Everything is falling,
But I don't know where to land.
-A Very Potter Musical, Music & Lyrics by Darren Criss
Rose folded her clothes gingerly and set them neatly in her trunk the way her mother had shown her. She was going into her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Wizardry now. Shecould remember the nerves she had her first day. How everything seemed so giant.
Hogwarts had changed many things between the Weasley and Potter cousins. Rivalries were beginning to form between siblings and cousins. They no longer were the bunch that sat in the middle of the fireplace late Christmas night at the Burrow and whispered about how awesome Hogwarts was going to be. In one year in specific, James received all the attention from every one of them.
He had smirked in that way that reminded Rose strangely of her dad when he felt proud of himself. She had wanted to call him out on it, but the information her cousin held was much more important than correcting his big ego. Of course, during her first year, she noticed that a lot of the things were a lie.
The sorting hat hadn't tortured her the way she thought it would. It was placed on top of her head by Headmaster McGonagall, who smiled at her in a way that made Rose believe she had high expectations for her. As she sat there, the hat talked into her head and began to poke around places. Then, it began to talk about how she was a Weasley and that there was no doubt she was a Gryffindor.
She even noticed a little smile on the Professor as she called out the next person.
Before being sorted, she had watched carefully the expressions of all the other new Hogwarts students. Some were more confident about what they were going to get than others. There was only one Hatstall, which was actually her now best friend, Cornelia McLaggen. She was smart, brunnette of green eyes who always had a calculating smirk on her face.
As her cousin, Al, was being sorted, she watched his pale face closely, inspecting every single detail. Eventually, he seemed to relax and there was a glint in his eye. In her mind, she could already hear the sorting hat saying what house he was in. They had both been so nervous about the sorting, but now she was positive about what they were both going to get. Actually, she was probably more excited about knowing was where her new friends would be placed.
Slowly, she turned around, watching James from the Gryffindor table, throwing something at a Ravenclaw at the next table who turned around and chucked whatever it was back at him. Leave to James to be playing at a time like this. Before she could even show disapproval on her face, the roaring from the Slytherin table distracted her. She tip-toed to see what had happened and she watched as Al made his way down from the stool to the table and was clapped in the back a few times.
Actually, she hadn't been able to process that her cousin had been placed in the House that the kids had despised the most until she saw him sporting the green and silver tie instead of red and gold. It had really been something she couldn't understand. How could you be in your most hated house? Was that possible?
Closing her trunk, she watched as her graceful black cat, Cinders, made her way to her, lying lazily on her lap. The cat had been her only company at Hogwarts from home. As soon as her brother went into the school, he almost pretended not to know her. This was very ironic to her because she had offered nothing but guidence. Lily had been sorted into Hufflepuff, Fred was busy pranking everyone along with James and Roxy had been sorted into Ravenclaw.
At home, their usual Quidditch games were confusing. During the Christmas Holiday break, they normally broke into two teams but they refused to now. Al, Seeker for the Slytherins, refused to play in a team with Roxy because their next game was against Ravenclaw. The other two Gryffindors that did not involve Rose or Hugo didn't want to play with a Slytherin because of the rivalry the two houses had. James didn't want Lily on his team because the Hufflepuff House and the Gryffindor House were also getting ready to play another game against each other. Lily didn't want to be in a team with Roxy because she was mad at her for a reason that she wouldn't say. For some odd reason, Hugo was also mad at Roxy and didn't want her on his team.
Everything had just become more complex than she had wanted it to. Her parents tried to explain to her that night as she cried in her room that this was what tended to happen when people were prejudiced. Rose had argued that this had nothing to do with being a Muggle born or a blood traitor and that they had known each other for years. Hermione assured her that if they didn't want to play with each other, then let them be immature. Plus, when they had been in school, the same things had broken out. To this, Rose said that they had all been Gryffindors, so it's not like it mattered. The thing was, Rose wanted to play Quidditch like they had before.
Rose got up from the floor, picking Cinders up with her and sat on her bed, looking out through her window. Tomorrow-well, in a few hours, really-, they were going to go back to Hogwarts after what had seemed like an eternity. She had been writing to Cornelia back and forth. Cornelia had been lucky enough to be taken to Ireland in the Summer. Her father played in the Quidditch league like her aunt Ginny had before she retired. Cornelia usually got a lot of free tickets to go to games and watch her dad play.
It wasn't that Hermione and Ron never took Rose and Hugo anywhere. They usually went to the Burrow and if her father managed to get some time off, they would spend some time at the beach along with the Potters and her uncle George closed the shop whenever it happened.
Her uncle George's shop was her favorite place to be. If they didn't have anything to do in the Summer, Rose would help him out at the store and he would tell her about all the pranks that him and late Uncle Fred had played. When the bunch had been younger, he had let them create pranks with him and let their creative juices flow. For some reason, Rose had placed in her head that George was her favorite uncle.
Cinders purred happily in her lap, snapping Rose out of her daydreams. She smiled down at the jetblack cat and watching as her eyes closed slowly. Rose set her down on her pillow gently and headed downstairs. Her mother and father were talking softly to each other in the kitchen as Hugo sat on the couch, scribbling on a piece of paper, his owl perched on top of the couch next to Pig.
Rose sighed lightly to herself. At least it was only a matter of hours before they boarded the train.
I don't know how far I'm going to take this, but this idea suddenly hit me today. Constructive criticism, please. I actually never used the kids in a story before. So that's fun. xD