's eyes from their scull. It was not a pleasant trip. Due to the fight inside of the vehicle and the horn that Ginny kept kicking as she jumped over the seat, a muggle police officer had pulled beside them where a few awkward questions were asked including why they were dressed in robes, the reason they two owls in their car, what concoction were in the viles from the trunk and if they had been drinking? Rose had been moved to Percy Weasley's vehicle which she wouldn't have minded because her cousin, Molly's, card tricks and Lucy's princess stories but she wasn't able to hear them over her Uncle Percy's excited babble about work and an upcoming promotion he expected from assistant manager of Magical Transportation to head. Her Aunt Audrey shared sweets, though Rose desperately wished she had not attacked James, otherwise, she would still be sharing a car with Albus.
Rose searched the room and -- though she could not draw well -- took a sketch book and a few pens from under her desk and placed in into a satchel. She grabbed a book of short stories, a bouncy orb that changed glowing colors to play with when it gets dark, a sneakoscope, a small flying model broomstick (she loved Quidditch, a wizard sport played on broomsticks.) She also packed a book called Quidditch Through the Ages, and one called Flying with the Cannons that her dad had given her but she had never read. She stepped back looking around the room to make sure she hadn't missed anything and got back into bed. It was a long while before she fell asleep again, she could hardly suppress her excitement now; it was something like trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.
She awoke the next morning to her mother's voice. Hermione had poked her head into Rose's bedroom and was calling her in a frantic whisper.
"Rosie? Oh, Rose wake up; we only have two hours until we have to leave. Oh, I accidentally slept in, come on downstairs after you get dressed, sweetheart."
It was just like her mom to wake her up two hours before departure; it was like her dad to wake her up two minutes after because he had slept in too.
Rose yawned and stretched, feeling her bones crack in a series of places. She made sure there was no goo in the corner of her eyes and stepped from bed clumsily, nearly tripping. She took her Hogwarts robes from her dresser and pulled on her socks, skirt, white shirt, gray vest, black tie, and black robe. She took a small Hogwarts pin from her bedside drawer and pinned it to her tie. She knew that she would get looks heading to platform 9¾, but she was too excited to wait.
They were taking the muggle entrance into the station, King's Cross, and usually had to dress in muggle clothes, otherwise people would look at them oddly. Rose stood in front of her mirror and gave a quick twirl in her robes. The black robe which fell to her lower calf just below the end of her gray socks billowed around her legs. She loved it. She loved everything about the uniform from the loose long sleeves to the button that pulled the robe together, from the knee length skirt to the wrinkle free collar of her white button up, shielding her gray tie that she had learned to tie just the night before and was exceptionally proud of though being very square. It would look better when she had the Gryffindor crest on the left breast, though, at the moment, it was the Hogwarts crest, four squares on four corners interrupted by a white patch in the middle with a black letter H. The crest was embroidered with a gold trim and detail while the fist square, red with a lion, met the second, green homing a coiled serpent. Below was yellow with a badger beside blue with a bronze eagle. She had a sudden jolt such of excitement looking at her uniform that she did a silly little jig. She sniggered slightly in spite of herself because she was being ridiculous and stood straight again, took a deep breath, and hurried down the stairs. She arrived at the bottom and had to run back up because she had forgotten her shoes and travel case.
Rose found her father sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with more cream and sugar in it than actual coffee. Their home was quiet, quaint, and modest. They could afford a larger house, of course, with both parents having stable jobs, but only being a family of four, they found that a smaller house would feel quite comfortable. Ron disagreed with Hermione on this theory, though. He had been raised in a large family with no money and was always very cramped. Hermione was stern though, she had to be, otherwise, Ron would get what he wanted in a power parachute, or a mansion, to reconstruct their yard to be a Quidditch field, or to buy out the neighbor's property and kick them out.
They lived in an almost all wizard neighborhood. But a muggle family with four children somehow slipped into the house next door, as muggle as can be with the yellow walls and white picket fence. Hermione was pretty sure that they had inherited it from a squib relative who had passed away long ago. A squib was a muggle born to magic parents but had no magic themselves. The neighborhood assumed that the squib had never told anyone that he or she was born to magic family; squibs are usually ashamed of the matter of having no magic. The neighbors were always having to put memory Charms on this poor family because they or their child had been immature in letting magic slip. Ron even had to put a charm on the backyard so that if the muggle family looked up while the Weasley's were flying on brooms, they would only see two overly large birds. But Rose's house was big enough to be comfortable, small enough for a family of four, and was in a very good location with a large yard and trees surrounding the area, blocking them from most view. A garden was in the backyard and flowers were planted along the side of the house. A neat metal fence lined their property and two willow trees grew beside it. Rose often took to reading under the willow trees; she loved the smell and the way the wind danced with the vines.
