Chapter One: Bad Hair Day

I walked through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 holding Mum's hand. With me being the eldest, my family had never had a reason see the train off until I was eleven. I had never gone through the barrier before, and it was a little weird. We stepped through the seemingly solid bricks and appeared on the other side, where a large scarlet train blew it's whistle loudly, as if to greet us. "The train leaves in ten minutes, honey," Mum reminded me, "You should get your things on board the train and come back out to say your goodbyes. I think I see your uncle, so Alby and Jam should be on the train already. See if you can find them."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that my cousins hated her nicknames for them with a passion, so I made my way through the crowd with my trunk and my new owl, Steve. Trust me, I'm usually a lot more creative with names, but he just looked like a Steve. As his tiny cage bumped around, he squawked like an angered chicken and flapped his little wings. Steve was an elf owl and had fluffy brown feathers that I got the impression he was very proud of.

Once on the train, I walked down the aisle looking for my cousins. I saw a head of messy black hair and called to it. "Hey, Albus!" He spun around at my voice and grinned. "Hi Rose, do you want to sit with us?"

I smiled and answered, "I was hoping you would ask." Carefully, I set Steve's cage down on the seat and placed my trunk on the rack above. "Mum said for us to meet her outside."

Albus, James, and I got off the Hogwarts Express and found our families talking. My cousin Lily and brother Hugo were talking about how great it would be when they got to go to Hogwarts. "Hello, Rosie!" said Aunt Ginny, "It's been so long since we've seen you. Can I see your wand?" I took it out of my pocket and showed her. "It's Willow and unicorn hair. Eleven inches. Mr. Ollivander told me that it was "nice and springy", but I'm not exactly sure what that means." She laughed and patted my shoulder. "Very nice, Rose."

Mum and Dad hugged me and said goodbye and good luck. Dad joked around and added "good riddance" for good measure and Mum gave him a look. A few feet away, I saw Albus and James getting their goodbyes too. The train whistled again and I was ushered quickly to it. We all hung out the windows to wave goodbye, and then the train rounded the corner and we were off.

I settled myself down into my seat with Albus and James across from me. James looked mournfully at Albus and remarked, "It'll be sad, being the only son in the family. But I'll have to muddle through, I guess." I looked at him. "What do you mean, 'only son'?"

He grinned. "Isn't it obvious? When little Alby becomes a Slytherin, Mum and Dad'll have to disown him."

"Oh come on, James. I really doubt that Albus is Slytherin material," I giggled.

Albus made his most innocent, saddest pouty face. This expression had worked very well in getting him what he wanted quite a few times.

"See? Anyone that good at persuasion must be evil!" James cried in mock exasperation.

The door opened and a tall girl with straight brown hair peeked in. "Do you mind me coming in to sit with you? There's no room anywhere else." We welcomed her in and she sat next to me. "I'm Mandy Carter," she said.

"I'm Rose Weasley and these are my cousins, James and Albus Potter." I gestured to each of them.

She gaped. "You guys are related to Harry Potter? Whoa." Turning to me, she said, "...and you said your last name was Weasley. So your mum and dad are-"

"-Hermione and Ron Weasley," I finished for her, "I want to be just like my Mum. She was top of her year when she was at Hogwarts, and I want to do the same, or maybe better. You know, if I can," I finished lamely, feeling embarrassed at how pompous I must have sounded.

Mandy didn't seem to have noticed, as she happily said, "Have you tried any spells yet? We don't get in trouble if we do magic on the train." I smiled at her, recognizing another overachiever like myself. "I've already read through most of the books and my Mum and Dad let me get some extra spell books while we were at Flourish and Blots. Do you want to see them?"

As she was saying that she would love to, James cut in. "Sorry to disrupt your 'nerd fest', ladies, but the sweets trolley is here."

The four of us rushed over to buy candies from the trolley and I made sure to buy more than I could eat, as it would probably be hard to find candy at Hogwarts. I always like to think ahead and be prepared.

After I had stowed about half my candy in my bag, I got out a spell book entitled, "Fun and Simple Charms: Amuse and Surprise Your Friends!" We set about trying each spell that we were able to do in the small compartment. There was one that made you extremely flexible, which I used on myself. "Bendalus!" It only took a few tries to master, and soon I could sit on my own head like it was nothing at all.

The spell wore off eventually, and Mandy found one that could make your hair grow. She aimed it at James, who was busy reading a magazine. "Folicito!" The spell seemed to malfunction at first, and did nothing. But then James' hair started growing startlingly fast and started to fill up the room. "WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO?" he bellowed.

Albus quickly opened The door and Albus, Mandy, and I stepped out. People stuck their heads out of the compartments to see what was going on as I searched for a countercharm. "Finite incantatem!" I shouted, remembering the spell from one of the school books.

James now sat inside a mountain of black hair that spilled out the door of the compartment. "I hope you know a hairstyling spell," he mumbled.

Hi people! I hope that you like my first chapter. I know it seems like any other story so far, but if you could give it a chance, I'm sure that you'll see how unique my story is. (I hope, at least!) Also, please tell me if I made any grammatical errors. I want to make my story the best it can be.

I came up with the idea for this FanFic while reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the third time. I won't explain how at the moment, because I don't want to give anything away. The main character had to be Rose, of course, because we share a name. 3 3 3 When i first read that epilogue in Deathly Hallows, I was all like, "OMG! I LOVE YOU EVEN MORE NOW, JK ROWLING!"

Thanks for reading! ~RosieMe