Disclaimer: I don't own, I don't claim, you don't sue!! Queen Joe owns everything but my twisted ideas.
This story isn't actually the first one i have written, but it's the first of my stories that I am posting here on . My HP stories are also posted on . It's actually a companion piece to my multichaptered story, A Rose Between Daisies, but reading this one does not require that you read the other one too.
By Myself
It was surprisingly great weather that day, in the little town, Bournemouth, on the English south coast. Before I got here, I had expected lots of rain and a sky covered with clouds, just like there had been back in Oxford, but that day, the sky was clear and blue.
I had just bidden the others goodbye in the middle of the Town Square, after a long day in Swanage. We had gotten there by boat (my grandpa owned one down by the pier) and then we hat taken the railway to an old ruin called 'Corfe Castle' that had, apparently, housed several old queens and kings. I had found it fascinating, whereas my little brother, Hugo, had kept running off or interrupting the tour guide out of boredom. Afterwards, we had all taken a double-decker bus back to Bournemouth.
It was always so peaceful when we visited my maternal grandparents. It was like a breath of fresh air, a break from the world I came from - the one I belong to. A break from being 'just another Weasley', and a break from all the expectations that comes with the name.
My social behaviour had changed drastically in the few days I'd been there, so far; I had joined the neighbours daughter, Melanie, at the underage disco, and I had even gone to the movies several times without missing my books. But right now I just needed a little alone time, seeing as this was our last day in town.
After only a couple of visits to this town, it was already my favourite place in the whole world. There was a silence hanging over the small place, that I couldn't really explain. The streets were extremely crowded, even in the afternoon but, still, there was no noise and no busy businessman in a fancy suit, pushing me aside in his hurry to get to the train or the bus. It was the exact opposite of what I was used to, growing up pretty close to London, with a huge noisy family.
But one of my favourite things about the small town, was the animals. In the town park, the squirrels would come really close. As I walked through it on my way down to the Pier, I had to stop several times to catch a snapshot of these little hairy creatures on my mobile phone, the one that my grandma had gotten me for my last birthday.
When I reached the Pier, I discovered that it looked exactly the same as last time I saw it; the huge Odeon cinema on my right, the children's carousel in front of it. The henna-tattoo stand - a place I had once visited in order to freak out my parents - was placed in the middle of the area.
I buried my hands deeply in the pockets of my denim jeans and steered in direction of the beach, sending an occasional smile in the direction of some of the regulars - people I had met, or seen, before. My newly purchased purse was hanging from my arm, swinging in every direction.
Finding a quiet spot on the nearest bathing jetty, I took off my shoes and sat down on the edge, dipping one foot in the icy water. My other leg was supporting my head. Although the weather was wonderful, it was still a little chilly. I hugged my arms tightly around my body and lost myself in the sight of the Swanage cliffs. I thought about my life, of my parents, of my aunts and uncles and of Albus - my cousin and close friend. I wondered what they were all doing at that very moment.
My thoughts automatically flew to my friends and to the school. I always wondered what Hogwarts might look like in the summer, with no students or teachers - did the house elves even leave during the holidays? I made a mental note to check on that when I got back home.
My heart was pounding so hard, it might have been visible through the blouse that was a part of my brand new Hogwarts uniform.
This was it! The moment I had been waiting for, as long as I remembered; my chance to prove that I was more than just 'yet another Weasley', and my chance to take down my uncle Percy and his 'holier-than-thou' attitude just a notch - I'd never tell him that, though.
I looked around platform nine and three quarters, searching for my best friend, and cousin, and I spotted a head of red hair.
Now, while that might have seemed like a random observation, it wasn't for me. Nearly my whole family had flaming red hair, so I figured that it might be James, my older cousin, who was starting his second year.
I mumbled something to my parents - who were in the middle of an argument about my dad's driving skills - and hurried towards the red-haired person.
However, it turned out not to be James, or any other member of my family. It was a girl about my age, with large brown eyes and long, straight cobber-red hair. She didn't look scared, however, she wore a look on her face that could either be described as anger or just plain discomfort.
Not that I blamed her, though, I was scared enough as it was, but the people she was there with did definitely not seem pleasant. They looked like snooty rich people, and they probably were.
'Probably her parents,' I thought to myself, 'poor girl!'
