At Aunt Gin and Uncle Harry's
Hermione turned the doorknob, letting herself into her daughter's room. The curtains were drawn, and she spied her daughter sleeping peacefully, sprawled out on her small bed. Her mouth was open, soft snores escaping, and she was smirking slightly.
It was not Hermione's favourite job to wake her daughter in the morning; the mother knew from experience that Rose could be from perfectly courteous to extremely beastly, her tempers varying thanks to the quality of her dream, when she had gone to bed the previous night, and the hour in which Hermione woke her. The Muggle-born witch felt rather sorry for her roommates, in whichever House Rose would get Sorted into.
Quietly, Hermione swept to the curtains and parted them, revealing some sunlight. Her brown eyes travelled to the bed, where her daughter was blinking, still, presumably, half-asleep. She sighed and forced herself to smile at Rose.
"Good morning, sweetie," she said softly. "It's time to wake up."
"Why?" Rose grumbled. "It's only-" She squinted at her alarm clock. "It's only eight thirty, Mum."
"Already eight-thirty," Hermione corrected. "Do you remember what day it is, Rosie?"
"What day?" the girl snapped, rather crossly. "It's Friday."
"Friday, September first," she tossed Rose a Muggle outfit. "We still have to go to Ginny and Harry's, hon."
"Oh, yeah." Rose frowned at the clothes. "Can't I just wear robes, Mum?"
Hermione noticed her daughter was looking rather longingly at her closed closet door – her new robes for Hogwarts were hanging inside. The mother sighed. "You can't wear those to the platform, Rosie-"
"I can, Mum. James told me Neville and Hannah were wearing their usual clothes when they saw Blizzard and Valerie off at the station last year."
"You shouldn't listen to everything James says," Hermione replied, pursuing her lips. "He's known to be rather... untrustworthy."
Rose scowled at her. "I can tell for myself when he's telling the truth, thank you-"
Before either of them could continue their argument, Hugo stuck his head in the doorway, looking awkward. "Dad told me to tell you two to, er, hurry up and come downstairs. He says he's cooking breakfast this morning."
Hermione looked worried. She wasn't sure if she trusted her husband with the kitchen. "Alright," she said, getting up and giving a stern look to Rose, who gazed at her rather crossly. "Rosie, you'd better be downstairs in ten minutes, young lady. Hugo, let me get you another pair of pants, did you see the hole at the back?"
"Aw, gerroff, Mum," Hugo groaned. "It's fine."
His mother shook her head. "It's not as if you don't have any other clothes, Hughie. Maybe your jeans are in the dryer," she insisted, and with a pleading look from Hugo that Rose smiled sympathetically at, Hermione dragged her son out.
Rose decided that she would put her robes under her clothes; that way, she would be able to change out of them in the car without having to waste time in the Hogwarts Express. She smiled momentarily at the brilliantness of her plan and, having executed it, went down to the kitchen for breakfast.
She was greeted by two tired voices, her mother absent. "Morning," Rose yawned at her dad and her brother, pulling out a chair to sit beside Hugo. "What's for breakfast, Dad?"
"Oh, sausages and scrambled eggs," Ron said cheerfully. "There's milk in the fridge, help yourself."
After a tiny nibble at a sausage in the plate shoved up to her, Rose concluded that her father had not messed up any ingredients. Relieved that her food was not poisoned, she began wolfing down her breakfast, ignoring the remarks from her mother about her table manners, who had come back from the laundry room.
"It's OK, Hermione," Ron chuckled. "I think I have worst ones."
He was met with an unimpressed look from his wife, who then proceeded to rolling her eyes. "That's not exactly something to be proud of, Ronald," she snapped, stressing on Rose's dad's full name.
Knowing better than messing with their mother when she was in a foul mood such as this one, Rose and Hugo ate for the most in silence, occasionally speculating on which House each of them (the cousins that hadn't yet attended Hogwarts, that is) would be Sorted into.
Ron fumbled over how to insert the keys into the ignition, grumbling what sounded like curses under his breath. Hermione glared at him, though she seemed more anxious than angry. Rose supposed it was because she was leaving for Hogwarts, and Hugo in two years after that, as James had told her Aunt Ginny had been the same before his departure.
The family of four ran the doorbell a good ten or eleven times before Uncle Harry finally opened the door, looking exhausted, holding a coffee mug in one hand, wearing a holey white shirt. It seemed to Rose that her uncle had probably just gotten out of bed, dragged out by the sound of the doorbell.
"Sorry," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Gin was in the laundry room, James in the shower, and Lills and Al were being rather uncooperative."
"Dad!" exclaimed an indignant-sounding voice. Al had appeared behind his father, smiling sheepishly at the lot of them. "It was Lily's fault."
"Was not!" Lily's voice shouted from the inside of the house.
Harry smiled tolerantly. "No matter. You can come in – did you have breakfast?"
"Yes," Rose said, grinning at him and Al. "Dad cooked."
Her uncle raised an eyebrow at that and chuckled. "I'd like to taste that, mate," he told Ron, who seemed a tad offended. The redhead followed his old friend inside and, when Harry had put the mug on the kitchen table, punched his arm playfully.
"No one seems to have faith in my cooking abilities," Ron grumbled.
"Maybe you should cook more often, then," Harry replied, winking at Rose and Hugo, and then at Hermione. "Your family might trust your skills more."
"What about you?" Rose's dad demanded.
Harry shrugged, his bright green eyes peering up at them rather innocently. "The kids had cereal and whatever was left in the pantry and the fridge for breakfast today – I'm planning to stop at the grocery after work."
Ginny joined them later, and, as Rose had predicted, seemed to be in a mood similar to Hermione's – although she did hide it better. James descended a few moments after that, water still dripping from his mop of messy black hair, a towel draped on his shoulders.
"Hola, Rosie," he said carelessly, his elbow on the table.
"Mind your elbow," Harry reminded him rather good-naturedly.
"Yes, Dad."
Rose sighed. "Hullo, Jamesie."
"Gryffindor, then?"
"How much times did I remind you to stop harassing your poor cousin on that?" Ginny said, looking apologetic. "Sorry, Rose."
She swallowed her tea. "It's OK, Aunt Gin." She glanced at James, smirking at his crestfallen demeanour. "I'm probably going to Gryffindor."
"You must!" James exclaimed, quite loudly. "You'd be quite an asset to our-" He clapped a hand over his mouth and flushed.
Ginny raised an eyebrow, exchanging accomplices' looks with her husband. "We didn't hear that, Jamesie."
Al and Lily were staring at him rather curiously now.
"Well," the second year said, getting up, "I'm going upstairs to change. See me in the Gryffindor common room once you're Sorted, Rosie."
"It's Rose," Rose snapped.
"What makes him so sure that you're going to be Gryffindor?" Hermione inquired.
She shrugged. "Wishful thinking. He made a bet with Rick about that, I think."
Ginny shook her head at that. "I'll have to keep a closer watch on him, that one."
"All too true," Harry nodded.
The two families said their goodbyes on the driveway, where Harry and Ron established that they would meet somewhere at the platform before the children would board the train. With that, they took off in their separate cars.
Rose was practically bouncing in the seat, so much that Hugo even looked up from his book and told her, curtly, to cut it out. She ignored that and closed her eyes as she felt the wind blowing her bushy curls.
She could hardly wait to get to the Hogwarts Express, to begin her formal schooling.
And this is the first chapter of The Penetrator of Darkness: Year One, rewritten :) I decided to add this along with Al's POV in the epilogue, and then we're jumping into the original story with Scorpius!
Please read and review!