The first of many drabbles and one-shots about the NextGen.

Pairing: RosexAl

Rose hated the nickname Rosie. She'd been hearing it for her entire life and it made her want to crawl into a hole and die. Maybe it was because the one person she wouldn't mind saying it never did. Al totally ignored the nickname, her hatred of it throwing him off. Maybe she should have pretended to like it just so she could hear it from him but if he ever did say it, she wanted it to be special. Instead, she was just Rose; like she was just his cousin... nothing more. Never anything more. She was Rose damn Weasley and what more did she expect. They were cousins, for crying out loud, he'd never cross that boundary. Especially not with the whole world watching them. Never... never...

Instead, Fred, Hugo, James, her dad... all the guys who wanted to annoy her used it. But never Al. Until he became something he could never turn away from. Until he started bullying first Astrid, her best friend, and then the other Houses and finally everyone, not even laying off Rose some days. And he'd call her Rosie, whisper it late at night when they sat next to each other in the common room, Rose trying to catch up in lessons she didn't understand and Al... Al was just staring at the fire, crackling in the fireplace and ignoring everyone around him until he'd glare at someone behind her, leaning forward to curse at them and they were so close that she could have kissed him if she was ever that brave, which she wasn't, how she was a Gryffindor was beyond her. Maybe she couldn't do the foolish bravery. Maybe she was stuck there for a lack of anywhere else to go. But whatever it was, she was there. With Al. But never with him. Just next to him. As he smirked and called her the nickname. And she'd always thought she'd love it coming from him but now it sounded like an insult, like the worst thing she could do would be to be Rosie. And so she hated the name even more.

Please R&R and I hope you enjoyed