Rose took a seat beside her father and her mom set a plate with an omelet in front of her. It smelled good; Hermione had added peppers this time, it seemed. Rose could remember when she was younger and her mom was a dreadful cook so her father had to do most of it, though not being great himself. Ron insisted on ordering food all the time, but her mom, being so determined, had refused and remade meals every night. Burnt bread and dry, chewy ham was the best dinner she could make for a while. One of the reasons they ate at the Potters so often.
"Of course I'm gonna try-"
"Swallow Rose," Hermione reminded with a raised eyebrow and a spatula in her hand.
She swallowed. "Yeah, I'm gonna try out, but I'm kind of nervous about it," she confessed accidentally. "I mean," she tried. "first years rarely make the house teams. A lot more than they used too sure, but still not often. James even waited until second-year to try out and he is obsessed with Quidditch to a point it's scary."
"You shouldn't be nervous," Ron replied. "You're one of the best players your age I've seen, better than James I think, but don't ever mention that to 'em. Not enough practice? Tell you what, I'll finish this," he raised the Daily Prophet he had been reading. "-and we'll go outside and practice."
"Ron!" said his wife suddenly, "It rained last night, it's all muddy and she's in her new uniform." Ron looked back at his daughter.
"Hold on," Rose said, and she ran back upstairs. It didn't take long for her to remove her robe, shoes and to slip her feet into a pair of purple overly large rain boots and arrive back at the kitchen table.
"How's this?" she asked, and she gave a twirl that made the rubber boots squeak against the wood flooring.
Ron looked at her boots and skirt and chuckled slightly; Hermione was looking at her white blouse.
"Alright, come on," he said putting a piece of toast in his mouth and he started outside with his daughter. Rose could hear her mom give a half amused half exasperated snort as they closed the side door behind them.
Ron and Rose began at the greenhouse to fetch their brooms. Their brooms were the only thing worth visiting the greenhouse for. They did not plant. This building was used mostly to contain the more conspicuous magical items that Hermione did not want in the house but couldn't let the muggle family see. The outside walls were jinxed to give the illusion of beautiful flowers and vegetables growing on the inside.
Rose grabbed her Nimbus 2001; it was a pretty old model, but she saw no reason to ask for a new one, it still worked well. Her father grabbed his old Firebolt and they continued to the backyard.
"So, what position do you want to play?" he asked while checking for rain with the palm of his hand.
"Beater!" she replied.
"Are you sure you don't want to be keeper, that's a good one," he suggested, keeper being what he played during his years on the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts.
"Nah, I wanna be a beater," she said while yanking her foot from the squelching mud.
"Alright, well I don't think that we should get the bludgers out today, I don't want you taking a chance of going to your first day of school with a broken nose. How 'bout chaser?" he suggested.
Quidditch was a wizard sport played on broomsticks. There were four balls, seven players on a team, and three goal post on either side of the pitch. In the seven players, there were three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and one seeker. The chasers would take the largest ball, the quaffle, and try to get it through one of the other teams' goal hoops. The beaters would use clubs to hit the two bludgers away from their own team and at the opposing teams' players; bludgers were heavy balls whose job it was to hit as many players as they could of their broom. The keeper would guard their goal post and prevent the other team from scoring, and it was the seeker's job to catch the last ball called the snitch. The snitch was a tiny golden ball that would zigzag around the pitch and was exceptionally tricky to catch. Once the snitch is caught, the game is over. Ten points for every goal scored and one-hundred-fifty points to the team that catches the snitch. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the games wins.
In another ten minutes, she had pulled her little brother, Hugo, away from his omelet and got him to hover in front of one single goal post that her dad had mounted. And her mom took to watching them with a cup of tea from the balcony.
It was a good morning despite the gray weather. She and her dad passed the quaffle back and forth, and into the goal half the time, the other half, Hugo would block it. He had become very good, especially with him being so small. Again, and again they passed, they scored, they missed, they laughed for what felt like almost an hour. Until they saw yellow fireworks from above and looked to the balcony. Hermione was waving at them while frantically shouting that they had fifteen minutes before they had to leave.