She turned her head and looked at me, and I gave her a quick smile, which she returned.
I nodded towards my parents and Hugo, as to say that I had to join them, and she shook her head in understanding.
My parents weren't arguing anymore, but they seemed have spotted the Potters, so I hurried in their direction, giving all five of them a giant hug.
It went the same way as it did the year before, when we were all dropping of James and Jess; mum complained about dad, dad defended himself to Uncle Harry, Auntie Ginny shook her head while grinning as dad cracked a weird joke that made every one of us under 16 laugh.
Dad also managed to point out some kid with whom I was not to become friends with. Like he'd ever be able to control that!
"I promised mum that I would share a compartment with James, at least on the first train-ride," Al apologized, but I shook it off.
"I totally understand. I'll just find another compartment."
"Hey, you're welcome to share with us… I mean, I know you'd rather have a little peace and quiet, and my brother isn't exactly that, but…"
"No, Al, it's okay," I shrugged, "I'll find somewhere else to sit."
He nodded, walked in the other direction, and I kept on looking for a compartment.
The only one that didn't appear to be full was taken by none other than the cobber-haired girl from the platform, so I knocked on the frame.
She looked at me expectantly.
"Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full."
"Sure," she smiled, and I sat down across from her, "I'm Rose."
"Samantha," she replied, but added, "but I'd rather you called me Sam. Otherwise I'm going to have to kill you in your sleep."
"Duly noted."
I looked out the window, she did the same, and I saw her eyes grow wide with excitement, "look who that is!"
I grinned when I saw who she was pointing at, "Oh, that's Uncle Harry."
"He's your uncle?"
"Yea, he's married to my dad's sister," I was thoroughly amused that she found him so fascinating. To me, he was just 'Uncle Harry'.
She seemed very curious, so I decided to tell her about my humongous family.
I sat on the jetty for about 40 minutes, before getting back on my feet. While putting my orange converse back on, I noticed that the wind had made it a lot colder.
I pulled out a very wrinkled Weasley-jumper from my purse - still a little surprised that it actually fit in there - and put it on. It might have seemed silly, wearing a woolly jumper in the middle of July, but I was kind of getting used to bringing it everywhere I went and it was all I had, right here and now. It was dark purple, my favourite colour, and it had a big, gold 'R' on it.
The wind made my normally uncontrollable red hair fly into my face constantly, while I walked all the way back along the beach and through the park.
Deciding on trying something new, I went right into the Debenhams nearby, but quickly turned around and walked back out of the store. Places like that had never been my cup of tea, and more often than not, my mother would have to drag me out shopping whenever I was in need of new clothes.
Not that I didn't care for shopping, it really just depended on what I was shopping for, and looking across the square, I discovered the kind shop that I wouldn't mind going through from one end to the other; a bookstore!
It was Heaven for sure. I walked around in there for about an hour and a half, finding a whole bunch of books that it wouldn't be possible for me to live without, like 'Wuthering Heights', 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'The Hobbit'.
The lady by the cash register looked at me as if I were crazy, but I just gave her a huge smile. One couldn't just expect me to give up buying books cold turkey - the mere thought of it seemed completely insane.
My mother and I would usually go book-shopping together, and my dad would go somewhere with Hugo, complaining about his soon-to-be-empty wallet.
"Okay, so which section would you prefer we look at first?" my mum looked at me, waiting patiently for my answer, but I was in too big of a chock to pay attention. The store was huge, a whole new bookshop in Diagonally, dedicated entirely to muggle-classics, but the illustrations in them moved.
A small piece of heaven on this, now, perfect earth.
I looked at my mum for a couple of seconds, before speeding towards the Russian department, burying my head in Anna Karenina right away.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw mum looking through the section 'G', "look what I found, Rosie."
I turned my head, and instantly smiled, "DEAD SOULS!" I had been looking for that one for months.
We looked through the whole store, and found at least five books each, that we 'couldn't live without'.
How many galleons we had spent, I did not know, but it was, apparently, enough for my dad to almost pass out when he saw the books we'd bought.
We just smiled at each other, my mum and I, and skipped towards Flourish and Blotts, arm in arm, leaving dad and Hugo behind us looking exhausted.
I stood at the bus stop for five minutes before 5a arrived. I sat in one seat, putting my handbag and my books in the other. I also put on my sunglasses, because they didn't fit in the very small bag.
