It had taken eleven years, eleven very long years, but the waiting was almost over. Rose Weasley, a pretty, red haired, freckly girl, the niece of the famous Harry Potter, laid in bed that night wide awake in the dark, tapping her finger against her wrist, thinking.
Her Uncle Harry was a very kind man very humble despite his involuntary fame. For he was known throughout the Wizarding world, as a hero.
Yes, Rose was a witch who lived in a family all blessed with magic. But the community of magical people, were forced to hide their powers from the outside world in fear of prosecution.
Thirty-six years ago there was a wizard, a very evil, very dark wizard who had attempted becoming all powerful and overthrowing the Ministry of Magic, (The magical government.) His name was Voldemort.
But his reign of terror, of killing was seemingly over when he had attempted to kill a baby that was prophesied to one day destroy him; this baby was Harry. Harry's parents were killed in the attack of Godrics Hollow, Halloween night, 1981. But due to the power of a mother's love, and the sacrifice of her own life, baby Harry survived the killing curse which rebounded, destroying Voldemort instead. The entire wizarding world celebrated that night, and gave little Harry Potter the title of 'the boy who lived'.
That would had been an excellent end to the story, unfortunately, unlike everyone had thought, Voldemort had not died. He returned, more powerful and more terrible than ever before, thirteen years later. But again, through much pain, much sacrifice, yes, sacrifice, Harry again defeated Voldemort. This time, he did not do it alone, friends, mentors, teachers, and leaders stood by him. Two of these friends, of Harry's best friends, were named Ron and Hermione, and that is who Rose was, she was the daughter of Ron and Hermione. A witch and a wizard who had second handily defeated Voldemort. Both her mother and her father had worked at the Ministry of Magic after that, both with high positions. Presently, her mother works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and her father worked as an Auror, a dark wizard catcher, before quitting to help his brother run a popular joke shop.
In ten hours' time, Rose would be leaving to go to school. This was very exciting because the school was known to be the best school in Britain, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At this school was where Voldemort had been finally vanquished, during the Battle of Hogwarts, this was one of the reasons the school was so famous.
Rose was attending Hogwarts as a first year tomorrow. All of her family attended the school and were nearly all sorted into Gryffindor house. Hogwarts had four houses in which the students were separated, these houses were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. During first year, the students were sorted into one of these four houses where they would spend the next six years of their life. This would be scary for Rose in case she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor house and would be separated from all her cousins who were already at Hogwarts. But strangely enough, she wasn't scared. She had this sort of piece about the whole thing and really felt that everything would go right for her. But there was this heavy feeling on her stomach that she couldn't quite explain. She felt sick about the sorting but wasn't scared of her own, what was that stomach feeling for then?
Rose had already visited Diagon Ally, a wizarding market square, and bought her books, uniform, a plethora of other things she needed for school, but most importantly, she bought her magic wand. Her wand was made of ash wood, had a unicorn tale hair as its core, and measured 10 ½ inches in length. This was the item that she was most excited about owning. She was warned by her mother not to do any magic with it before school because if the spell worked, she could get into trouble by the Ministry for underage magic.
Of course she had done magic before without a wand, but couldn't control what she did. One time in particular, she had turned her cousin James', Harry's son, hair a bright pink because he was picking fun at her red hair. He still made fun of her sometimes, but now called her 'red' rather than 'carrot'.
Though she respected her mom, she had tried to do magic with her wand anyway. When she was at the Potter's house with Albus, the other son of Harry who she has a closer relationship with. She had dared to emit sparks from the end, but hadn't tried a more powerful spell because her Aunt Ginny had come in.
She and her brother Hugo, visited their cousins quite often, most often the Potters who they ate lunch with at least twice a week.
Rose had slept with her wand next to her since the day they bought it, and cleaned it at least twice a day though it couldn't get any shinier. Her trunk of books clothes, telescope, cauldron, writing material and many other things she needed for Hogwarts classes, was sitting at the foot of her bed locked and ready to go. She had laid out her school uniform over the bottom of the bed for when she had to wear it tomorrow on the train. The students at Hogwarts had to take a train to get there every year, the Hogwarts Express.
