"Ron, I don't know what we're going to do." Said Hermione late one night.

"About Rose?" he asked while pulling straw from a brightly colored blazer.

"It's just… I'm worried Ron! What she did last year was so dangerous! I was excited for her, to be going to school but now… now I don't think it wise to… to…"

"You want to Homeschool?"

Hermione didn't respond. Ron dropped the blazer and turned to his wife.

"Look," he said. "I understand how you're feeling… Not only did she become friendly with a Malfoy, but she gets involved with this kid who leads her from Hogwarts where they both nearly died under the wand of the Belladonna Drury."

Hermione winced at the name.

"But listen, we can't hold her back now. In her defense, she never meant to leave, she was trying to keep her friend from making the wrong choice and was pulled in."

"But she never even told us about the letter!" Hermione exclaimed. "A ransom! A real ransom!"

"Did you ever tell your parents about all that had happened to us at Hogwarts?"

"Of course I didn't! But this is different, my parents were muggles, they wouldn't have understood."

"They would have understood better than you're letting on." Said Ron. "You didn't tell them because you were afraid that they'd pull you out of school."

"But what about Hugo?" Hermione asked desperately.

"What about him?"

"He's going to Hogwarts soon and I'm worried that he'll get involved too! He's always so quick to jump into dangerous things that he knows little of because it'll make a story, or better yet, 'No one told me not to.'"

"You're not worried about Rose…" said Ron slowly. "You're worried about Max…"

Hermione didn't say anything again.

"Sweetheart, you very well know that you can't force Rose to stay away from him. He's her best friend."

"But this was his fault." She said quietly. "If Rose had never met him, then she would have never met Bel-" she took a deep breath. "Belladonna Drury."

"If you had never met Harry then you may never have met you-know-who." Said Ron.

"Voldemort." Said Hermione sternly.

"Right… I know you're worried, but you can't pull her out of school because of this, much like you wouldn't have wanted your parents to pull you out of school for what you did. And you can't keep Hugo from school either just because of what Rose did."

"Can't I…?"

"No." said Ron sternly. "You are not going to Hogwarts with them."

"Not with them." Hermione pleaded. "I'd be a Professor."

"Hermione, if my mom or dad had come to Hogwarts as a Professor, I would have crawled in my sock drawer and died of humiliation. These kids need their space. They need to grow to become their own person and figure out who they are without their parents hoovering above them, watching every move they make. You're going to let Rose and Hugo go to Hogwarts as a free person, do you understand?"

Hermione's eyebrows traveled up her head threateningly, but Ron stood his ground. She sighed.

"Honey," said Ron, placing a hand on her face. "They're going to be okay."

"You can't guarantee that."

"I can't guarantee anything when it comes to our kids." Said Ron. "I can't guarantee that they're going to wake up every morning, but that's not going to stop me from letting them sleep. I can't guarantee that they won't choke on their food one day, but that's not going to stop me from letting them eat. I can't guarantee that they're not going to get into mischief at school, but that's not going to stop me from letting them go. We need to let them go, just a little."

Rose Weasley pulled her ear away from her parent's door. She stood there for a moment in the dark and took a deep breath. She was going to go! She was going to go for her second year! She had been so afraid that what she had done the previous year was bad enough to keep her from being allowed to go to Hogwarts.

Last year had been spent with her three best friends, Scorpius Malfoy, Maddox Everard, and Albus Potter, though Al was her cousin. They had snuck around the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a bit. They had explored secrets gardens and had played Quidditch on brooms. They had taken magical classes and done their homework, they didn't make bad marks either. Everything was going quite well, until an unexpected occurrence had arisen in the form, of a ransom note.

Her best friend and fellow Gryffindor, Max, had apparently had a brother who had been kidnaped by his abusive mother, Belladonna Drury, when he and his twin had only been seven. Belladonna had sent a ransom to Max within their last month at Hogwarts, telling him to meet her, and she would release his brother. Though Max's friends had protested against it, all trying to give him different options, Max was stubborn and headstrong. He had taken Belladonna on her offer and through an unfortunate set of events, Rose Weasley had been reluctantly dragged along and she herself had met Belladonna Drury. What this woman had wanted had ended up being a draft that she herself had implanted in Max at birth. This draft had special healing powers and could save Belladonna from her illness. Though the way she had attempted to extract it, had been terrible. They were saved by the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts who had come to their rescue. Unfortunately, Max's brother, Will, was did not escape. He had been taken again by Belladonna as she had fled. Both Rose and Max had been taken back to the school with terrible injuries, but none so bad that the Matron couldn't mend.

