Rose winced as she tripped on the worn attic stair, knocking her knee against the hard wood and sending an solid 'thump' echoing through the empty house. All of the adults except Uncle Harry and some of the kids had suddenly decided to go shopping, refusing to tell anyone what they were getting and unsubtly tried to get Harry to stay at home with the other kids for a game of Quidditch. It didn't take a detective to figure out what they were doing, with Harry's birthday only a few days away - fortunately, for Rose, as she wasn't a detective any more. At least, for the holidays, that was. She was sure that Uncle Harry had caught on to the thinly disguised plan, but diplomatically pretended he had no idea and was now happily playing with his sons, nephews and nieces using the Potters' backyard pitch.
Rose, however, had vetoed both the shopping trip and Quidditch. She'd been having fun all holidays just lazing around with the Potters and Weasleys, and now her brain was aching for some kind of challenge. So Rose had hauled Professor Dumbledore's unfinished projects out of her trunk (they had been returned to her after Flynn's Mass Obliviation Machine had been disassembled and all stolen parts returned to their owners), and set to work trying to figure them out.
The collection consisted of three colossal volumes of notes, seven partially built contraptions and four series of potion samples and ingredients. She had decided to flick through the notes first, discovering that they contained summaries of other experiments, as well as ideas and explanations of the unfinished projects. From these handwritten evaluations, Rose had decided to start with the potions as they sounded intriguing and, despite her experience with the previous Potions Master, it was one of her best subjetcs.
From what she could gather from his notes, Professor Dumbledore was attempting to create four different types of potions which allowed the drinker to change the makeup of their brains for a few hours - that is, to really step in to someone else's shoes and see the world as another person saw it, and think how they thought. Each of the potions seemed to be planned to target groups of people with the same weaknesses - one for ambition, one for recklessness, one for pride and the last for ignorance. Rose could instantly see the numerous possible applications for such potions. Aside from helping people overcome their weaknesses, these draughts could be used for patients with mental ilnesses, criminals and even to help Aurors and Ministry employees to solve crimes and other problems through experiencing a different thought pattern.
The whole idea of being in someone else's shoes just seemed so like Dumbledore, even though Rose had never met him, and she immediately decided to continue with the work the warlock had started. She'd gone through each of the groups of ingredients and identified the four which were to be used in each potion -
bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed and drgaon's blood. The first three substances were also used in the polyjuice potion, and Rose could see the similarities between the two potions. Dragon's blood, among its many (twelve, to be exact) uses, was a useful deep cleanser, and this may have related to the process a person would go through when drinking the solution.
The whole idea of being in someone else's shoes just seemed so like Dumbledore, even though Rose had never met him, and she immediately decided to continue with the work the warlock had started. She'd gone through each of the groups of ingredients and identified the four which were to be used in each potion - bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed and drgaon's blood. The first three substances were also used in the polyjuice potion, and Rose could see the similarities between the two potions. Dragon's blood, among its many (twelve, to be exact) uses, was a useful deep cleanser, and this may have related to the process a person would go through when drinking the solution.
Each of the four types of draught also had a few ingredients which had already been gathered. For recklessness, gillyweed (to make the drinker breathe more easily under stress, perhaps?), runespoor eggs (to increase thinking skills, Rose guessed) and snake fangs (an ingredient in the Wide-eye potion). The incomplete pride potion included shrivelfig (from the Shrinking solution) and wormwood (maybe the bitterness would counteract arrogance?). The substances collected for ambition were moonstone and syrup of hellebore, both ingredients of the draught of peace (to calm the overactive ambition). The ignorance potion was the most empty, though, with only armadillo bile (from the Wit-sharpening potion) so far.
Although Rose was top of her potions class (at the moment - her OWL results hadn't come in yet and as the exams had been right after the MIDAS incident she was subtly preparing her parents for less-than-stellar grades), she was finding it difficult to come up with ideas for any of the other possible ingredients. Usually, she would turn to her textbooks or even her mum's inexhaustible library, but that was all at their house and for the moment she was stuck at the Potters'. She figured than Uncle Harry would have a reasonable collection being Head Auror, though, so she had decided to head up to his study, which was in the attic - where she was heading now.
Rose pushed open the door, grateful that her uncle hadn't put any locking spells on it - he was pretty trusting, and anything that was really important he kept hidden from the kids, anyway. She walked into the cosy room, her eyes passing over the oak desk and chair and landing on the floor to ceiling bookshelves which stood against each wall, with a few gaps for windows. Smiling geekily, she stepped forward and began her search.
About half an hour later, she exited Harry's study with two books which may have seemed simple reading at first glance, but in actual fact held more information that many academic volumes: her uncle's copies of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Advanced Potion-Making from his years at Hogwarts. Each had notes from previous owners: Newt Scamander's textbook sported amusing comment from her mum and dad as well as her uncle ("Dungbombs RULE" and "Harry loves Moaning Myrtle" being a few), and the Potions books scribbled on almost every page by a person well known to her from her parents' stories: the Half-Blood Princes, aka Serverus Snape. She figured that Snape's notes in particular would be useful (she had selected Fantastic Beasts mostly for Newt's commentary and not her parents') for figuring out the missing ingredients. Being the bookworm that she was, Rose felt a tingle of excitement run through her at the prospect of two new books. Better get reading, she thought as she scuttled down the hallway to her room, which she shared with Lily. First on the list: find the recklessness potion.
