Chapter 1: The beginning of the end

People thought being part of the Weasley clan was one of the best things in the world. Everybody respected and adored the members of the family for their role in the Second Wizarding War. After all, if it wasn't for Harry Potter and his two best friends, the world would still be a terrible place, full of dark wizards who are determined to destroy everything that is good.

Having parents and relatives that fought like heroes in the war came with certain expectations. Nobody knew this better than Rose Weasley.

Ever since she was little, she's been told heroic stories of her family, and had to realize shortly after she'd started Hogwarts, people expected her to turn out like her parents. So Rose worked hard to receive the best grades like her mother, which wasn't simple at all. She hadn't admitted to anybody, not even herself, that she definitely inherited her father's laziness. When she got all her outstanding OWLs after her fifth year and saw how proud her parents were, that was the time she'd decided she would never do anything to fail them.

"Are you alright, dear?" A voice came behind Rose's back and she let go of her Head Girl badge she hadn't noticed she was holding between her fingers so tightly.

She turned around and flashed a smile at the figure in the portrait that the voice belonged to.

That smile of hers. It was the perfect smile. It took Rose two whole years to master it. However, deep inside she knew she only used it as a mask when she didn't want anybody to see how disturbed or upset she really was.

"Of course!" The young witch replied politely, letting out a small laugh.

She took one last glance at the figure who eyed her with a concerted look on his face, before Rose started to get going.

It was her last week at Hogwarts, so at the last prefect meeting, she had stated she would patrol every night. She was going to miss the castle so much she wanted to walk around the corridors in the comfortable silence of the night, thinking back to the memories she would forever remember.

She was supposed to be back in the Heads' dormitory an hour ago, and she knew Scorpius, The Head boy and one of her best friends, would soon come after her. She hadn't shared with Scorpius how sad she really felt that they had to leave Hogwarts forever, so she used her patrolling time to give place to the feeling, linger on it a bit, then return to the dorm with her perfect, plastic smile on her face, telling Scorpius she gave detention to two lovebirds she'd overheard doing the dirty in a broom closet.

But recently Rose didn't feel like doing such thing.

"We're going to get caught, I'm telling you..." Alice Longbottom's whisper turned into a soft moan.

For the past hours she'd been doing nothing but making out in one of the broom closets in a deserted corridor.

She should have been studying for her last exam ever that occurred the following day, however, Miss Longbottom found kissing a more entertaining activity.

"No, we're not." The reply came as a muffled sound, since the boy's lips planted little kisses on the skin of Alice's neck. "I am a prefect, Ali. Besides, I have the map with me."

Hearing the answer, Alice's eyes popped open abruptly. She raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the red headed boy curiously. "How did you get it?"

"Stole it from Albus." Alice didn't like how careless his voice sounded.

"You shouldn't have done that, Hugo..." Alice sighed, pushing him away from her by his shoulder to be able to look in his piercing blue eyes.

Hugo was all smiles the moment he found her eyes. Alice suspected he'd developed certain unwanted feelings for her for the past months, although she made it clear their little meetings were only to make her feel good, and after she graduated they would pretend nothing had happened between them. "Rose is patrolling, I haven't wanted to risk it."

"I have an exam tomorrow!" Alice started more to herself rather than to Hugo.

"Do you want to go to sleep then?" He sounded slightly disappointed that Alice decided not to hear.

"Yeah, let's go back." She nodded her head after a minute of thinking, avoiding looking into his eyes this time.

"Well, we could always continue tomorrow." Hugo agreed, while he stroked his jaw line with his finger.

Alice fixed her messed up hair to look at least decent and cover the red spot Hugo made behind her ear with her teeth. She didn't bother to respond, just tore the door open and left Hugo standing alone in the closet.

Lily Potter yawned softly, frowning at the book in front of her.

She desperately wanted to sleep in her comfortable bed, cuddling her pillow to her, but unfortunately she had to study if she didn't want to fail. The History of Magic was the last of the OWLs she was yet to take and Lily was preparing for that exam with Lorcan Scamander in the library.

Lorcan was in his sixth year, but volunteered helping Lily, for she was close to a mental breakdown.

"I cannot believe this." She leaned forward, resting her head on the book.

"There are two more pages, then you're free."

Lily let out a sound that was similar to a dying unicorn's wailing, closing her eyes tightly.

She wasn't interested in neither goblins nor their stupid little rebellions she was expected to know by heart, and the fact that it was already past midnight didn't help to ease her pain.

"Lily?"

She forced herself to sit back up on the wooden chair, moving to gaze at Lorcan. The faint light let Lily see his handsome features, tempting Lily to daydream instead of paying attention once again. "What? I've been nothing but cooperative today! This is worse that torture."

With a wave of her hand, Lily pushed her long curls over her shoulder, tilting her head as she continued to stare at her study partner to convince him with her stubborn look she was known for to call it a night.

When she saw Lorcan would start a speech about how she was the one who insisted on studying the whole chapter that night because she was not going to to that the following day for sure, she changed her strategy.

