Saturday, August 30th , 2017

"All great witches and wizards kept journals". Yeah. That's bloody likely. I'm not a great witch nor am I in any way capable of keeping a journal. My previous journal attempts fuelled the bonfire we had in our yard last summer. Literally. But less about my boring inconsistency dilemma and more about what is actually worthy of taking space in this journal; the events of this evening. May I remind you that it is quite late and I have a train to catch at 11 tomorrow, not to mention finish packing my socks, so the fact that I'm writing this just proves how much effort I'm putting into this whole "journal" affair.

Every year, the day before we board the Hogwarts train (when I say we I mean the Weasley family), we have a big dinner at Grandmum Weasley's house. We call her Grandmum, or sometimes Grandmum Weasley (when mentioning her in a conversation of other grandmums) because she is the only Grandmum in the Weasley family. That is until one of my cousins spawns another ginger, but for now, she's Grandmum Weasley. This dinner consists of our whole family (who I will now name as to avoid any confusion); Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Rosie, Hugo, Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, James, Albus, Lily, Uncle George, Aunt Angelina, Roxy, Fred, Aunt Fleur, Uncle Bill, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, Uncle Charlie, Mum, Dad, Lucy, and me. And then there's of course Luna and Rolf who come with Lorcan and Lysander, because they're extremely close friends and they live across the hill from Grandmum. Also Teddy comes, and although he's not blood-related, he's still family. A reckless, immature git, but family nonetheless.

This year's gathering was quite interesting. Mostly because Mum was rushing me and Lucy and Dad to be there for 3 o'clock, because she wanted to help Grandmum with dinner. We got there at 2:30.I truly love nothing more than a good four hours of boredom.

As boring as it may have seemed at the time, eventually some rather note-worthy things started happening. First, however, I will explain the pleasure of watching Mum and Grandmum under the same roof. Mum is a little terrified of Grandmum, and Grandmum, in her old age, likes to have a good laugh about it. Mum still thinks that the best way to make mashed potatoes is to wash, cut and peel each individual potato without magic. And when she's making mashed potatoes for 30 people, it's quite fun to watch. She keeps a good eye on her swearing though, which I think is quite the shame. I'd like a mother that has a rich vocabulary. Well, a witch can hope.

Roxy arrived about an hour before the others, which I was extremely excited about. Roxy is my best friend in the world. She also happens to be my cousin, which can be extremely helpful, especially when there's drama going on in our family, which there always is. Roxy and I aren't exactly similar. Okay, we aren't similar at all. She's really straight-up about everything and she'll tell you exactly what she thinks about you, even if it may come across a little rude. One thing, however, that she's not so straight up about, is when it comes to a boy.

I'm not talking about boys in general, but a particular boy. A particular boy by the name of Lysander Scamander. You see, she and Lysander have had this ongoing thing since first year. Literally everyone at Hogwarts thinks they're together, but Roxy keeps denying it, because 'we're just friends, Molly, don't you get it?' No, I don't, but I didn't want to meddle, so I left it alone until last night.

As soon as she arrived, I "harassed" her into the yard, where she could tell me all about her date the night before. (I put "harassed" into quotations, because that was the word Roxy used, which I don't exactly agree with, but haven't yet come up with my own word).

"So?" I gave her a look.

"What?" she honestly didn't know what I was talking about. With her good grades and all, one wouldn't think she'd miss that.

"So you're just going to stand there and not tell me what happened last night?"

It took a split second for her face to turn beet red, "Not so loud!" She looked around, "For Merlin's sake, Molly! You can't just shout it out like that!"

She grabbed my arm, quite hard I might add, and dragged me over to the bench that stood up against the shed. She really doesn't realize that everyone already knows? She can be so thick sometimes.

"That'll leave a bruise." I rubbed my arm after she let go.

"Good." She looked around to check if anyone was there, "You can't let just anyone hear."

"Well you haven't told me what happened, is there something that you really wouldn't anyone but me to hear?" I raised my eyebrows.

"No, not like that!" she rolled her eyes, "We just went for a butterbeer, that's all." Her face then portrayed the content look of 'this conversation is now over'.