Rose tossed and turned now but couldn't get to sleep. Was it excitement? There was this buzzing in her ears and she threw her head under her pillow to block it out. Was this buzzing normal when you were greatly anticipating something? She started to get a headache and finally sat up from bed irritably to peer around the dark room. Her eyes scanned over her desk in the corner where she'd study, over a large pile of assorted stuffed animals, and over a smaller stack of half read books some of which were entitled, So You Wanna Be the Best? 101 Easy and Impressive Spells to Stun Your Friends, Magic for Morons, and How to Cope.
Then she remembered – the hand mirror. Her Uncle Harry had given both Rose and Al two identical magic hand mirrors last Christmas. They worked similarly to muggle video call, though Rose had never tried it. They'd buzz and become hot when one would try to get in touch with the other, when you would swipe your hand across the mirror's face, it would ripple and if answered right away, the other person's face would appear on the glass. She and her cousin were gifted these hand mirrors because her dad Ron, and Al's mom, Ginny – who happened to be siblings – were often complaining about how their delivery owls, wizard post, were never around when they needed them for something important because Rose and Al were always sending them out with letters to each other. The letters became so frequent that Harry had to figure out a solution for them to communicate without always using the delivery owls. So he bought two ordinary hand mirrors, used spells to make them two-way, and gifted them to Al and Rose. It had been a lot easier and faster to talk.
But right now Rose was frantically groping around in the dark trying to remember where she had put hers. She lit the candle on the bedside table in a hurry to find it because it had been buzzing for a little while now. As soon as the tiny flame illuminated around two square feet of the room, Rose saw it. It was sitting on her bedside cabinet right beside the candle and she had placed the matches right on top of the glass. Hastily, she grabbed the silver handle and swiped her hand across the screen to answer.
Al's face rippled into focus illuminated by what looked like one candle also. Al was her age and greatly resembled his dad. He had black, slightly messy hair, and bright green eyes. His face, which was usually bright and friendly, now looked solemn and full of worry, it brightened slightly in sight of her.
"Hey, Rosie." he said.
"Al, its one in the morning." Rose stated the obvious.
"Like you were really asleep." he replied knowing her too well.
"What's wrong?" she asked, though she already knew.
"I'm going to be put in Slytherin, I know it!" he said, quickly.
Slytherin was the house at Hogwarts that had produced more dark wizards than any other and had a very bad reputation.
"Al." said Rose warily.
"I know I've said it before, but I'm sure of it, I have this terrible feeling Rosie, I really do."
This wasn't the first time Al had brought this up. It was an evident fear of his. She had tried and tried to assure him that the sorting does not matter that much, that Slytherin wasn't all bad and has changed since the end of Voldemort and that whatever house he was in would not matter in the slightest to her or to the rest of the family who would all still see him the way he is. Nothing that she said ever seemed to cheer him up though, she knew that what he really wanted was for her to tell him that he was for sure going to be in Gryffindor like his brother, but she of course wouldn't do that. Rose had no doubt that he would be placed in Gryffindor house, but wasn't going to predict something that was not set in stone, at least not something as important as this.
"Aren't are you afraid, Rose?" Al asked.
"No, I'm not." She replied truthfully. "I am confident on which house I will be put in and am also comfortable with wherever I am placed. There are certain aspects about each Hogwarts house that I like."
"Not even a bit nervous?" He asked as if he wanted her to be, so that he wasn't the only one.
"No, I thought I would be but I'm only excited." She said.
There was a silence, so Rose spoke.
"Al, you need to stop worrying about the sorting."
"But what if I am put in Slytherin?" He asked desperately.
"So what? You need to be placed wherever you'd do best."
"So if they put me in Slytherin that would mean that I'd do best being evil?"
"Al, you're being ridiculous, not all Slytherins are bad you know, you're named after one." She replied.
"Rosie, you need to help me." He croaked.