The family all sped to the ground and ran toward the house splattering cold mud all over their own legs. Rose fell out of both her boots which remained stuck in the mud and had to drag her little brother who was having a lot of difficulties. Her socks were now wet and muddy and squelched with every step, there was no worse feeling. Had it been over an hour and a half?
"Scourgify, scourgify, scourgify," Hermione shouted while blasting charms at their feet to rid their legs and shoes of mud. The wet squelching left Rose's socks, and she suddenly didn't feel so disgusting.
She ran back into her room, pulled on her robe and shoes and shuffled back downstairs. Rose jumped into the bathroom where Hugo was brushing his teeth. Hugo was only a year younger than her but acted as though she was his little sister. He had curly red hair and freckles along his nose. His face was round like his mother's and was her spitting image despite having his father's hair, eyes, and accent. Rose snatched her toothbrush and squeezed beside her brother. Hugo spit in the sink and dropped his toothbrush.
"I'll just wait," he huffed, hating the feeling of being cramped.
Rose was watching her reflection as it stroked her teeth vigorously with the bristles of the sudsy brush. She hoped she wouldn't look too out of place at Hogwarts. Her hair was vivid and her freckles were extremely perceptible. Despite her small flaws, Rose didn't dislike her appearance. She wasn't a fan of the tiny gap between her front teeth nor did she like her sturdy and undainty figure. But she didn't mind her eyes, in fact, she's say she liked them though they weren't a dazzling blue with long thick eyelashes as the girls in nearly every storybook and song seemed to have. She had her mother's eyes. They were round and chocolaty brown and bright, always eager as her Aunt Audrey had stated when first seeing Rose as a babe and often referred to her as 'little eager eyes'. Rose had tried to brush her hair but did not feel keen to battle the knots and attempted to sneak a hat but Hermione wouldn't allow it. She tied Rose's hair into a knot on the back of her head with much assistance from hair pins to hold every wandering piece of frizz and curl. Ron used a hovering charm to get her trunk into the car as he wasn't planning to fight with the massively heavy object. The family jumped into the ugly yellow vehicle with the bumper sticker that read, Peace, Bro. No Anger Yo. The vehicle was cheap and they found that they were pulled over much less. Ron jumped into the driver's seat, made sure they were all accounted for, started the engine, and took off.
Her dad was doing surprisingly well driving, Rose thought. The only thing that struck her as odd was how every time a muggle traffic light turned red, it would change instantly back to green as soon as the car got there. After the fourth time this happened, Rose had finally noticed her father tapping his leg with his wand. Rose smiled and sat back. Then was almost immediately thrown forward as her dad slammed the brake to avoid colliding with a bus.
"Seatbelt, Rosie," Hugo grinned smugly, adjusting his own.
"You didn't let me eat breakfast," said Hugo folding his arms.
They pulled up to the train station, lifted her trunk onto a trolley and wheeled it in.
King's Cross was a completely ordinary station. Platforms and trains, people hurrying about impatiently, dressed in suits and ties, hoodies and caps. All staring at them as they wheeled a trolley laden with boxes and at Rose skipping along in her robe.
"Oh Ron, we're going to be late," her mom was saying.
The family stopped between platform nine and ten. Before them was a brick divider old and warn with had many bumps and bruises. Hermione took Hugo's hand and ran at the divider, but rather than colliding to the ground after impact with the clay, they disappeared, vanished, completely gone and not a muggle noticed; it helped that all of the muggles seemed plugged into electronic devises.
Ron tapped Rose and nodded to the divider as it was her turn. She took a breath and shook her shoulders. She had done this trick before when seeing James off for school the year prior, but the act was scary as the wall seemed very solid. It was like walking on a glass bridge, you knew you were safe but there was still the fear of dying. Rose took at the wall in a run, glancing at the muggles to be sure that they wouldn't notice. She closed her eyes as she was right on top of the wall. There was a whoosh like a wind that circled densely around her.
Rose could tell that she was no longer between platform nine and ten even in the second she didn't open her eyes. The sounds changed drastically. Rather than flat grunts of conversation, cellphones ringing, and steady sounds of rubbery tennis shoes on the cement, there was now the sound of excited chatter, children, and animals. People rolled their trolleys around the platform with cages that held cats, rats, owls, and lizards. The place no longer smelled of cologne and leather but now had an aroma of pumpkin bread and cider. The people that were on this platform were not ordinary by muggle standards anyway. They wore robes of multiple colors and pointed hats. Though Rose frowned as she walked toward her mother who was watching the platform with a furrowed brow. Something was off. Last year, there had been hundreds of people crowded together, bustling hurriedly with trunks and chasing animals, but now, there seemed to be at the most, thirty people.
