There was a soft knock on the door and as Rose turned around it opened
There was a soft knock on the door and as Rose turned around it opened. She had just packed the magically modified mp3 her granddad had experimented a little with. He had said with great enthusiasm that it would absolutely work at Hogwarts now. Turning around she gave a small smile at her mother whom had just entered the room.
"Oh, so you're already up!" the slightly surprised Hermione said to her daughter, she let her eyes travel over the room before giving Rose a great smile. "And you're all packed too, you astonish me Rosie." Ron turned up in he doorframe behind his wife "Well of course she is ready to go, it's her inheritance …she gets it from her father" Rose sniggered and Hermione simply rolled her eyes. "Did you mange to get Hugo out of bed?" "Nah, you'll have to go" Ron said apologetically and gave her a peck on the lips.
As both of them left her room Rose turned to the wooden framed mirror and eyed her reflection. She was not even going to bother to tame her long hair; instead she just gathered it all and fastened a golden buckle to keep it in place. The colour was actually quit beautiful, a deep mix of red and auburn. But this morning it was a total mess, and it was most mornings. Only on rare occasions and only if she would start working with it as soon as she gotten out of the shower, the result could be good. Her hair was bushy as her mothers had been but she could thank her lucky star it was not even half as bad as Hermione's had once been. Rose had pale skin even though it was late summer, the only trace the sun had left were a few more freckles. During winter time she only had freckles over the bridge of her nose and cheekbones, now they spread over pretty much her entire face. Even her shoulders had gotten a few freckles. She put on a light layer of make-up to hide some of them and started to walk out of her room, but she changed her mind and went back to the mirror to put on some lip-gloss in a deep terracotta red colour. She tried a smile, thinking sadly that she would not come back here for at least half a year.
For the first time in history they had not been late for the train, Hermione had successfully driven Hugo out of his bed while Ron helped him pack (using a lot of force and some shrinking spells). They had arrived at the platform with a whole 15 minutes to go. While they hugged, the Potters had burst in to the platform looking stressed. Harry with a tight grip on Lily's hand like he was afraid she'd get lost. Lily on the other hand looked quite irritated with her father and was desperately trying to make him understand she wasn't a baby anymore. "Dad, why are you so worked up, it was only a letter…" The look Harry gave his daughter had both Ron's and Hermione's eyebrows raised. "Hey mate cut her some slack will you! She can't have done something that bad…" Harry shifted his glare to Ron who raised his hands in surrender. Ginny just seemed pretty bemused by her husband's behaviour. "Honey, Lily is growing up, plus Jasper Grey seems like a really nice boy. "Mum!" Lily blushed but her blush could by no means be compared to the redness that rose over Harry's face. While Hermione tried to hide her smile with one hand Ron had no thought of hiding his laughter. He laughed out loud at Harry's inconvenience and only the pain from his wife's elbow in his side could calm him. "Com on mate, that's not the end of the world, isn't the most important thing that Lily is happy?" "I'll remember those words when it's you're daughter, mate." A brief moment Ron dropped the smile but he quickly regained. "I trust my daughter's judgement!" With a broad smile he patted Rose's shoulder and she smiled back at him. Harry gave him a sceptical look and murmured something under his breath, then with a dejected sigh he let go of Lily's hand and ruffled her hair.
Lily was the only one of Harry's and Ginny's kids who had not gotten sorted into Gryffindor, she was in Ravenclaw and this day she showed up a brand new prefect badge. Harry seemed really proud and when Hugo showed he had gotten one too they both started discussing how to evolve the prefect-system and integrate the houses (Hugo was in Hufflepuff and not in Ravenclaw as Lily was). Rose felt a sting of sadness as she heard her mother and Uncle Harry congratulating each other on their children's accomplishments. She knew her mother had wished for her to become a prefect. But she had not and she remembered how her mother had been very surprised and a bit disappointed "But you're the brightest student in your year" she had said and it was true, Rose was the best student in her year. However she was pretty certain that the reason she had not become prefect was because of her temper. She constantly tried to control it but often she just could not. Although she knew it was silly she had been a little jealous of Hugo when he had become a prefect. She knew her mother was proud of her grades and she did not really want to be a prefect. But still she could not help but sometimes wish she had been a prefect too, or perhaps been in the quiddich team like her father had and Harry had been and like Ginny and Hugo was now.
As all the kids had climbed on the train Draco Malfoy walked past with his wife and his son Scorpius. He nodded curtly at the party, his wife smiled warmly and Scorpius just walked on; Rose watched the blond briefly and said her last goodbye to her parents. Ron pulled her in for one last tight hug. "Take care, okay? I don't care that this is your sixth year, you're still my little girl and I love you". As Rose mounted the train she felt the excitement build up, even though her father might se her as his little girl she felt a lot more grown up.