Are you kidding me? After years of being her friend and 'We just went for a butterbeer' is all I get? This girl really doesn't get it.

"That's all? You just walked in silence to the Leaky Cauldron, and drank butterbeer in silence and then just left without speaking any words to each other?"

"Well of course we talked!" she rolled her eyes again, "What kind of a date would that be if we didn't talk?"

"Oh my god!" I literally squealed, and she just kept getting redder, "A date! I'm so bloody proud of you!"

The simple fact that she admitted that it was a date was a big step for her. Now I didn't necessarily jump her, as she might claim, but I did attack her in a way that might have made it look like molestation. But I swear it was an affectionate hug on my part.

"I would like to live to go on another one," she laughed, trying to squirm her way out of my grip.

Oh my god. My little girl is growing up. Tears are swelling up just thinking about it. She finally admitted it to herself that after FIVE YEARS of unofficially being together, they were actually together. It's official now.

That was all I got out of her because then Lily came over and insisted we come look and the baby gnome she'd found. Lily is by far one of the cutest little witches ever. She has this thing with gnomes, and she loves to play with them whenever we come to Grandmum's house. She also has red hair, like me, but her hair is naturally straight and sleek and just plain perfect. I had thought about this, on several occasions, that had I been a gnome-loving delightful child, my karma may not have decided to destroy my life with the unfortunate feature of my hair. Since I was quite a cynical little annoyance in my younger years, I obviously deserve to be punished with this monstrosity that goes by the wrongful name of "hair" for the rest of my life.

After going to look at the gnomes with Lily, I was determined to bug Roxy some more, in the hopes that she might tell me more about what happened. However, that never happened, since Mum came out and made us come in the house to help with dinner.

Dinner was splendid. There was as much food as there is at the Hogwarts feast, which is saying something. There wasn't much to catch up on, other than things going on at work, the Ministry of Magic, and other stuff that I'm sure when I become an adult will consider extremely interesting. Naturally, those who had not yet been brainwashed by the unexciting matters of the Ministry of Magic, left and went to the back.

For our own catching up, there wasn't much to say. Well, there was, but none of it was put into words. Teddy and Victoire were back together, after having broken up for the millionth time at the beginning of the summer, and Roxy was perfectly fine sitting next to Lysander and chatting, having completely forgotten that she still hadn't informed me of her frivolous night out. It was shortly after we all came outside that things started to escalate. That is, an escalation to the end of the evening, which ended on a particularly sour note.

This escalation began with fireworks. Not just any fireworks, but customized Weasley Wizarding Wheezes' fireworks. There were fireworks that showed the Hogwarts emblem and the houses, then Quidditch, and other Hogwarts activities. It was quite pleasant to watch, and Hugo and Lorcan were really enjoying them. Shortly before the end of the fireworks, Lorcan whispered something to Hugo, who seemed to look a bit tense, and then he went and whispered something to Fred. Let me mention that this is only something I realized in retrospect, and in reality I'm not nearly observant enough to catch such details as they're happening.

Anyways, Fred then nodded his head and pulled his wand out and held it to his throat.

"Witches and Wizards of the Weasley family, and friends! I would like to have everyone's attention." His voice boomed, "While this vigorous form of entertainment was thought through and put together rather by myself, James, and Theodore, it is slowly coming to an end,"

Lily and Louis booed him at this point, then fell into a fit of giggles.

"Don't worry, young Weasleys, maybe you will help with next year's show," Fred looked at them and winked, "But as for the grand finale, this was Lorcan's idea, and the only credit I take is persuading my father to give us the materials to create such a bloody brilliant contraption," Fred then turned and nodded to Teddy, James and Lorcan who were gathered in a huddle-typed formation. Lorcan looked at Hugo and shot him a smile, but Hugo just seemed to tense up.

Teddy and Lorcan had their wands at the ready, James threw an oddly-shaped box into the air, then quickly whipped out his wand and all three of them muttered the same spell and sent a bright white blast of light shooting straight at the box.

The box exploded in the air and there were rainbows that flew out. It wasn't goofy rainbows. It was actually really pretty sparkly specs of colours, which exploded into a rainbow array and light up the entire yard. After the initial boom, it was unusually still. There was no fizzing, or popping or anything coming from the fireworks. After about half a minute, the rainbow hung in the air; the light slowly faded, then drizzled downwards and formed bubbles that grew as they got closer to the ground. Lily started running around popping them.