Rose wondered if they were on the right platform. She glanced toward the sign above the divider. Yes, they were on platform 9 ¾ as was written on her ticket. Ron joined them and shared his wife's brow as he glanced across the platform. Rose looked to a father buying his kid a snack at a stand, a small group of wizard boys, already dressed in their robes, looking fixedly at a pamphlet about how to fit in at school, and an aged man dozing was on a bench was falling slowly onto a lanky wizard's shoulder. She would have thought that they had missed the train if it wasn't before them scarlet red and puffing cheerful gusts of steam. Rose glanced at her watch. At first, she was confused, then her eyes widened in realization.
Rose tapped her father and showed him the time. Ron dropped his shoulders and rolled his eyes.
"Hermione, dear," he said composedly. "we're 42 minutes early."
"What!" said Hermione, spinning to look at her husband. "But that's impossible; I made sure." She looked at her wrist to check the time of her silver watch, an anniversary gift. Ron put his own under her nose. "What?" she said, "But... oh."
Rose let out a strangled laugh.
So, with 42 minutes to spare, they took to walking across the platform to drop off Rose's trunk and see if there was anybody they knew to talk to. Ron bought them all a scone, mostly because Hugo was complaining about being hungry. Rose bought herself a pamphlet about how to start at Hogwarts from a close stand. Her parents insisted that she didn't need it, both giving very different advice about how to fit in and make friends, she decided to nod to each's advice while slipping a sickle to the man behind the counter.
"Harry and Ginny won't be here for another half hour," said Ron as Hugo finished his scone. "But we may see... oh no." He suddenly stopped.
"Ronald!" she heard someone say and immediately recognized the pompous tone of her Uncle Percy.
Percy was Ron's third older brother and was under his brothers Bill and Charlie. He had curly red hair that was cut short to reveal a rather large forehead. He wore horn-rim glasses and was always impeccably dressed.
Rose didn't dislike him, but he did bore her and Hugo and all her other cousins to sleep at family gatherings. Last Christmas he had sent both her and Hugo one thick book titled, '202 of the Most Respected International Confederation Wizards in History'; her mom had been the only one to read it.
"How wonderful to see all of you!" Percy was saying. His daughters Molly and Lucy were there too.
"I'll help you with that," said Molly looking at Rose's trunk. Molly was the eldest daughter and was starting her fourth year at Hogwarts. She had red curly hair that she had in a braid on the back of her head and had a slightly round face. She wore square glasses and always had a pack of cards in her hand.
Lucy, who also had red hair and glasses, but whose hair was cut to her shoulders, straight, and in a fringe, was too young to attend Hogwarts as well as Hugo, but Lucy followed him as he followed Rose.
"Just got here," Molly answered waving Rose off as she attempted to take the trolley herself. "Dad insisted on getting here early. He says that it'll make his department look better, you know, The Department of Magical Transportation. But I think it's useless, nobody is going to see us here early and go, 'Wow! Look how early they are. That Percy Weasley does run a tight ship in his Department.'" Rose laughed. "But, how are you?" Molly asked. "It is your first year."
"I'm ecstatic!" she replied. "Honestly, I'm not nervous at all." Though she wasn't being as honest as she had been with Al the night before.
"Good," said Molly. "You don't have any reason to be nervous, the classes are work of course but everyone that has gone is always excited to go back which obviously means we like it there. Not worried about the sorting? Most people are."
"No," Rose replied hesitantly. The thing was, now that she was here, facing the train that was going to her to the first day of the rest of her life, she wasn't quite as confident. She was excited, sure, but something about standing here on platform 9¾, in front of the train that'll bring her away from her parents farther and longer than she had ever been before, was quite nerve wracking. Though she still believed that she was going to be in Gryffindor, that sick feeling remained in the pit of her stomach which made her feel as though she was supposed to be more nervous. "I'm sure I'll be in Gryffindor," she told Molly anyway.
"Yeah, that's what I said," said Molly. "And look where I am, Ravenclaw. But yeah, you'll probably be in Gryffindor, most redheads are, mind you though, most red heads are Weasley's."