It was a few weeks later and the tension in the Weasley/Potter household was palpable. Most of it was caused by Rose's mum, to be sure, but she has to admit that she was feeling nervous too. Her and Al's OWL results were due to arrive today, and the entire family was on edge.
The past month or so had been pretty good - Harry's birthday had gone smoothly and Rose had found a few more ingredients - Dittany, Ashwinder egg and Unicorn horn for the base mixture, and Mandrake root for the recklessness potion. After much research and planning, she was pretty sure she would be able to make the first potion once she got back to school - she had all the ingredients and a rough set of improvised instructions to experiment with, so she was excited to be able to test her work.
The day's tense mood wasn't helped by the fact that they family was leave for the Quidditch World Cup in Japan via Transnational Portkey after lunch (12:47pm to be precise, her mum reminded her) and most of the boys still hadn't packed, meaning that the adults were having to help perform packing spells. Rose was glad that she'd already gotten her trunks ready - her dad was helping Hugo and she was willing to bet that her brother would be buying a lot of basic stuff like his toothbrush when they got to Japan.
Rose was scrawling more plans for the other potions on a piece of spare parchment at the kitchen table when her train of thought was interrupted by a yelp from Albus, of all people.
"R-Rose!" He ran to her and shook her by the shoulders.
"What?" She looked up, irritated.
"They're h-here! The owls!" He pointed nervously out the window and Rose could see three bird-like silhouette flying towards the house.
"But there's three!" She pointed out, her voice wavering slightly. Despite her outwardly calm demeanour, she was worried about her results as well.
"I don't know, Rose, but it's definitely them!" Adults started to flock into the room, led by her mum, and the rest of the kids began to follow.
"Rose, look - " She turned away from her anxious mother to watch and the owls glided through the open window (her mum was nothing if organised) and dropped their envelopes - one for Rose, one for Al and the last one ... for James.
"James! What's yours?" She asked him, unwilling to open her envelope just yet. Her older cousin had no such qualms, however, and had already ripped the letter open and was staring at it incredulously. After a few awkward seconds he looked up, cleared his throat and announced,
"I've - I've been made Quidditch Captain," he stammered, grinning like a fool. Harry and Ginny rushed in to hug their son, and the rest if the family shouted their congratulations. When James managed to extricate himself from his proud parents he turned to Rose and winked.
"You better be trying out this year, Rosie," he said, and she rolled her eyes at him. She was interrupted, however, by her mum who was urging her to open her letter. Al was waiting anxiously next to her, his envelope clasped tightly in both hands.
"Let's do this," she said and they both slit open the parchment and unfolded their results. Rose looked down with apprehension and read:
ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVELS
Pass Grades: Outstanding (O)
Exceeds Expectations (E)
Acceptable (A)
Fail Grades: Poor (P)
Dreadful (D)
Troll (T)
ROSE WEASLEY HAS ACHIEVED:
Arithmamcy: O
Astronomy: O
Care of Magical Creatures: O
Charms: O
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
Herbology: O
History of Magic: O
Potions: O
Transfiguration: O
Rose stared, transfixed. She knew that her memory was exceptional and had served her well in every exam she had ever sat at Hogwarts. She had expected a good mark for DADA, Charms and Tranfiguration because although she may have neglected her studies, her clash with Flynn had more than proven her expertise with wand work. Potions, well, she knew the practical would be a breeze, and the theory reasonable. But Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology and History of Magic? She never would have thought that she could have achieved 9 'Outstanding's with just two weeks of study, even if she had hardly done anything else except eat or sleep.
"Al..." She said weakly, turning up her cousin.
"Here, swap?" He offered her his sheet of parchment. How had he gone? He didn't seem too disappointed, but then her cousin was always more laid back - rather like Scorpius, in fact.
"Uh, okay," she agreed and they passed each other their marks. Al had gotten an A in Astronomy and Divination, an O in DADA and Transfiguration, and Es in the rest - oh, except for History of Magic, he'd gotten a P for that one. But 8 OWLs, that was pretty good. Rose looked up to see Al gaping at her.
"No way, Rose," he exclaimed, looking from her to the paper in his hand.
"Let me see, give it here!" Her mum screeched, unable to wait a second longer. She grabbed the parchment from Al and scanned it quickly.
"Oh Rosie!" She cried and smothered Rose in a huge hug. "9 Os, I can hardly believe it!" Her mum was joined by her dad and the rest of the family stood in shocked silence for a second and then broke into applause.
"Go Rosie!"
"Merlin's pants, Rose!"
"Watch your language, young man."
"Way to go, Rose!" Shouts of amazement attacked her from all around and she squirmed as her parents squeezed her tightly.
"Mum." She groaned. "Dad."
"Just let her enjoy this, Rosie." Her dad winked at her over her mum's shoulder. "She's never had anyone beat her like this before." Rose grinned as she recalled her mum's one E OWL: DADA.
"Oh shut up, Ron," her mum said playfully and pulled back, her eyes teary. "I guess we'd better get ready to go now," she wiped her eyes. "Yes. Let's go everyone, the Portkey leaves in 21 minutes!" She shouted to the rest of the room and suddenly everyone was milling about - Harry and Ginny hugging Al, Hugo racing up to his room, James dragging his trunk down the stairs. Rose sighed. Her mum was back to normal.
Thank Merlin.