"How can I help?" She asked.
"I don't know!" Al started to become frantic and his voice became higher like it always did when he was scared. "You always have the answer. You're not about to say that you don't know."
"Albus, lower your voice I don't want us to get restricted again. And I don't know." The words tasted bad in her mouth, she hated not knowing. "Everything the sorting hat will judge is all in your head, I can't change what's in your head." There was another pause. "Al, no matter what happens I'll be right by your side. Even if you are in Slytherin, I know you, and I know you're not bad; you're not a bad person Al." She finished. Still more silence. "Have you talked to Harry about it?"
"No." He answered quietly.
"Are you going to?" She asked.
"I'm thinking about doing it tomorrow."
"I don't know why you're so worried about asking him," Said Rose. "he is your dad."
"I don't want him to think that I am weak." He replied hurriedly.
"Al," said Rose quietly. "He's your dad, he's not going to think you were weak, and being afraid doesn't make you weak either. Besides your parents are supposed to mentor you, to help you through these things not judge you for them." She finished.
"Thanks, Rosie." He said, but she could tell that what she had said hadn't done much to calm his anxiety. She sighed.
"Alright Al, you should go to sleep, and I mean actually go to sleep, don't lie awake in bed all hours of the night thinking. You'll fall asleep on the Hogwarts express and I won't have anyone to talk to."
"You'll have James." Said Albus.
"James?" She laughed. "What a great conversationalist he is, doing all the talking more like, won't let me get a word in."
Al laughed, "That's what he says about you. Goodnight." And the hand mirror went blank; not like you could see much through it anyway.
Rose laid down her matted red haired head onto her pillow and fell almost instantly to sleep. Though her slumber was disturbed when she awoke with a start later in the night. She had dreamed that she was falling from a great height and woke right before she hit the ground. She looked at her digital watch that her grandfather had given her and saw that she had been asleep for three minutes. She laid back on her pillow in exasperation. Then she sat bolt upright and remembered what she had forgotten to pack.
"My travel bag!" She whispered. She swung the covers off and relight her bedside candle that she had blown out three minutes ago. "Let's see.'"
She always packed a travel bag of random stuff to keep her occupied in case she got bored on a trip. She had forgotten it one time and had to travel all the way to Wales in a muggle (non-magic folk) car with nothing to do but listen to James talk and pick on his little brother Albus. She searched the room and – though she could not draw well – took a sketch book and a few pens from under her desk and placed in into a satchel. She grabbed a book of short stories, a bouncy orb that changed glowing colors to play with when it gets dark, a sneakoscope, a small flying model broomstick (she loved Quidditch, a wizard sport played on broomsticks.) She also packed a book called Quidditch Through the Ages, and one called Flying with the Cannons that her dad had given her but she had never read. She stepped back looking around the room to make sure she hadn't missed anything, and got back into bed. It was a long while before she had fallen asleep again, she could hardly suppress her excitement now; it was something like trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.
She awoke the next morning to her mother's voice. Hermione had poked her head inside and was calling her in a frantic whisper.
"Rosie? Oh Rose wake up; we only have two hours until we have to leave. Oh I accidentally slept in, come on downstairs after you get dressed sweetheart."
It was just like her mom to wake her up two hours before, it was like her dad to wake her up two minutes after because he had slept in too.
Rose stepped out of bed clumsily and almost tripped. She took her Hogwarts robes from the end of her bed post and pulled on her socks, skirt, white shirt, grey vest, black tie, and black robe. She took a small Hogwarts pin from her bedside drawer, and pinned it to her tie. She knew that she would get looks heading to platform 9¾ but she was too excited to wait.
They were taking the muggle entrance into the station, King's Cross, and usually had to dress in muggle clothes, otherwise people would look at them oddly. Rose stood in front of her mirror and gave a quick twirl in her robes. She loved it. It would look better when she had the Gryffindor crest on the left breast though. She had a sudden jolt such of excitement looking at her uniform that she did a silly little jig. She laughed because she was being ridiculous and stood up straight again, took a deep breath, and hurried down the stairs. She got the bottom and had to run back up because she had forgotten her shoes and travel case.