Everyone clapped, even Grandmum, who shook her head at Uncle George who went to slap Fred proudly on the back. Everyone then started to go inside for hot chocolate, except for a couple of us; Roxy, me, Teddy, Fred, Victoire, Lorcan, James, Lysander and Hugo. Lucy muttered something about a report for History of Magic, and then followed the rest inside. Fireworks were nothing compared to the explosion that happened next. Teddy, Fred and James started to pack up the fireworks, and Lorcan went over to where Hugo was standing, straight as a stick.

"Did you like the rainbow one?" Lorcan asked Hugo eagerly, clearly not caring who heard, "I convinced Fred to let me put that one in just for you, to make everything a bit easier, since we know what you got planned."

Hugo was clearly taking none of his shit, although no one really recognized it as shit at the time. I didn't realize at first why Hugo reacted the way he did, but the rest of the conversation cleared things up.

"I can't believe you did that!" Hugo raged, his face turning the colour of his hair, "I trusted you with that secret and you can't just do something like that!"

Teddy had obviously overheard, and walked over, "It wasn't much of a secret if everyone knew you were a seeker from the other team. Lorcan had no problem telling everyone, now it's your turn big guy." He gave Hugo what I assumed was supposed to be a "pat-on-the-back" but rather turned into "pat-on-the-hey-wait-you-don't-need-to-break-my-ar m-for-merlin's-sake" sort of situation.

"You shouldn't be talking, you have no idea what's going on!" Hugo turned on Teddy.

"I think we're talking about what kinds of people Lorcan likes to point his wand at, if you know what I mean," James giggled at Teddy's snide remark.

"Are you calling me gay?!" Hugo was just plain furious.

"Well, it's not like no one saw it coming right?" Teddy glanced at Hugo calmly then around at the rest of us who were listening in. Victoire was at Teddy's side, pulling at his hand. She knows, better than anyone, about Teddy's little incidents where he says or does something unimaginably wrong for the situation, yet realizes it a bit too late. He can be a good lad though; he just chooses to be a bloody git most of the time.

"Lorcan's flamboyancy never caused a problem," Teddy shrugged his shoulders.

"I thought you'd want me to help you, I know what it's like," Lorcan looked genuinely confused, and a bit hurt.

"No, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS! BECAUSE WHEN YOU KEPT IT A SECRET, THERE WAS NO ONE THAT EMBARASSED YOU AND OUTED YOU AT A FAMILY DINNER! THAT'S MY SECRET TO TELL AND NOW YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!" Hugo stormed off into the shed. Everyone stood there dumbfounded. What a bunch of bloody jerks.

I have to admit that it was no surprise learning that Hugo was gay. Lorcan's case was a bit more obvious, since he's a bit more flamboyant, whereas Hugo is the quieter type. And maybe that's why it was so hard on him, because he cared a hell of a lot more about what people thought about him.

So while the rest of them just stood there, I followed Hugo into the shed. It took quite some time and three mugs of hot chocolate for me to lure him out. I like Hugo. Rosie was one of those quirky little kids where everyone was marveling at how adorable she was, while Hugo was more quiet and uneventful, but I liked him better that way, so I think we connected more. I finally got him to come back inside the house, where everyone that had witnessed the "rainbow explosion" was a little tense and walking on eggshells around him, trying not to say the wrong thing. As much as I love my family, they aren't very bright. He's not some nutcase that needs to be shipped to St. Mungo's, he's just a little angry and confused and tired of keeping certain things inside.

I saw Lysander inside afterwards with Lorcan trying to comfort Hugo, so I took it that Roxy was alone outside, and I found it my duty to get the rest of the story out of her. As I came back to the yard, I noticed Teddy and Victoire in the field having somewhat of an argument. This happens after almost every single Teddy-said-something-incredibly-stupid incident. Victoire tells him once everyone's gone what an idiot he is, and he apologizes and they end up snogging. Extremely romantic if you ask me.