Of course, the Headmaster had written to both their parents about the event and the first two weeks back home were the worst Rose could remember. Lecture upon lecture, threat upon threat about not letting her go back for her second year. Not only did she let an earful from her parents, but from each and every person in her extensive family line. All of her Aunts and Uncles, even her cousins. Fred and Roxanne, the – mischievous duo – had even been very displeased and frightened about what their little cousin had gotten herself into.

Even Al had gotten scorned. He had not been dragged along on their trip to meet Belladonna, but he had been involved in the whole circumstance, known about the ransom letter and had even broke out of his dormitory with his best friend and fellow Slytherin, Scorpius Malfoy, after hours to catch Max who was trying to make a run for it.

The worst of being back home though, wasn't the long talks and fearful glances every time Hogwarts was mentioned, but it was the privet talks her parents would have about Max. They obviously thought that he was a very bad example on Rose, which may have been true. Rose would make it a nightly routine to, at nine o'clock every night when her mom was just getting out of the shower, tiptoe downstairs and press an ear to her parent's door, listening to new advancements in their thought to allow her to go to school.

This was the last one, it was one week until the first term at Hogwarts and she was going! Thank you dad!

She and her brother Hugo, who would be starting his first year at Hogwarts in one week, were to head to Diagon Alley to pick up their school supplies within the next week, most likely tomorrow because her dad was off work. Rose tiptoed back upstairs as quiet as she could, if her parents found out that she had been listening every night, it may ruin her chances. Her three friends had stayed in touch over the summer. Al, of course because he wasn't but a few miles away and they had enchanted hand mirrors which enabled them to speak to each other. Scorpius always wrote really long letters even for a really short reply. But his letters had become so neat and cursive that Rose actually had a rough time trying to riddle out his slanted writing. Though no matter how his words appeared on paper, he always singed the bottom with an 'S' that so resembled a 'G'. She and Al had started calling him Gorpius.

Rose heard a soft pecking at her window and her heart leapt as it always did at this noise. She through open her bedroom window to welcome an owl in. The bird dropped a letter on her desk for her, and after stroking its feathers and feeding it a bit of a forgotten tart from breakfast, she ushered it to wait on her bed. To the muggle family next door, a twelve-year-old girl nightly welcoming owls into her bedroom would seem completely peculiar. Well, that would just be because they knew nothing about her world, the Wizarding world. To a non-magic person, so called muggles, everything that happened in this almost all magical neighborhood would seem odd wouldn't it? But Rose knew perfectly well that post arriving by bird was as ordinary as post arriving by mailman to her neighbors. The mailman for one thing probably finds this neighborhood to be as odd as the muggle family of six do, theirs being the only house that he ever had to deliver to.

Rose returned to the letter that the owl had dropped on her desk and flipped it over to find Max's cat scratch like handwriting on the back. She tore it open read the, just as short as usual, line.

'Anything new?'

He never was one for writing, but she had become used to this. At first, she had thought that his letters were so short because he really didn't want to talk to her, but then Scorpius and Al had assured her that her letters from Max were nearly twice as long as theirs. He had been asking this same question for weeks now, Anything new? She knew that he was scared to death that she wasn't going to come back to Hogwarts because of what he had drug her into. She knew that he would never forgive himself. He blamed himself for how their year turned out, for Rose's broken leg and for his friends getting into trouble. But Rose didn't blame him. He had gone through much more that year than any of them had. He was face to face with his abusive mother who he had been on the run from for four years, he went through extraction, and he lost his brother for a second time, and only being eleven.

Rose grabbed her quill and parchment and scribbled back.

"I'm going! Just heard, I think my dad has finally convinced my mom! They're nervous though… Get your dad to bring you to Diagon Alley tomorrow around noon. Scorpius is coming too. See you then!