Molly and Rose worked together to heave the trunk from the trolley and deposit it beside the train where a few young wizard men were loading luggage with their wands. The girls took down the train corridor to deposit her travel bag, mostly to secure a place to sit as compartments became filled rather quickly. The train was lovely even despite the years. A smell of smoke and memories remained on the walls with the oil lamps. They tossed her bag into the last compartment which was closest to the toilets.
"Al isn't so confident, though," said Rose as they made their way from the train, taking back to their previous conversation.
"What do you mean?" asked Molly. Hugo and Lucy were still on the platform having an animated conversation about a muggle baseball cap that he had brought.
"Al has this silly idea that he'll be in Slytherin."
"It's not very silly," said Molly.
"Well I know it's not 'ha-ha' funny, I just meant that he thinks he will be," Rose said slightly annoyed.
"Yeah well, if it was any of us, I kinda thought him."
"What?" asked Rose stopping outside of the train. "Al? He doesn't look Slytherin."
"Well he doesn't really look Gryffindor either, does he?" Rose didn't answer.
Molly continued, "He's smart but not Ravenclaw material, he might be in Hufflepuff, he's loyal enough. But nobody really wants to be in Hufflepuff."
"I think he's brilliant," Rose said stubbornly.
"So are Slytherins," said Molly, she was too opinionated like her father. "Anyway, see you on the train." She waved lazily as she joined her sister.
Who did she think she was putting a stamp on Al's head before he's even sorted, that's just wrong, especially the stamp being a Slytherin one. Rose felt that she was punched in the stomach as she realized that she had been trying to convince Al that Slytherin was no worse than any of the other houses but yet, here she was angry at someone who had verbally sorted him into Slytherin. She wouldn't have been as upset if Molly had said that she could see him in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. And wasn't the word Gryffindor stamped on her head by everyone else in the family?
When Rose looked back up, she saw that the platform was much fuller than it had been. A mixture of people in black cloaks and muggle clothes were traveling all around the platform carrying trunks and boxes, some with owl cages and other small pets. Some of the witches and wizards in muggle clothes looked quite comical and Rose suspected that they got more looks on the way here than the people in cloaks did. Some were wearing a top hat with a sweatshirt, others with night clothes and leather jackets.
, spotting a mound of loose curls bounding through the crowd that she recognized as one of her favorite people.
Her Uncle George (who had red hair) and Aunt Angelina (a pretty black girl) had two kids, Fred, who was in fifth year, and Roxanne was in her third.
Fred had a lightly ceramal skin and slightly auburn but mostly brown, very curly hair, as though the color couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Roxanne was younger and had a large mound of untamable curls as she tried not to tame them. She had a pretty face, and usually had a handkerchief or other headband in her hair to keep it from hitting people when she turned, and she always wore the same big hoop earrings, and both children were very freckly.
Rose ran to Fred a hugged him tightly around the middle. He had been like her big brother but teased her a lot. Many things she hated about herself and would punch James for mentioning, Fred teased and somehow, it was funny when he did it. He acted a lot like his father when he was in school. Both Fred and Roxanne looked more like their mom. Rose hardly got to see Fred anymore since they moved away. She was ecstatic to be spending a whole semester with him at Hogwarts. Both he and his sister were a quite the mischievous bunch, frequently getting into trouble.
"Where's Roxie?" she asked.
"Still stuck," he smiled. "Ah George, my dear brother," Fred impersonated Percy, buttoning the top collar of his muggle shirt pompously as he had traveled through King's Cross in their clothes. "Oh, how delighted you must be to see me, what a great honor this it for you, to be talking to the Head of Magical Transportation, sorry -- no pictures. You may kiss my shoe, though," He held out his foot. "George has to do it, sorry Angelina but you'll get lipstick on it, they've just been polished." he was exaggerating of course as Rose laughed.
"You should probably save Roxanne now, though," she said.
Fred ruffled her hair, probably ruining it, and walked back toward Percy to vanish into the steam that the engine was producing. Just as he left, she saw her parents emerging from the mist. Her mom had an expression of mild relief, her dad just looked furious.
"That git won't shut up," he said as they got nearer.
"Oh, calm down Hermione," he said. "They know Percy's a boring git, don't you, Rosie?" She didn't have to answer.
"I hear James!" said Hugo excitedly, Hugo really liked James, he thought his cousin was funny. "Isn't that them, mom?" he asked.
"I can't tell," said Hermione, trying to listen through the babble of voices around them.
"I think that's them, Al," said a detached voice that belonged to a woman.
"Yup," said her dad. "That's Ginny."
