I warn you now, i'm a horrible updater, but good news here is that I know where I want this all to head. I changed a couple little things that I'm sure some overly obsedded fan will call me out on but hey, poetic justice baby. PM me any ideas or suggestions, i love the support.
Chapter One is dedicated to my number one fan: Elisa Clemo
Single Red Roses (A Next Generation Fiction) By: Ashley
Chapter One: The Day That Started It All
Rose Weasley barely heard her father as she looked around Platform 9 ¾ with excitement in her deep blue eyes. She couldn't believe that the day had finally come. The day she and her cousin Albus would be getting on the Hogwarts Express and heading to the most brilliant school she had ever read about. She fiddled with the end of her brand-new school robes and thanked godric that she and her family had made it to the train station alive, which was something she had to worry about when her father was the one driving them there.
"Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie." Ron said, gestering over to a pale boy with equally pale blonde hair. She looked at her father questioningly as her mother playfully hit her father on his shoulder.
"Oh for heaven's sake Ron," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
"Where's James and Albus?" Rose asked, looking around for her cousins. They had been standing here not too long ago, and Albus had promised to sit with her on the train ride. Just then, James came running over to their group.
"Teddy's back there," he announced, but no one seemed surprised. Rose figured Teddy would see off Victorie for her last year of Hogwarts. It was horrible enough watching the two love struck teenagers during their year apart from each other last year. James though, had not caught onto the family memo. "Snogging our Victorie!" He announced, trying to catch a member of his family off guard.
"Rose, lets get your things on the train and get you settled," Rose's mother, Hermione, said, grabbing an end to Rose's trunk.
"I can do it Mum," Rose said. "Al put his stuff in a compartment already."
"I know he did dear, I just thought that you might…" he mother tried to reason.
"Hermione…" Rose's Uncle Harry said. "You're being over-protective."
"I am not," Hermione argued. She looked over to her husband. "Ron, tell Harry I'm not being over-protective." Ron's eyes grew wide and he looked back and forth between his best friend and his wife in massive confusion.
"I…er…um…" Ron stuttered, confused. "Ginny help!" Ginny Potter came over with Lily and Hugo in tow to save her brother.
"Now you guys have a great school year," she said, kissing each Albus, Rose, and James on the head.
"No such thing, Mum," James laughed as he said goodbye to everyone, jumping on the train to follow his friends.
"Here Rose, I'll help with your trunk," Al said, taking one side as Rose took the other and they climbed onto the train and into the compartment they had reserved in the back of the train. Once they were settled, Rose leaned out the window and waved to her little brother Hugo before remembering something vitally important.
"Daddy!" she called out to Ron, who turned on his heal and walked (well, almost ran) over to his daughter.
"Yea Rosie?" Ron asked. "Homesick already?" he said hopefully, but Rose shook her head.
"I was just wondering…" she said slowly, trying to word the question correctly. "Would you really disinherit me if I wasn't in Gryffindor?" Ron smiled widely and kissed Rose on the forehead.
"No Rosie, I wouldn't," he said, stepping back from the train as it began to move foreward. In the window next to her, Al was leaning out too, waving goodbye to their families until Christmas time and watching as Hugo and Lily walked miserably back to the passage between platforms 9 and 10.
As the train sped off, Ron's arm was still in the air, waving long after the train went out of sight. Harry came over knowingly and clapped Ron on the shoulder.
"You know," Harry said. "The best thing about having your best mate as your boss is that he gets it when you need a day off."
"I'm fine," Ron lied, his hand still in the air.
"Oh I know," Harry said, playing along. "But I'm sure Hermione is having a nervous break down right now. I know Ginny did when we sent James off 3 years ago."
"Yea…Yea, I should probably stay with Hermione for the day, make sure she is handeling sending Rose off well."
"Good plan mate," Harry agreed and watched his two best friends walk away with his nephew. "Softy," Harry smirked before running to catch up with his own wife.
"I won't be in Slytherin," Albus muttered, his arms crossed stubbornly across his chest.
"If you keep saying that, you're going to end up in Slytherin out of pure spite," Rose said, shutting her cousin up. Geez, she was nervous as it was. But now Albus just looked depressing slouched in his seat. She reached into her bag and grabbed two chocolate frogs, throwing one at Albus. "Here, cheer up Al," she said as he unwrapped the candy. "We're going to Hogwarts!"
"Yea, Hogwarts," Al said, Rose could tell in his voice that the boy was nervous. The sliding door to the compartment jerked open, startling Rose and Al. In the door way was James and his two best friends Michael and Danaë. Behind the three fourth years was a girl about Rose and Al's age. She had long blonde hair, a rounded face, and her wand tucked neatly behind her ear.
"Hey guys," James said cheerfully. "This is Professor Longbottom's daughter Terra," Terra stepped forward with a brave look on her face. "You all met when you were really little…" James stopped when he saw his little brother slouched on the seat. "What's up with him?" James asked Rose.
"Oh, Albus' idiot brother told him he might end up in Slytherin, so now the poor boy is going to be freaked out the entire trip to school." Rose said. Terra walked in more and sat with Al.
"Oh, don't worry Al; I'm sure whatever house you get sorted into you'll be perfectly happy." Al smiled at Terra.
"Thanks," he said. Over in the doorway Danaë slapped James in the back of the head.
"What the hell James!" she yelled.
"Hey!" He put his arms up to protect himself. "I'm being nice to my little brother! Back in my first year, Uncle George and Uncle Ron had me convinced that we had to fight a troll!"