She found her father sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with more cream and sugar in it than actual coffee. Their home was quite, quaint, and small. They could afford a larger house, of course, with both parents having stable jobs, but only being a family of four, they found that a smaller house would feel quite comfortable. Ron disagreed with Hermione on this theory though, he had grown up in a large family with no money and was always very cramped. Hermione was stern though, she had to be, otherwise Ron would get what he wanted in a power parachute, or a mansion, to reconstruct their yard to be a Quidditch field, or to buy out the neighbor's property and kick them out. They lived in an almost all wizard neighborhood. But a muggle family with four children somehow wormed their way into the house next door. Hermione was pretty sure that they had inherited it from a squib relative who had passed away long ago. A squib was a muggle born to magic parents but had no magic themselves. The neighborhood assumed that the squib hadn't ever told anyone that he or she was born to magic family; squibs are usually ashamed of that matter. The neighbors were always having to put memory charms on this poor family because they or their child had been immature in letting magic slip. Ron had to put a charm on the backyard so that if the muggle family looked up while the Weasley's were flying on brooms, they would only see two overly large birds. But Rose's house was big enough to be comfortable, small enough for a family of four, and was in a very good location with a large yard and trees surrounding the area, blocking them from most view. A garden was in the backyard and flowers were planted along the side of the house. A neat metal fence lined their property and two willow trees grew beside it.
Rose sat next to her father and her mom set a plate with an omelet in front of her. It smelled good, she could remember when she was younger and her mom was a dreadful cook so her father had to do most of it, though not being great himself. Ron insisted on ordering food all of the time, but her mom, being so determined, had refused and remade meals every night. Burnt bread and dry, chewy ham was the best dinner she could make. One of the reasons they ate at the Potters so often.
"So Rosie," said Ron. "You gonna try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year?"
"Of course I'm gonna try-"
"Swallow Rose." Reminded her mom.
She swallowed. "Yeah I'm gonna try out, but I'm kind of nervous about it." she confessed accidentally. "I mean," she tried. "first years rarely make the house teams. A lot more than they used too sure, but still not often. James even waited till second year to try out and he is obsessed with Quidditch to a point it's scary."
"You shouldn't be nervous." He said. "You're one of the best players your age I've seen, better than James I think, but don't ever mention that to 'em. Not enough practice? Tell you what, I'll finish this," he raised the Daily Prophet he had been reading. "-and we'll can go outside and practice."
"Ron!" Said his wife suddenly, "It rained last night, it's all muddy and she's in her new uniform." Ron looked back at his daughter.
"Hold on." Rose said and she ran back upstairs. She stormed into her room and ripped off her shoes, socks and cloak, and slipped a pair of overly large rain boots that didn't fit her bare feet, and ran back down stairs.
"How's this?" She asked and she gave a twirl that made the rubber boots squeak. He looked at her boots and skirt, and laughed. Hermione was looking at her white blouse.
"Alright, come on." He said putting a piece of toast in his mouth and walked outside with his daughter. Rose could hear her mom give a half amused half exasperated snort.
They headed to the greenhouse and she grabbed her Nimbus 2001, it was a pretty old model but she saw no reason to ask for a new one, it still worked fine. Her father grabbed his old Firebolt and they walked to the backyard.
"So what position do you want to play?" He asked while checking for rain with the palm of his hand.
"Beater!" She replied.
"Are you sure you don't want to be keeper, that's a good one." He suggested, keeper being what he played during his years on the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts.
"Nah, I wanna be a beater." She said while yanking her foot from the squelching mud.
"Alright, well I don't think that we should get the bludgers out today, I don't want you taking a chance of going to your first day of school with a broken nose. How 'bout chaser?" He suggested.