She reached out to put her hand on his, gently stroking his wrist with her finger.

"I'm so thankful you offered helping me, Lor, really. I don't know how I would survive without you."

For a moment, they were just staring at each other, neither blinking, while Lorcan tried not to give in to Lily's adulation, but failed eventually.

"I guess your right, Lils." Lorcan said, leaning back in his chair, stroking his tired eyes with the back of his hands. "It's pretty late, anyway."

Lily had to hold herself back from letting out a complaining noise as she didn't feel his hand under his anymore, so she only pursed her lips in a pouting manner that Lorcan couldn't see. "I am always right, Lor." She used all her energy to sound somewhat vigorous as she said that, pushing her book away from her gladly.

Alice held onto her wand so tightly like her life depended on it. Obviously Hugo wasn't following her anymore, since Alice headed to the Hufflepuff common room, whereas Hugo needed to get to the Gryffindor tower.

Still, she felt like she was being chased by something she couldn't define. Maybe it was the lack of courage that made her run away from the Weasley boy like she usually did with her problems. She preferred to think they would disappear if she didn't give a damn about them.

However, Hugo was not someone she could avoid. He was the little brother and cousin of her two best friends, their parents were good friends as well, so it was impossible to escape from meeting him during the summer. But at the beginning of September Hugo would come back to Hogwarts and Alice would start working in the Leaky Cauldron, helping her mother running the place. Hopefully they would settle for pretending the last few months of the term hasn't happened by then, and the disturbing feeling would disappear.

As she hurried down the corridor, she overheard the paintings complaining about how Alice was guilty for the light that didn't let them sleep in peace, and that was the moment she stopped, unable to move her legs any further.

Guilt.

It was what had been bothering her. Hugo might develop certain feelings for her, but their little secret wasn't indifferent to her anymore either.

She felt guilty for using Hugo for having fun, although he was a good family friend, and Merlin... He was two years younger than her.

She knew the right thing would have been to end it with Hugo, but she wasn't ready to let him go.

"Alice? Is that you?"

She looked back above her shoulder to see who was wandering the hallways beside her, and she came close to collapsing after seeing it was Rose, looking at her with tilted head, wearing her professional Head Girl look on her face. Of course that made Alice blush from head to toe, though she tried acting calmly.

"Oh, hey, R-Rose. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Yeah, It was my turn to patrol tonight. Again. So what have you been up to?" She almost sounded like she usually did, but something was different. Even Rose Weasley wasn't able to fake a perfect image at two in the morning after a long day.

"Last minute studying in the library. I'm a bit nervous about the exam tomorrow and felt like I should read through my notes again." Alice chatted lightly, although her face still felt like it was on fire and hadn't had anything with her besides her wand, so she decided to change the subject before Rose could respond. "You look tired, Rosie. You should let Malfoy do the patrolling tomorrow and just rest after the exam."

Rose was caught off guard. She would never do such thing, not when her days at Hogwarts were counted. "I'm good. And I love doing it, I'll rest after we're done here." Rose lowered her wand and freed her red hair from the tight ponytail she forced it into in the morning. Her hair fell on her shoulders softly and she let out a sad sigh. She wouldn't have to fake she was completely fine with starting her adult life outside Hogwarts within only a few days in front of Alice, she was her best friend after all. "I want to make the most of it while we're here. I'm going to miss this place."

"Yeah, me too." Alice realized how hard it was for Rose to admit that, so she took her free hand that wasn't holding her wand and smiled at her as she silently offered to accompany Rose back to the Heads' common room, while recalling memories from the years they'd spent in Hogwarts.

Lily was beyond annoyed. That History of Magic book was not simply pointless to her, but bloody heavy as well. Although she and Lorcan decided to call it a night, she had to drag herself back to the Gryffindor common room, something she was not looking forward to doing.

After waking the Fat Lady to get in, she quickly made her way to the couch that was the closest to her and throwing the book on the ground carelessly, she laid down, finally closing her eyes.

Not that she didn't like spending some alone time with Lorcan, even if it meant having to study, she just wanted to hang out with Albus, Alice and Rose, who would not return to Hogwarts with her and Hugo.

Lily hated being the youngest, and seeing all her loved ones starting a life she wasn't going to be the part of made her feel lonely. When she was little, she wanted to go to school with them so desperately, and now they were about to depart forever, she desired to do the same. Of course she would have her dorm mates, Lorcan, Lysander and Hugo with her, but for her it was just not the same.

Suddenly Lily heard someone making their way into the common room, and when she opened her eyes, she saw a shocked Hugo standing in front of her. That caused Lily to get up and frown at her cousin, who was holding her father's map in his hands and was clearly up to no good at this late hour.

"Do I want to know about it?" She pointed her chin towards the map, while Hugo hopped down beside her, avoiding looking at her.

"I don't think so, no." He shook his head, placing the map on the top of Lily's book.

"Were you with a girl?" Lily asked after a moment of thinking, leaning forward to have a better look at Hugo.

