Rose Weasley could barely contain her excitement.
It was finally Hogsmeade day! It was the first Saturday of her third year at Hogwarts, and at long last, she could take part in the exciting Hogsmeade adventures her cousins had been telling her about for as long as she could remember.

She woke up unusually early, and on any other day, she would've been quite disgruntled (she was NOT a morning person), but not today! She was wide-awake, chirpy, and ready to go just as the sun rose in the distance. Even though she had about an hour and a half before it was time to leave, Rose made her way down to the Gryffindor common room, which was considerably full, with all her fellow Gryffindors milling about. As Rose looked around for her mates, she felt a small hand clasp hers and she looked down to see the solemn faces of her brother Hugo and cousin Lily.
"What are you lot doing up so early?" she asked the first-years.
"We came to see you off," replied her brother, with a rather glum expression on his face. Rose smiled; she was familiar with the longing they were feeling, "Don't give me those long faces! And don't worry, you'll be joining us at Hogsmeade in no time at all." she assured them. "Two more years!" groaned Lily, still sulking.
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around Lily and threw her up into the air. Lily squealed as she fell into the arms of her brother, James Potter. "Now don't be such a downer, Lil!" said James as he set her down. "I promise I'll get you a whole bag of sweets from Honeydukes," he said with a grin. "As will I for Hugo," Rose piped in.
James reached over and ruffled Rose's hair "Hullo, Red. All set for your first mad day at Hogsmeade?" he asked. Rose suppressed an eye-roll at the nick-name and said, "As ready as I'll ever be. We should probably head down to the Great Hall though; I reckon Al will be waiting for us." James nodded, and with a final wave to their siblings, the pair left the common room.

Breakfast was in full swing by the time they reached the Great Hall. Rose scanned the crowd and immediately spotted those familiar bright green eyes belonging to her best mate, Albus Potter, who also happened to be her cousin (but then again, half of the student population at Hogwarts was related to her).
He grinned, left his place at the Slytherin table and made his way over to them. Albus and James exchanged their customary brotherly handshake (one that was much too complex for Rose to ever attempt) and then James left to join his mates, trailed by his ever-present group of admirers.

Rose flashed Albus a cheeky smile and said, "You ready to wreak havoc in Hogsmeade with your partner in crime?" Albus responded with a grin bursting with equal excitement. He saluted her and said, "You know it."
He joined Rose at the Gryffindor table as she greeted her mates Katie and Joanne, and sat down to eat breakfast. The four of them chatted on and on about their plans for the day and they even allotted a specific amount of time to be spent in each shop, to make sure they didn't miss out on anything. Rose was so engrossed in the conversation that she didn't notice a shadow fall over her, drawing closer and closer.

It was only when someone behind her cleared his throat rather loudly, that she gave a startled jump and twisted around in her seat. Standing there, with his hands shoved in his pockets, a small smile playing across his lips, and looking rather intently at her, was Scorpius Malfoy. "Morning, Rosie." he said softly, his smile growing wider as he continued to regard her with his blue eyes. Rose let out a strangled squeak and immediately started blushing fiercely, the flaming colour that spread across her cheeks all the more prominent because of her cursed red hair.

Before this summer, Rose had never particularly liked Scorpius. She'd talked to him occasionally, on account of him being Al's best mate, but their conversations had been polite at best. Rose was known for getting into the most ridiculous arguments with him. But since he'd stayed with the Potters this summer, Rose had spent quite a lot of time with him. She'd discovered that he was really quite charming and funny- and of course, it didn't hurt that for a thirteen year-old, he was quite a dashing lad. Rose tried her best to resist, (after all, he was a Malfoy) but it was useless. She had begun to fancy Scorpius Malfoy. However, she fairly sure that it wouldn't end well. Merlin knows her father had warned her about him on her very first day at Hogwarts; so he wouldn't be too pleased about this. Rose was clueless about what to do with this whole fancying business, so she decided to hope to Merlin that this was just a school-girl crush that would go away if she ignored it for long enough. Rose sighed to herself as she regained her composure and glanced up once again at the object (or rather person?) of her affections. Albus, completely oblivious to the inner turmoil in his cousin's mind, greeted his mate with a thump on the back. He turned back to Rose and her mates, saying "Well ladies, it looks like we're all here, so let the fun begin!"