Five figures appeared from the mist coming clearer as they approached. Ginny was a very pretty woman with long red hair, Harry had messy black hair and round glasses, little Lily had red hair and freckles and greatly resembled Rose who was often mistaken as Lily's older sister, James was tall, he had auburn hair but no freckles.
"You alright?" she asked.
"Still nervous," he replied.
"But you have talked to your dad about it?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
"Well, you better get to it then. Lily!" She took the shoulders of Al's little sister, who had a tear-streaked face, she wasn't yet old enough to go to Hogwarts. "Lily, why are you crying?"
"I -- want - to -- go!" Lily replied through hiccups. "Hugo!" Lily suddenly exclaimed completely dropping her sobs and ran up to him. Rose was taken slightly aback by the sudden change in pace and not knowing why she was so excited to see him, he does come around their house nearly three times a week.
Lily and Hugo began to talk about Hogwarts and what house they'll be in when they one day go. Her dad stopped to listen.
"I like Ravenclaw, but Uncle Harry says that you have to answer a riddle to get in the common room and I don't want that," Hugo was saying to Lily. "You could be in Hufflepuff; I think you're pretty nice."
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Ron suddenly. "but no pressure."
"He doesn't mean it."
Rose put a hand on Al's shoulder and found that it was stiff.
"Look who it is," said Ron under his breath. Rose looked up but didn't see who he was talking about.
"So, that's little Scorpius," he said under his breath.
She caught sight of him. Around fifty yards away was a tall blond man with a black coat buttoned to his chin and a pretty brunette woman hugging a boy Rose's age. The boy was tall with white-blond hair that was slick and greatly resembled the man. Those were the Malfoys, Rose knew but had never met properly before nor did she think that she wanted to. Her dad had told what felt like hundreds of stories where the man, Draco, would bully and try to get her parents expelled. From what she had heard, the Malfoy family were an evil pureblood family who was all sorted into Slytherin. And it was common knowledge that the Malfoys were death eaters (followers of Voldemort) back in the first and second Wizarding War.
"Make sure you beat him at every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains," Ron said suddenly as he stared at the blond man grudgingly.
"You're right, sorry," he said, but added. "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood."
. Rose thought.
"Hey!" she heard James running up in excitement. "Teddy's back there!" he said breathlessly, pointing behind him.
Teddy was Harry's Godson, which would mean he was their cousin.
"Just seen him!" James continued. "And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!" He stopped like he thought no one had heard him properly. "Our Teddy!" he tried again, "Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-"
"You interrupted them?" asked Aunt Ginny in disbelief. "You are so like Ron-"
"-And he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away. He's snogging her!" he added desperately.
He evidently thought that this was the biggest news of the century. Rose had known about Teddy and Victoire for some time now. Victoire was her Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur's eldest daughter who was very, to put it honestly, gorgeous with strawberry blonde hair and freckles much more adorable than Rose thought hers was. Teddy's late mother was a metamorphmagus (a witch or wizard with the ability to change one's appearance at will) and late father was werewolf which made Teddy half of each, though he didn't have any werewolf characteristics. His parents had been great people who fought Voldemort during the second wizarding war and both died together during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, a month after Teddy was born. Though Harry was named Godfather before their death, Teddy was raised by his grandmother, Harry being only seventeen at the time. Teddy and Victoire had been seeing each other for a few months now, though there was always an electric connection between them. James seemed to be the only one that didn't know and he was the closest to Teddy.
"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married," said Lily ecstatically. "Teddy would really be part of the family then."
"He already comes to dinner about four times a week," said Harry.
"Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?"
"Yeah!" said James, he obviously didn't realize that Harry was joking. "I don't mind sharing with Al -- Teddy can have my room!"
"No," said Harry firmly, "you and Al will share a room when I want the house demolished." He checked his watch. "It's almost eleven, you'd better get on board."
"Don't forget to give Neville our love," said Ginny to James.
"Go ask him, ask him now," Rose said to Al, gesturing to Harry.
"He's busy," said Al trying to find an excuse. Harry wasn't doing anything. "He's... he's listening to mom."
James swung his leg at Al, but Al kicked it away.
"See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."
"I thought they were invisible," said Al frantically, "You said they were invisible."
She walked to her parents who both kissed her. She hugged Hugo and he handed her his baseball cap, she smiled and rubbed his hair. After being forced to pose in front of the train, and a few embarrassing photos were taken, they all bid each other farewell and Rose stepped up onto the scarlet steam engine with an itching behind her eyes.