Roxy was on the bench by the shed and she seemed to be fidgeting a little more than usual.

"I noticed you guys chatting up a storm" I sat down beside her. She obviously hadn't noticed me because she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Oh my god, Molly, don't do that! You scared the bloody hell out of me!" she glared at me, "And we were not chatting up a storm, we were talking,"

"Really? Because if you look closely you can still see the rainclouds." I pointed past the field at the sky, "See? Just there"

"Ha-Ha" she said sarcastically, "It was nothing much we were just talking about going to Hogsmeade together the first weekend of school."

"Together as friends or together-together?"

"Together-together." It was dark but I could still see her blushing.

She obviously thought that that was enough information for me to know, because she skillfully changed the subject after that, but the silly goose obviously forgot that we have hours aboard a train tomorrow, and I have come up with a couple torture methods that are perfectly legal by magic law (well, most of them) that woudl be helpful in getting her to tell me the rest of what happened. I do think this is enough information on the evening, and the journals probably won't get any longer because of the workload that I haven't prepared for and the OWLs that we have this year.

Sunday, August 31st, 2017 (Aboard the train)

Have I mentioned how much I love the Hogwarts Express? I always find it calming how even after the most annoying git in all of fifth year does something that is unspeakable at the moment, I can just sit in a compartment, close my eyes and listen to the wheels running on the tracks. It helps for about a minute. And then I go into full panic mode and start over analyzing everything.

"It's not that bad, Molly," Roxy came in and sat next to me. Not that bad my arse. How can this situation be not that bad? What in the world is there about this that is not that bad?

So this annoying git in fifth year only just recently got that title. In fact, ever since first year, I've had a minor crush on this individual. Roxy thinks there's a need to explain exactly what I mean by minor crush. So I might know exactly where the Slytherin common room is, and I did know his schedule better than my own last year. Literally. I once forgot exactly what class I had, and I found myself walking to his class instead. Professor Longbottom didn't find it very amusing, but this said individual did. So in my mind it was worth it.

I will now utter his name just for reference, and not because I care in any way what this bloody git says or does; Scorpio Malfoy. I get shivers just writing that. So him and his little group of gits were standing by the carriages when we arrived at King's Cross. I went to put my trunk with the rest of them, and I found nothing weird about the situation.

"This is for you," I turned around to see a second year behind me with a letter in his outstretched hand.

"I think you have the wrong person," I looked at him, confused. I had never in my life seen this little boy. He had his Slytherin robes on and was looking at me with big blue eyes.

"Please take it," he put the note in my hand then looked behind him and said, "That guy over there gave me 5 galleons to deliver this to you,"

I looked past him, and there was Scorpio, leaning on the brick post. His companions were nowhere to be seen. He winked at me then turned and left in the other direction, running his hand through his perfect hair. The stupid Molly who had no clue what was happening was melting at that point. That's right, the stupid Molly was watching him leave all googly-eyed, and her heart was racing. What a stupid, stupid Molly.

"Well I assume you know what this is about," The boy brought the stupid Molly back from her daydream, "I'm off to collect my reward," He ran off after Scorpio.

I stood there, dumbfounded for a couple of seconds, then I literally skipped onto the train. That's right. Me, the cynical, sarcastic witch that I am, skipped onto the train with the widest smile on my face. I was so mesmerized by the fact that Scorpio had just winked at me that I'd forgotten all about the note until I got into the compartment where Roxy was waiting.

"What's in your hand?" She asked, then she looked me up and down, "Molly? Are you okay?"

"Yes I am," I twirled on the spot, then sat down elegantly. James and Lorcan were also in the compartment. From them I got some weird looks, but they went back to talking about Quidditch.

"Did someone put a spell on you? Do I need to call someone?" Roxy came and sat next to me.

"Yes, he put a spell of love over me, he didn't even need his wand or some incantation or anything," I told her.

"Okay, what's on the paper?" She looked a little worried when I made an awkward noise of excitement that I didn't know I was capable of producing. I'd forgotten about the note so I unfolded it carefully, as to keep intact anything that had once belonged to a certain gorgeous wizard.

Meet me in the first compartment on your right on the prefect carriage. Don't bring friends.

-S