Prologue
It's a warm day in July. Sunlight glints off the shop windows in Diagon Alley, lighting up the items displayed inside. People wander up and down the street, gazing with interest into different shops and commenting on the things inside. Nobody hurries or moves too quickly; there is none of the bustle the street often enjoys. It is one of those days, when nobody is capable of getting stressed or worrying too much. A lazy day, the kind where strolling is by far preferable to hurrying and all anyone wants to do is relax and bask in the sunshine.
Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, which hasn't been run by anyone with the name Florean Fortescue in a very long time but nonetheless retains its original name, is one of the busiest shops on the street. Children drag their parents over, begging for ice cream, and couples sit at the tables outside, giggling and making eyes over their ice creams. There is hardly a single person on the street who hasn't had an ice cream yet today, and the owner is very pleased indeed with the day's profit so far.
The only shop which can claim to rival the ice cream parlour is Flourish and Blotts. Although there is still a while to go before Hogwarts students will be needing to buy their school books (a time which is normally the busiest in the year for the shop), the shop is more crowded than it has been in rather a while. The queue at the till reaches halfway round the shop, and there is barely room to move inside. Still more people stand outside the window, peering in to see what all the fuss is about.
The object of all the attention is a thick, rather ordinary-looking book. Ordinary-looking in that it doesn't emit sparks, vanish every so often or attempt to bite the fingers of those who touch it, as some books sold at Flourish and Blotts have been known to do in the past.
The book has just been released today, and is an autobiography, written by the incredibly well-known Rose Weasley. Rose Weasley has done little in her own right, but is nonetheless quite frequently the object of media attention, due mainly to being pretty, intelligent and the daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley. The reason her book has attracted so much publicity is that it is the first of its kind in a very long while. Many biographies have been written about various members of the Potter and Weasley families (as well as about Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood and anyone else believed to be of any interest to the Wizarding community) but they have all been written by reporters – people like Rita Skeeter and her colleagues. As the celebrities themselves prefer to remain out of the limelight, none of them have ever written about themselves.
Until now.
Rose Weasley is currently one of the Wizarding World's favourite celebrities. Having left Hogwarts with Os in all her NEWTs, started dating Scorpius Malfoy, and proceeded to move between various different careers and occupations, she has provided the reporters with a great deal of material to work with. Her adoring fans could probably list her favourite colour, the list of subjects she's taken throughout school, everybody she's been friends with and what brand of robes she favours.
And so it is with curiosity that people flock to the bookshop, wondering what more Rose Weasley could possibly have to tell the world that they don't already know. Will this book reveal some fascinating new information about her, or will it simply tell everyone the same things they've heard before, but this time from her perspective?
The title of the book is a single word: Perfect. A fitting title for the autobiography of someone like Rose Weasley. Someone so close to being perfect that many believe she truly is. And yet she does not seem like the sort to brag, so perhaps the title holds a deeper meaning than that. Perhaps.
It is this question, and many more, that people hope to answer as they bring their brand new books home with them that evening to read in bed, or on the sofa, or perhaps on the way to work the next morning. And it is this question that will be answered, but not one of the book's avid readers could predict the astounding things they are about to discover.