"And then on you went to convince poor little Michael here of the same thing!"
"I'm not little!" Michael protested. "And at least I knew what a troll was," the three fourteen year olds walked off, all playfully bickering with each other. When they left, Terra looked between Al and Rose with wide eyes.
"Wait, do we have to fight a troll?" she asked. Rose nearly fell on the floor laughing.
"So do you have siblings Terra?" Al asked about 15 minutes later, eating yet another chocolate frog from Rose's bag.
"Yea," she said, flipping through the magizene in front of her. "I have a older brother and an older sister." Luckily, Rose brought a lot of chocolate because Terra took a piece as well. "Alice is the oldest, then Frankie, then me," she looked at the card that came with the frog, shrugged, and then chucked it into a pile the three had made on the floor.
Just then, the sliding door opened again, but this time, it wasn't James looking to pick on his little brother, or Victorie checking for the millionth time on her cousins. It wasn't Terra's brother Frankie, either; making sure his little sister wasn't being weird and was making friends. The door slid open and a boy was standing nervously in the doorway.
It was the boy from the platform, the one her dad had been talking about. He had dark gray eyes and bleach blonde hair that flew everywhere. He ran his hand through his hair, something that seemed like a nervous habit, and smiled.
"You mind?" he asked the group. "All the other compartments are full…" Rose looked at him for a minute before throwing what her father warned her out the window.
"No, come on in," she smiled, scooting closer to the window to make room. "Rose," she introduced herself. "This is my cousin Albus…"
"Al," Al corrected Rose, nodding a 'hello' in the boy's direction.
"And I'm Terra," Terra said.
"Scorpious," he said, looking at the others. "Go ahead, laugh, it's the stupidest name in the world," he smiled as Al nearly choked on his candy.
"You think your name is dumb?" Al said. Basically the first coherent sentence he said since getting on the train. "Did you forget mine already?" the four started laughing.
"When I get to school, I'm going right to my dad and thanking him for a normal name," Terra sighed, flipping another page in her magazine.
"Why would your dad be at the school?" Scorpious asked. Terra looked up with wide brown eyes.
"Oh, he's the Herbology teacher," she said. "And my mum is the editor in chief for the Quibbler," she held up the magazine she was reading.
"Really, cool, I love the Quibbler, it's fascinating," Scorpious said. "So you don't mind having your dad at school while you're there?"
"Not really, no," she shrugged. All of a sudden, the sliding door opened again.
"Go away James!" Rose and Al said, annoyed with the fourth year standing in the door way.
"Last time I swear," James said. "I'm just checking in on you."
"Like I'm going to get lost or something," Al rolled his eyes.
"And you haven't! See how well of a job I'm doing?" this made Terra and Scorpious laugh. James looked over and saw the pale boy with the blonde hair and the slate gray eyes. "I don't know you," he said, cocking his head to the side. He held out his hand. "I'm James."
"My insufferably annoying cousin," Rose put in.
"Scorpious," Scorpious said, taking James' hand and shaking it. "Scorpious Malfoy." James shook the boy's hand and looked at him curiously for a moment.
"Malfoy?" he asked. Scorpious nodded. James raised an eyebrow but smiled. "Nice to meet you," he said. "You lot better get dressed soon," James said, facing the others, "We're almost there." And then he left leaving four very excited first years to get ready.
"Firs' yers!" a rough voice called out as the train stopped. "Firs yers come with me!" Al, Rose, Terra, and Scorpious ran off the train toward where the other eleven year olds were gathering. When they ran into the man calling out for first years, Scorpious froze in mid-step, seeing probably the largest man he'd ever seen. "Whoa…" he whispered.
"Oh, that's Hagrid," Rose said when she heard the blonde boy's exclamation. "He's perfectly harmless," she said, bringing Scorpious with her to the front where Al and Terra were standing. "Hello Hagrid," Rose said smiling brightly.
"'ello Rosie," Hagrid said, a smile beaming from behind his salt-and-pepper beard. He was shocked at how fast these kids grew up. It had to of been just yesterday Hagrid was celebrating with the rest of the Potter's and Weasley's when Rose and Albus were born.
Hagrid directed the kids to the boats, ever steady after all their years of transporting first years across the Black Lake. Hagrid watched, like always, always getting a surprise at seeing the kids whose parents were guided across the lake years before by Hagrid.
He watched as Rose and Al got in a boat, soon followed by Terra Longbottom, and, to Hagrid's shock, Scorpious Malfoy. The boy was a spitting image of his father, and Hagrid had to blink a couple times to see if the son of Draco Malfoy willingly got into the same boat as the son of Harry Potter. He did.
Hagrid chuckled. Well, if anything, this would be an interesting few years.
"You're going to tip it Albus!" Rose screeched as Al looked over the side of the boat, into the water.
"We won't tip…" Al said, leaning more over the boat. It wobbled a bit and with another screech from Rose, Terra grabbed the back of Al's robes and pulled him into the boat, shaking her head and laughing.
"Let's not get into too much trouble before we even reach the school," Terra said, still giggling.
"Speaking of school," Scorpious said. "Look!" he pointed up and the other three followed his gaze and set their sights upon Hogwarts, glowing against the night sky.
"Whoa," they all said together. In the boats around them, other students were having the same reaction.
"Next stop Sorting," Terra said, a wide smile spread across her face.
-X-
Pronunciation Key: Danaë - (Da-neah)
REVIEW PLEASE! Chapter two is already done.
I'll do a writing-favor for the first reviewer!