Quidditch was a wizard sport played on broomsticks. There were four balls, seven players on a team, and three goal post on either side of the pitch. In the seven players, there were three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and one seeker. The chasers would take the largest ball, the quaffle and try to get it through one of the other teams' goal hoops, the beaters would use clubs to hit the two bludgers away from their own team and at the opposing teams' players, bludgers were heavy balls whose job it was to hit as many players as they could of their broom, the keeper would guard their goal post and prevent the other team from scoring, and it was the seekers job to catch the last ball called the snitch. The snitch was a tiny golden ball that would zigzag around the pitch and was exceptionally tricky to catch. Once the snitch is caught, the game is over. Ten points to every goal scored and one-hundred-fifty points to the team that catches the snitch. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the games wins.
In about another ten minutes she had pulled her little brother, Hugo away from his omelet and got him to hover in front of one single goal post that her dad had mounted. And her mom took to watching them with a cup of tea from the balcony.
It was a good morning despite the grey weather. She and her dad passed the quaffle back and forth, and into the goal half the time, the other half, Hugo would block it. He had become very good, especially with him being so small. Again and again they passed, they scored, they missed, they laughed for what felt like almost an hour. Until they saw yellow fireworks from above and looked to the balcony where her mom was shouting,
"Fifteen minutes!" Frantically.
They all sped to the ground and ran inside the house splattering cold mud all over their own legs. Rose fell out of both her boots which remained stuck in the mud and had to drag her little brother who was having a lot of difficulty. It had been over an hour and a half?
"Scourgify, scourgify, scourgify." Her mother said pointing her wand at each of their legs as they all trooped into the house.
Every last drop of mud vanished from their person. She ran back into her room, pulled on her socks, shoes and robe, and ran back downstairs. Her mom tied Rose's hair into knot on the back of her head. Her dad used a hovering charm to get her trunk into the car. He jumped into the driver's seat, made sure they were all accounted for, started the engine, and took off.
Ron was doing surprisingly good at driving, Rose thought. The only thing that struck her as odd, was how every time a muggle traffic light turned red, it would change instantly back too green as soon as the car got there. After the fourth time this happened Rose had finally noticed her father tapping his leg with his wand. Rose smiled and sat back. Then was almost immediately thrown forward as her dad slammed the break to avoid colliding with a bus.
"Seatbelt, Rosie." Hugo grinned smugly, adjusting his own.
"Don't be rude." Rose frowned, trying desperately to click her metal buckle together.
"You didn't let me eat breakfast." Said Hugo folding his arms.
They pulled up to the train station, lifted her trunk onto a trolley and wheeled it in.
This was a completely ordinary station. Platforms and trains, people hurrying about impatiently, dressed in suits and ties, hoodies and caps. All staring at them as they wheeled a trolley laden with boxes and at Rose skipping along in her robe.
"Oh Ron, we're going to be late." Her mom was saying.
Until finally they were facing platform nine and ten. Her mom and Hugo ran straight at the brick divider between the two numbers and vanished rather than colliding to the ground. She and her father did the same right after, coming closer and closer to the brick barrier until they were right on top of it, surly going to crash. But they didn't, because this was a magic divider that is used as the entrance to the wizard platform; platform 9 ¾.
Rose felt a whooshing sensation as they emerged on the other side and stopped next to her mom and Hugo. She noticed that her mom looked confused, which was very rare. Rose looked ahead and saw the scarlet steam engine puffing smoke. She smiled, so they weren't too late. But then she frowned to notice that they were the very few people waiting there. A father buying his kid a snack at a stand, a small group of wizard boys already dressed in their robes, looking fixedly at a pamphlet about how to fit in at school, and an aged man dozing on a very skinny man on a bench to the right. Last year when they had come to see James off for his first year, the station was packed and very busy. Rose looked down at her watch and her eyes widened, understanding now. She tapped her dad and showed him the time. He looked at his own as well and rolled his eyes.
"Hermione, dear," He said. "We're here 42 minutes early."
"What!" She said, "But that's impossible. I made sure." And she looked at her wrist to check the time of her silver watch. Ron put his own under her nose.