There was no mistaking the laugh which played through the corridor outside the compartment, and Rose felt her face light up with joy. It was Edna's pearly laugh and she was one of Rose's closest friends. Unfortunately however Edna had been placed into Hufflepuff, which meant they didn't have all their classes together and their all night girl chitchats had been reduced to the times when they had been able to sneak into the room of requirements for the night. Rose got up from her seat and looked out through the open door to wave Edna over and it was not long before the whole compartment was bussing with chatter. Miranda another close friend of both Edna and Rose had swooped into the compartment along with Edna, and the three girls were catching up after spending the summer apart. Miranda and Rose were both in Gryffindor but that was where the likeliness ended. Rose was rather short, pale, freckled and short in temper. Miranda was tall, dark skinned with raven coloured hair and a temper like a saint. At the moment she was telling them an amusing story about a guy she'd met whilst visiting her grandmother in Italy. He had been typically Italian, and there were a lot of giggling and gaping in between the retelling of his fruitless attempts to seduce the mildly impressed Italian-Moroccan Miranda. Edna had spent the summer mostly at her summerhouse in the south playing quidditch with her older brother and younger sister and the new neighbours. "and you know she's actually in our year, you know Caitlyn Blythe from Slytherin, well her family has brought the house right across the field from ours so we've become really good friends and I know you will love her! We actually decided on meeting at the back of the train…" she trailed of and stood, "I'll go fetch her and we can continue the catching up." "Ok, just hurry up will you!" Rose called after her. Miranda turned to Rose with a; what about your summer. And much to her dismay, Rose felt her face blushing as she answered. "Well I actually took a dance class." She looked up to se Miranda's reaction, she had her eyebrows raised but didn't at all look like she thought it was silly. "What kind of dance?" "Argentinean tango…" Miranda chuckled and said something about the hot tango fitting the hot tempered as the door burst open and Edna came in, in her tracks were Caitlyn and two boys. Edna and Caitlyn were about the same height, which meant both being slightly taller than Rose. But Rose's eyes did not stay at the pretty Caitlyn long before she saw who was behind her, it was some bloke who seemed to be Caitlyn's boyfriend and then there were Scorpius Malfoy. He caught Rose eye, his eyes were coldly grey and his face had a board look upon it, Rose stared back, refusing to give in to the cowardly wish to avoid his gaze. And then he turned to introduce himself to Miranda, suddenly his eyes glittered with charm and a smile made his features soften up. Rose and Scorpius had never been enemies nor had they ever been friends. They had chosen to simply ignore each other and stay out of the other's way. Since they were in the same year they had had classes together but Rose could not remember talking to Scorpius once. They were Malfoy and Weasley, they did not mix. Also since both considered the other unworthy of their time and since they both were sure the other would start a war at the first contact none of them had bothered to try and befriend the other.
Malfoy and the other boy, Nathan Robins only stayed for half an hour. As they finally left Rose could relax again, She had never felt comfortable near Malfoy. For some reason he just kept bugging her, and she felt relived to at last let her guard down. With Malfoy near she would always have to be ready with a sarcastic retort. When Malfoy and Robins finally excused themselves, Rose could start relaxing and try to get to know Caitlyn. Caitlyn spent the whole of the trip with the three girls and as Edna had foreseen, she easily won the liking of both Miranda and Rose.
Most of the trip was spent discussing qudditch since all girls except Rose had a great interested in the sport. Even though Rose liked to watch occasionally she herself was unable to stay on a broom for more than 2 minutes. When Miranda abruptly changed the subject back to the summer Rose was not completely prepared to discuss her dance lessons. She felt more than slightly embarrassed and Edna who had not heard this earlier just gaped at her. "You danced Argentinean tango? Wow" Edna looked a bit sceptic but Caitlyn seemed genuinely interested. "I have always wanted to learn how to dance. The tango must be perfect for you, I mean with your temper and all." Rose felt her face heat up, Miranda was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe at Caitlyn's words. "I….I.. I said the…, the exact same th…ing" Miranda squeezed out between laughs. And as both Edna and Caitlyn broke in to laugh as well she could not help but laugh at herself. When the laughing had settled Miranda turned to Rose "you have to show us sometime! You know, dance for us." Rose felt her ears redden a bit but she smiled "Yeah that would be fun but I can't dance without a partner…" "I think Scorpius knows how to dance tango. He uses to complain about how his grandmother and mother have forced him to learn all kinds of dances…" As she saw Roses darkened look Caitlyn stooped talking and bit her lip. However, Edna quickly changed the subject and all thoughts Rose had had about being forced to dance with Scorpius were forgotten.