They all made their way to the front entrance, through the buzzing groups of students. Rose spotted her poor cousin Molly, trying to do her prefect duties and get everyone in order, but it seemed pointless. Once they reached the entrance, Rose momentarily forgot about her love life (or lack thereof) as the long line of carriages waiting to take them to Hogsmeade came into view. They waited patiently for their turn, and then the five of them piled into a carriage and set off to Hogsmeade. The ride was quite enjoyable, if not a tiny bit awkward for Rose who was all-too-aware of Scorpius' body squished up against her, and unable to concentrate on the amicable chatter carrying on around her. They finally arrived at their destination and Scorpius, ever the gentleman, insisted on helping the girls down. The last one on the carriage, Rose clasped Scorpius' hand and as she was stepping down, she made the catastrophic error of looking up into his piercing blue eyes. In that moment, time seemed to stop, her breath caught, and she lost every coherent thought in her mind as she was utterly hypnotized by his gaze. So of course, after what seemed like ages, this magical moment had to be ruined when Rose missed her step and promptly crashed into Scorpius, sending the two of them toppling to the ground. If it wasn't for him, Rose probably would've fallen flat on her face or cracked her skull, but luckily (or unluckily for him), Scorpius managed to bear the brunt of the fall and provided a softer landing for her. And as much as Rose would have liked to enjoy lying on top of Scorpius a little while longer, the loud, maniacal cackling coming from Albus Potter (supposedly her best mate) snapped her out of her daze. She felt her face heat up as she picked herself up, muttered a quick apology to Scorpius, unable to look him in the eye (we all know how how well that turned out the first time) and proceeded to sock Albus in the arm. "Ow!" he yelled, though there was still laughter dancing in his eyes. "What was that for?!" he asked, massaging his arm.

"That was NOT funny!" snapped Rose (as you can see, quick tempers and unnecessary violence are also other traits of females cursed with red hair). "You could at least pretend to care about my well-being, you know?" she ranted on.
"I- okay fine I'm sorry! But you've got to admit, that was a classic clumsy-Rose move." said Albus with a grin, and this earned him another hard punch in the arm.

"Ow! Will you stop hitting me?!"

Rose scowled and turned away from her clearly useless mate and looked at Joanne and Katie, who, from the concerned looks on their faces, actually cared. Although from the suggestive curve of Katie's brow and Joanne's knowing look, Rose knew they had also seen the tension between her and Scorpius, and would be ready to interrogate her about him later when they reach their dormitory.

"You alright there, Rosie?" inquired a familiar voice behind her. Suddenly, her temper getting the better of her (again), Rose whipped around to glare at the genuinely worried expression on Scorpius' devastatingly handsome face and yelled "My name is ROSE!"
Immediately, Rose mentally chastised herself for her outburst, as she knew that her anger was completely unnecessary and she didn't need to take it out on poor Scorpius. The curse of the short-tempered red-heads strikes again.

Rose was contemplating apologising to Scorpius (yet again), when he let out an amused chuckle. "Now what's got your knickers in a twist, Rosie?" he said with a sly grin, intentionally pronouncing the last word slowly and with emphasis.

Rose's scowl deepened. She'd actually considered apologising to this prat? She was clearly out of her mind.
Before Rose could reply with a retort that she was sure would have cleverly put Scorpius in his place, Albus stepped between them. He slung his arms around the two of them and said, "Come now, we can't have the two of you bickering while the rest of us are trying to enjoy our VERY FIRST OUTING AT HOGSMEADE!" he yelled the last few words as he steered the two of them around to face the glorious and wonderful sight before them. All traces of annoyance and anger vanished from Rose as she greedily took it all in. This was it. Hogsmeade.
Finally.

Rose saw the streets lined with shops and crowded with her fellow Hogwarts students, who were marvelling at shop fronts, or bickering over purchases, or simply just fooling around with their mates.

Rose looked around at her own mates. She was pretty sure that she was wearing the same amazed expression on her face as they were.

Scorpius, the first to recover, caught her glancing at him and grinned devilishly. He leaned over and said "All right Weasley, what say you and I call it a truce? As Al pointed out, we can't waste this lovely day arguing about some silly old nickname, can we?"

Rose sighed. Stupid Malfoy and his stupid sensible reasoning.

"Fine" she huffed at him and turned back to gaze at the endless stream of students on the streets before them.

"All right then!" said Albus brightly; "Hogsmeade, here we come!"

**
Author's Note: So I've started working on Chapter 2, but I haven't decided if I'm going to post more so I would really appreciate your reviews! Hope you liked it!