"What?" She said, "But... oh." Rose let out a strangled laugh.
So, with 42 minutes to spare, they took to walking across the platform to drop off Rose's trunk and see if there was anybody they knew to talk to. Ron bought them all a scone, mostly because Hugo was complaining about being hungry. Rose bought herself a pamphlet about how to start at Hogwarts, from a close stand. Her parents insisted that she didn't need it, both giving very different advice about how to fit in and make friends.
"Harry and Ginny won't be here for another half hour." Said her dad as Hugo finished his scone. "But we may see... oh no." He suddenly stopped.
"Ronald!" She heard someone say and immediately recognized the pompous tone of her Uncle Percy.
"Oh no." She said as well.
Percy was Ron's third older brother, and was under his brothers Bill and Charlie. He had curly red hair that was cut short to reveal a rather large forehead, and he wore horn-rim glasses.
Rose didn't dislike him, but he did bore she and Hugo and all her other cousins to sleep at family gatherings. Last Christmas he had sent both her and Hugo one thick book titled, 202 of the Most Respected International Confederation Wizards in History; her mom was the only one who had read it.
"How wonderful to see all of you." Percy was saying. His daughters Molly and Lucy were there too.
"I'll help you with that." Said Molly looking at Rose's trunk. Molly was the eldest daughter and was starting her fourth year at Hogwarts. She had red curly hair that she had in a braid on the back of her head and had a slightly round face.
Lucy, who also had red hair and glasses, was too young to attend Hogwarts as well as Hugo, but Lucy followed him as he followed Rose.
"How long have you been here?" Rose asked.
"Just got here." Molly answered. "Dad insisted on getting here early. He says that it'll make his department look better, you know, The Department of Magical Transportation. But I think it's useless, nobody is going to see us here early and go, 'Wow! Look how early they are. That Percy Weasley does run a tight ship in his Department.'" Rose laughed. "But how are you?" Molly asked. "It is your first year."
"I'm ecstatic!" She replied. "Honestly, I'm not nervous at all." Though she wasn't being as honest as she had been with Al the night before.
"Good," Said Molly. "You don't have any reason to be nervous, the classes are work of course but everyone that has gone is always excited to go back which obviously means we like it there. Not worried about the sorting? Most people are."
"No," Rose replied hesitantly. The thing was, now that she was here, facing the train that was going to her to the first day of the rest of her life, she wasn't quite as confident. She was excited sure, but something about standing here on platform 9 ¾, in front of the train that'll bring her away from her parents farther and longer than she had ever been before, was quite nerve wracking. Though she still believed that she was going to be in Gryffindor, that sick feeling was still in the pit of her stomach which made her feel as though she was supposed to be more nervous. "I'm sure I'll be in Gryffindor." She told Molly anyway.
"Yeah, that's what I said." Said Molly. "And look where I am, Ravenclaw. But yeah you'll probably be in Gryffindor, most red heads are, mind you though most red heads are Weasley's."
Both Rose and Molly drug her trunk down the train corridor. It was very heavy and difficult to direct in a straight line. The train was lovely even despite the years. Rose finally chose a back compartment and they together hoisted the trunk in the loft above the seats.
"Al isn't so confident though." Said Rose as they walked back.
"What do you mean?" Asked Molly. Hugo and Lucy were still on the platform having an animated conversation about a muggle baseball cap that he had brought.
"Al has this silly idea that he'll be in Slytherin."
"It's not very silly." Said Molly.
"Well I know it's not 'ha-ha' funny, I just meant that he thinks he will be." Rose said slightly annoyed.
"Yeah well, if it was any of us, I kinda thought him."
"What?" Asked Rose stopping outside the train. "Al? He doesn't look Slytherin."
"Well he doesn't really look Gryffindor either, does he?" Rose didn't answer.
Molly continued, "He's smart but not Ravenclaw material, he might be in Hufflepuff, he's loyal enough. But nobody really wants to be in Hufflepuff."
"I think he's brilliant." Rose said stubbornly.