-Rosebud."

She folded, addressed, and gave it to the owl to take in his beak.

"You know who this belongs to." She whispered before releasing the bird into the warm summer air.

Rose laid back on her pillow and breathed again. She was going…

She woke the next morning to a light pecking at the window and welcomed in the very same, extremely tired looking owl. It had a small sliver of paper clasped in its beak which bore the words.

'Done, and good morning Miss. Rosebud.'

Rose took the owl in her arms and brought it downstairs for breakfast. Her father was drinking coffee as usual, more of a dessert than a beverage. Hermione was reading, as usual, and her little brother Hugo, his red hair lopsided and curly, was positively bouncing with anticipation.

"We're going to Diagon Alley today, Rose!" Hugo whispered excitedly, gripping her nightdress.

Diagon Alley was a wizarding shopping street where every child dreams of going when they turn eleven. Hermione glanced at Rose over her book and said,

"Breakfast is in the oven, dear. And I would get dressed, we're going to Diagon Alley around noon today for Hugo's things, and yours."

Rose supposed that was her way of giving Rose closer.

She took the pancakes from the oven and made herself a plate.

"Rose?" asked Hermione. "Whose owl is that?"

She had forgotten that she had left Max's owl on the table and it was now dipping its beak into Hugo's orange juice.

"Uh…" She was about to say Max, but decided otherwise. "Scorpius'." She replied.

"Why don't you send it home then?" Hermione took the owl gently and tossed it from the window. "We're taking floo powder to get to Diagon Alley." She said with a wary sideways glance at Rose who had avoided floo travel ever sense that night she met Belladonna.

Rose had been accidentally consumed by the green flames as they had engulfed Max. She had broken her leg terribly and couldn't travel this way without having flashbacks of that night. It seemed that Hermione was trying to break this fear of hers. Rose looked up to find both her mom and dad, and Hugo all looking at her worriedly.

"Yeah," she smiled. "floo, that's the fasted way to get there."

Noon arrived and Rose and her brother were getting into their soot robes because floo travel can be messy depending on if the fireplace had been cleaned recently or not.

"Hermione," said Ron. "You first."

She took a handful of powder from a vase atop the mantel piece, and backed into the overly large fireplace.

"Diagon Alley!" she shouted before a rush of green flame spiraled up her legs and she vanished.

Rose winced slightly at the flames as they vanished once more. She felt this horrible stomach feeling and thought she was going to be sick.

"Hugo." Said Ron holding out the vase for Hugo to grab a handful and back into the fireplace as well.

"Diagon Alley!" he called as if this wasn't dangerous at all. A rush of green flame engulfed him, and he was gone.

"Rose?" said her dad much more timidly.

She took a deep breath and reached her hand into the vase as normal as she once upon a time had. Rose backed into the fireplace and looked at her dad watching her with concern.

"Diagon Alley!" she called suddenly and with a trembling voice, thinking that she best get it over with. A terrible feeling of warmth rose up her legs and through her body. The color green surrounded her and she felt as though she was being sucked to Hell. She spun in circles and a roaring was in her ears. Suddenly, and without warning, a flash of red light was blasted into memory, a terrible, agonizing scream ripped through the roaring wind and a memory of pain shot through her leg. Rose screamed as the events of last year spun by her head that she had fought to push away. She glimpsed an old, broken down house and the silhouette of a scrawny boy. She saw a person fly through the air and she saw a face, a face that she had tried to forget over the summer, the face of Belladonna Drury, leering at her from the darkness. "You rat!" she heard a cold, hard voice shriek from nowhere and the words echoed around her.

Suddenly, she stopped spinning, and her feet met hard ground. She opened her eyes and found that she was in Flourish and Blotts book store fireplace. Her mother and brother were standing there waiting for her and her mom gasped when seeing Rose. For a moment Rose didn't know what the concern was for. Hermione rushed over and pulled her from the fireplace, then she stroked Rose's cheeks and pulled her hand back revealing a glisten of water on her finger tips. Rose rubbed her own face and found that it was wet with tears that she didn't remember crying. Hermione pulled her close and Ron appeared from the fireplace a moment later.