I must have looked ridiculous, wearing my large sunglasses while sitting in the bus - and, to top the image of, I was reading my newly purchased Jane Austen novel, while wearing a dark purple jumper.
But I had done crazier things in my life. Falling from a flying broom, just being one of them. Being keeper was one of the roughest positions in quid ditch.
An elderly lady was looking at me like I was crazy, but I simply ignored it. It wasn't as if it was any of her business anyway. Instead I kept on reading my book.
'Edward had been staying several weeks in the house before he engaged much of Mrs Dashwood's attention; for she was…'
The bus stopped before I could finish the sentence, and I got off, throwing a quick "cheers!" at the chauffer on my way out - it was common decency; what Emily Post would've done.
I almost skipped along the pavement, books in one hand, bag in the other. However, I stopped to a sudden halt when I saw a boy around my age crossing the street in front of me, and, instantly, my face flushed bright red, matching my hair.
The mere fact that I would take any random bloke out to be him, seemed silly and stupid. Hell, I hated the guy more than anything in the world, and it was not very likely that he, for a vacation-spot, would choose Bournemouth of all places.
But even once seeing him properly, the blond hair that nearly covered his gray-blue eyes still made me all tingly inside, which made me feel very uneasy. After all, Scorpius Malfoy had been my nemesis and the bane of my existence since our second year of school.
I was sitting between Al and Sam, trying to keep them from killing each other - you know; nothing really new under the sun. Except, maybe, that we were sitting on the floor in the Room of Requirement, along with ten or so fellow students.
My brilliant cousins had thought it would be a terrific idea to play truth of dare, and I had gone along with it in order to make them stop bugging me.
"Truth or dare, Rosie."
"Huh?" I shook my head, trying to concentrate on what my friend, Natascha, was saying.
"She asked you if you wanted to truthfully answer a question, or if you wanted to fulfil a, possibly humiliating, dare," Jess shook his head at me, "and here I figured that you, smart as you are, wouldn't need it explained to you, my how the mighty have fallen!"
I ignored him, it was always the safest thing to do when any of my cousins opened their mouths.
"Dare," I told Nat, without really noticing the evil grin plastered to her face.
She pretended to think about it, but I knew that she had already tailor-made a dare for me, "I dare you to kiss Scorpius," she smirked. But I sent her a pleading smile, adding in my bambi-eyes, that even she couldn't resist.
"Hmf, okay, on the cheek then," she pouted a little, and I smiled at her, she had always been easy to convince.
I had never kissed someone on the mouth before, and I did not intent to do it in the near future. I was only in second year, after all.
I moved towards Malfoy, silently praying that Albus and Sam would be able to keep their mouths shut without me there to separate them.
However, just as I leaned in to kiss his cheek, Malfoy turned his head in my direction, causing me to give him a huge kiss right on the mouth.
Easy to say, I was mad at him. Madder than I had ever been before. I even punched him in the face, before running back to the common room and up to my dorm, not wanting anybody to see me cry.
The worst part of it was, that he never even apologized to me, he just pretended that nothing had happened. I decided that I had never hated anyone as much as I hated Scorpius Malfoy, and that, someday, he was going to pay for this!
I shook my head and reluctantly tore my eyes away from the blond-haired hottie, as I kept on walking. I was so lost in thought, that I didn't even notice Melanie standing right in front of me, causing me to bump right into her.
"Oh Merlin, Mel I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to crash into you."
"That's okay," she smiled, "but what was with the 'Merlin'?"
I widened my eyes in panic, "uhm, no-nothing, I just stumbled over the words," I stuttered, and I let out a relieved sight, when she seemed to buy it.
She just waved her hand in goodbye, before going back inside her own house.
My grandma was waiting inside the kitchen, in the middle of preparing dinner, so I decided to set the table.
She looked at me curiously, since I was never one for homely duties, and I had certainly never before done anything of the like without being ordered to do it.
Hugo seemed very excited to tell me about his day and about this new game that grandpa had taught him. We had, now, all sat down at the table, and grandma and grandpa were in the middle of a conversation of their own.
"You have no idea how much you have missed, Rosie!" he insisted. He looked like he felt really bad for be, but I just shook my head at him, stuffing my mouth with mashed potatoes.
"You know what Hugo? I think I just had the best day ever."