"So are Slytherins." Said Molly, she was too opinionated like her father. "Anyway, see you on the train." she said and she walked back to Lucy.
Who did she think she was putting a stamp on Al's head before he's even sorted, that's just wrong, especially the stamp being a Slytherin one. Then she felt a guilty tug at her stomach. She had been trying to convince Al that Slytherin was no worse than any of the other houses but yet here she was angry at someone who had verbally sorted him into Slytherin. She wouldn't have been as upset if Molly had said that she could see him in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. And wasn't the word Gryffindor stamped on her head by everyone else in the family?
When she looked back up, she saw that the platform was much fuller than it had been. A mixture of people in black cloaks and muggle clothes were traveling all around the platform carrying trunks and boxes, some with owl cages and other small pets. Some of the witches and wizards in muggle clothes looked quite comical and Rose suspected that they got more looks on the way here than the people in cloaks did. Some were wearing a top hat with a sweatshirt, others with night clothes and leather jackets.
"Fred!" Rose cried seeing her other cousin, and ran up to him. Her Uncle George (who had red hair) and Aunt Angelina (a pretty black girl) had two kids, Fred, who was in fifth year, and Roxanne, was in her third.
Fred had very tan skin and slightly red, very curly hair, as though the color couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Roxanne was younger and had really big curly hair and a pretty face, she usually had a handkerchief or other headband in her hair to tame it, and she always wore the same big hoop earrings and both children were very freckly.
She ran up and gave Fred a hug. He had been like her big brother but teased her a lot, he acted a lot like his father when he was in school. Both Fred and Roxanne looked more like their mom. Rose hardly got to see Fred anymore since they moved away. She was ecstatic to be spending a whole semester with him at Hogwarts. Both he and his sister were a quite the mischievous bunch, frequently getting into trouble.
"Just saw Percy." He was saying. "He was talking about our transportation here, just got away."
"Where's Roxie?" She asked.
"Still stuck." He smiled. "Ah George, my dear brother," Fred impersonated Percy, buttoning the top collar of his muggle shirt pompously (he hadn't yet changed into his Hogwarts one's.) "Oh how delighted you must be to see me, what a great honor this it for you, to be talking to the Head of Magical Transportation, sorry – no pictures. You may kiss my shoe though," He held out his foot. "George has to do it, sorry Angelina but you'll get lipstick on it, they've just been polished." he was exaggerating of course as Rose laughed.
"You should probably save Roxanne now though." She said.
Fred walked back toward Percy and vanished into the steam that the engine was producing. Just as he left, she saw her parents emerging from the mist. Her mom had an expression of mild relief, her dad just looked furious.
"That git won't shut up." He said as they got nearer.
"Ron, don't say stuff like that in front of the kids." Said his wife.
"Oh calm down Hermione." He said. "They know Percy's a boring git, don't you, Rosie." But she didn't have to answer.
"I hear James!" Said Hugo excitedly. "Isn't that them, mom?" He asked.
"I can't tell."
"I hear Al!" said Rose.
"I think that's them Al," Said a detached voice that belonged to a woman.
"Yup," Said her dad. "That's Ginny."
And five figures appeared from the mist coming more and more into focus. Ginny was a very pretty woman with long red hair, Harry had messy black hair and round glasses, little Lily had red hair and greatly resembled Rose who was often mistaken as Lily's older sister, James was tall and had reddish brown hair, but no freckles. Al shared his dad's bright green eyes, same shape and color. He walked right up to Rose and smiled a smile of relief. She beamed back.
"You alright?" She asked.
"Still nervous." He replied.
"But you have talked to your dad about it?" She asked.
"No." He answered.
"Well than you better get to it then. Lily!" She walked to Al's little sister, who had a tear streaked face, she wasn't yet old enough to go to Hogwarts. "Lily, why are you crying?"
"I – want - to – go!" Lily replied through hiccups. "Hugo!" Lily suddenly exclaimed completely dropping her sobs and ran up to him. Rose was taken slightly aback by the sudden change in pace and not knowing why she was so excited to see him, he does come around their house nearly three times a week.