"No!" Hugo objected, clearly not telling the truth.

"Well, were you with a boy, then?" Lily punched him in the shoulder teasingly, grinning widely at him.

"Wha- No! No, Lily! What makes you think I was with anyone?" The color of red appeared on his pale cheeks.

"I don't know. The map is suspicious enough, but the huge hickey on your neck isn't bad either."

Hugo jumped a little in his seat, touching the red spot with his fingers to make sure it was really there. Damn Alice... Damn Lily!

"Look, you haven't seen anything, right?" He was determined to convince Lily not to ask anything else that would lead to him confessing his meetings with Alice. "You haven't seen anything."

Lily watched as Hugo went up to his dorm, and remembered she should do the same, though she wanted to get a straight answer out of him, but realized she was too tired to think.

Grabbing the book and the map in her hands, she made her way to her dorm, pushing the door open quietly not to wake anyone up, knowing they needed their beauty sleep. As she tossed her things beside her bed, she noticed the bed next to her was empty.

Fiona Finnigan left the Great Hall quickly after a short dinner, and haven't returned since. Lily found that extremely strange, maybe she had been with Hugo and decided to get back separately, who knew, but Lily was not in the condition to figure things out. The next moment her head hit the pillow and she fell asleep.

"You look like shit, Lil." Albus started the next morning while they were all sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

They decided on spending every meal with Lily and Hugo in the last few days, although Albus should have been with the Slytherins and Alice with the Hufflepuffs.

"Aren't you charming, brother?" Lily grabbed her toast and took a bite from it.

"That happens when you stay up late, you know." Lily ignored to pay attention to Al's teasing, but suspected he wouldn't let it go anytime soon.

"What do you want?"

After placing his sausage down on his plate dramatically, Albus pointed his finger at her. "You have some nerve getting the map out of my things, Lily!"

Suddenly the table went silent around them, and Rose, Alice and Hugo were all watching the Potter siblings. If either had cared enough to look around they would have seen Alice freeze in her seat, Hugo looking down on his hands stubbornly, and Rose arching her red brow curiously, forgetting about her breakfast.

"What?"

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Hugo told me you have it with you after I noticed it disappeared from my bed!"

Lily turned her head to send a glare at her cousin, although he didn't notice, he was too busy examining his hands. "Well, I feel badly about that. I'll give it back, okay?"

Albus looked like he was about to yell at her when two figures appeared behind him. Scorpius Malfoy and Damian Nott. Scorpius get down beside Rose and pulled an empty plate in front of him. Nobody noticed how still Rose's body became at that and shortly she would grab a book from her bag, pretending to read, when she was clearly still eavesdropping. Last night when she got back to the dorm, Scorpius was waiting up for her, saying there was something they really needed to talk about. Rose, being Rose, put back on the perfect mask and listened to him like they were discussing certain matters at a prefect meeting. Unable to get over the thing Scorpius told her, she went back minding her own business, paying attention only to her work while Damian spoke up.

"I heard you got into Auror training, Potter. Daddy must have helped a lot."

Albus was clearly upset, but he wasn't going to give the satisfaction to the Slytherin boy to see that. "Indeed, and I heard you'll start working within a month at papa Nott's company. Good job, by the way. Seems like you've made a huge effort to earn that position."

After Damian rolled his eyes, scoffing and went to the Slytherin table, Albus relaxed.

Rose knew Albus had a hard time being the only Weasley-Potter in Slytherin and make friends, other than Scorpius, who later became friends with Rose as well, but Damian was especially hostile around him, something Rose didn't understand. After all, they even shared the same dorm and the other boys seemed to accept Albus.

"We all know it was James who needed help to get into the training, anyway." Lily stated as she ran her hand through her unusually messy hair, trying to cheer her brother up. She was happy something got his mind off asking her questions involving the map. Even if she wasn't guilty of stealing the map from him, she would take the blame for Hugo, after all that was what cousins did. Having each other's back.

Albus turned back to his breakfast, making sure nobody saw him stealing glances at the Slytherin table where Nott had sat down, so he didn't notice that beside him Alice was doing the same with Hugo, confused about why Al thought it was Lily who got the map from him. Lily's hand fell from her hair as a fresh looking Fiona Finnigan made her way into a Great Hall and Rose shook her head, thinking how messed up her family was, sneaking around in the middle of the night, stealing things from each other and such.

She knew that they had a strategy just how to survive being part of a family full of expectation just like her, but didn't care to acknowledge they also had secrets of their own, just like she did that would soon get them into more messed up situations they'd ever dreamed of.

AN: Hey. So this is the first chapter in which I wanted to introduce some of the characters and create situations I can develop in the following chapter. I hope you all liked this sort of introduction in which I tried to make up a concept that was inspired by watching Desperate Housewives and thought I could write a fanfiction of the Weasley clan getting themselves into controversial situations, including keeping secrets that motivates the characters to do certain things.

I would be more than happy if you left reviews for me. :)