Lily and Hugo began to talk about Hogwarts and what house they'll be in when they one day go. Her dad stopped to listed.
"I like Ravenclaw, but Uncle Harry says that you have to answer a riddle to get in the common room and I don't want that." Hugo was saying to Lily. "You could be in Hufflepuff; I think you're pretty nice."
"If you're not in Gryffindor, We'll disinherit you," Said Ron suddenly. "but no pressure."
"Ron!" said her mom. Hugo and Lily laughed but Albus was looking solemn, Rose caught his eye and felt awkward too. Her mom and Aunt Ginny must have noticed because they said,
"He doesn't mean it."
Rose put a hand on Al's shoulder.
"Look who it is." Said her dad, and Rose looked up but didn't see who he was talking about.
"So that's little Scorpius." He said under his breath.
She caught sight of him. Around fifty yards away was a tall blonde man with a black coat buttoned to his chin and a pretty brunette woman hugging a boy Rose's age. The boy was tall with white blonde hair that was slick and greatly resembled the man. Those were the Malfoys. Her dad had told what felt like hundreds of stories where the man, Draco, would bully and try to get her parents expelled. From what she had heard, the Malfoy family were an evil pureblood family who were all sorted into Slytherin. And apparently the Malfoys were death eaters (followers of Voldemort) back in the first and second Wizarding War.
"Make sure you beat him at every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains." Ron said suddenly as he stared at the blonde man grudgingly.
"Ron for heaven's sake," Said her mom, half stern, half amused. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
"You're right, sorry." He said, but added. "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood."
But Granddad Weasley is a pureblood himself.Rose thought.
"Hey!" She heard James running up in excitement. "Teddy's back there!" He said breathlessly, pointing behind him.
Teddy was Harry's Godson, which would mean he was their cousin.
"Just seen him!" James continued. "And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!" He stopped like he thought no one had heard him properly.
"Our Teddy!" He tried again, "Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-"
"You interrupted them?" Asked Aunt Ginny in disbelief. "You are so like Ron-"
"-And he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away. He's snogging her!" He added desperately.
He evidently thought that this was the biggest news of the century. Rose had known about Teddy and Victoire for some time now. Victoire was her Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur's eldest daughter who was very pretty with strawberry blonde hair and freckles. Teddy's late mother was a metamorphmagus (a witch or wizard with the ability to change one's appearance at will) and late father was werewolf which made Teddy half of each, though he didn't have any werewolf characteristics. His parents had been great people who fought Voldemort during the second wizarding war and both died together during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, a month after Teddy was born. Though Harry was named Godfather before their death, Teddy was raised by his grandmother, Harry being only seventeen at the time. Teddy and Victoire had been seeing each other for a few months now, though there was always an electric connection between them. James seemed to be the only one that didn't know and he was the closest to Teddy.
"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married." Said Lily ecstatically. "Teddy would really be part of the family then."
"He already comes to dinner about four times a week." Said Harry.
"Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?"
"Yeah!" Said James, he obviously didn't realize that Harry was joking. "I don't mind sharing with Al – Teddy can have my room!"
"No," Said Harry firmly, "you and Al will share a room when I want the house demolished." He checked his watch. "It's almost eleven, you'd better get on board."
"Don't forget to give Neville our love." Said Ginny to James.
"Go ask him, ask him now." Rose said to Al, gesturing to Harry.
"He's busy." Said Al trying to find an excuse. Harry wasn't doing anything. "He's... he's listening to mom."
James swung his leg at Al, but Al kicked it away.
"See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."
"I thought they were invisible," Said Al frantically, "You said they were invisible."
"Tell him." Rose whispered in Albus' ear, "I'll be on the train." She walked to her parents who both kissed her. She hugged Hugo and he handed her his baseball cap, she smiled and rubbed his hair. After being forces to pose in front of the train, and a few embarrassing photos were taken, they all bid each other farewell and Rose stepped up onto the scarlet steam engine.