After the Epilogue…
"Al!" shouted the auburn-haired girl, "There might be an open compartment somewhere over here. I mean, this train does have fifty-two compartments and—"
She was cut off by her dark haired cousin.
"Thank goodness," sighed Albus—the cousin, "I thought that my legs just died of walking around the train for a whole hour. And Rosie, I already understand—thanks to you—that this train has fifty-two compartments along with the prefects' cabin and the heads' cabin."
"Fine Albus, let's just go—and don't ever call me Rosie!" exclaimed Rose—the auburn-haired girl.
She did end up finding a compartment that was relatively empty. The only reason that the cabin was not completely empty was because of a blonde-haired, pale-skinned boy sitting with talking to a brown-haired, rather tanned boy about what houses they were going to be sorted in.
"I'm not sure." The pale boy was talking. Rose thought that he did look awfully familiar. "I know that I don't want to be in Hufflepuff," the boy continued, "but all the other houses seem okay—well…Gryffindor…" The boy's head tilted. Rose knew that meant he was giving the other boy a pointed look.
"I know!" The darker-skinned boy sounded rather exasperated in Rose's opinion. "Gryffindors are so arrogant and conceited. Plus, who would rather be brawny than brainy?" The pale boy nodded in agreement.
Rose's ears turned a violent shade of scarlet—the classic "Weasley Red." How could that boy say something like that about Gryffindors? Her whole family was Gryffindor! People of all houses were arrogant. From what her dad had told her, Slytherins were the most pompous lot. Plus, her mother was the brightest witch of her age—and she was a Gryffindor.
Rose knew that she should not have been eavesdropping, however, the compartment door was open—and the boys were loud. Suddenly, she realized who the pale boy was—Scorpius Malfoy! Her dad had pointed him out before she got onto the Hogwarts Express. He had said that Scorpius's Slytherin family did not include the best of people. She did not want to judge the boy by his family, so she judged him instead on his dislike of Gryffindors—which was basically her whole family.
"I heard what you said about Gryffindors. What happened to inter-house unity?" Rose said. She was practically fuming (though she did have a rather short temper.)
"Eavesdropping, are we?" taunted the dark-skinned lad.
"No," Rose replied hotly, "I was not. I was looking for a compartment that seemed relatively empty, and that's when I heard your loud voices. The door of your compartment wasn't even closed." She put her hands on her hips.
"She has a point," said Scorpius—the pale one. "Well then, what house do you want to be in?" He smirked. He sounded so cocky that Rose could have slapped him in the face. For some reason, there was something about Scorpius Malfoy that just angered her.
"I want to be in Gryffindor." Rose stressed each syllable of "Gryffindor."
"Want to be more brawny than brainy, eh?" questioned Scorpius.
"No." Rose stated decisively. "As a matter of fact, my mother was in Gryffindor, and she was considered the brightest witch of her age. You have no proof that Gryffindors are not smart."
"Analytical one, are we?" smirked the dark-skinned one. Come to think of it, he did look like a Zabini. In Rose's opinion, he also had the worst come-backs in the history of mankind.
"Yes, I am. I prefer to use logic in all situations, and I like to analyze everything that I can." She glared at the two boys while talking in her most "know-it-all" manner.
Scorpius looked at his fingernails and assumed a very bored expression. "I hear that somebody here—" he coughed "—is a smart ass?" Scorpius delivered his best smirk and looked at Rose. That boy was infuriating! He did not even know me, Rose thought, and was already calling me inappropriate names! Rose hated people calling her a "smart-ass." Her cousin James had done it once, and he was not able to walk for a whole week afterwards. This boy was going to regret it.
Rose sent Scorpius a death-glare. She then punched him in the jaw (quite forcefully) and performed two spells: one that stuck Scorpius's tongue to the roof of his mouth, and another that knocked him violently out of his seat—in addition to paralyzing him. Rose looked at him on the compartment floor, gave him her most angelic smile, and turned away to…run straight into Albus.
"What's with all this commotion?" smiled Albus to his cousin.
Rose blushed slightly—and smirked. "Oh, I was just dealing with a few first-year idiots…" Then her eyes widened. "Oh my goodness, Albus! I hexed somebody—and it worked! I'll be in so much trouble!"
Al did not believe it. Goody-two-shoes Rose would never hex somebody without permission.
Rose knew Albus all too well. "You don't believe me Albus."
"How could I? You're my goody-two-shoes cousin! You never break any rules!"
Rose rolled her eyes and grabbed Albus's wrist. "Come on. I'll show you."
When Albus saw the Malfoy boy laying on the ground and trying to speak, he almost laughed out loud. Apparently, the Zabini boy had gone. He did not even go to a prefect to fix the problem. He had simply cowered off and left his "friend."
"Wow Rose!" exclaimed Albus. "I can't believe it! You've actually broken a rule. Better yet, you must be bloody brilliant! Even some third years—or fifth years even—can't do those spells."
Rose beamed with pride. She then became serious. "Maybe I should ask Teddy or Victoire to come and help me with the counter jinxes. All I did was a rather unorthodox l silencing charm and the full body-binding curse."
…..
"Teddy!" shouted Rose and Albus.
"Hey! How's your ride going little firsties?" was Teddy's reply.
Rose rolled her eyes. "Teddy, we have a problem. I just cursed the Malfoy boy, but I didn't bother to learn the counter jinxes."
"Rosie hexed a Malfoy? Uncle Ron would be so proud of you! Okay, I'll see what I can do. You'd probably have to serve detention with Hagrid though."
Rose nodded earnestly and pulled Teddy and Albus back to the compartment that housed a paralyzed Scorpius Malfoy. Teddy's eyes widened, but he couldn't help but have an urge to laugh. He performed some non-verbal counter jinxes and Malfoy sat up and spluttered.
"Weasley," he threatened, "you will be sorry that you did that to me. I swear that you'll regret it!"
"Ah," sighed Rose, "you noticed the auburn hair. Anyway, I won't end up regretting it that much. Plus, we've established that I am the better wizard." She smirked. Her smirk almost rivaled Scorpius's. With a final toss of her hair, Rose—and her fellow members of the Weasley-Potter-Lupin clan— walked off to their own compartment.
"Say Rosie," started Teddy, "How did you learn how to do those spells?"
Rose's ears turned slightly pink—she normally did not blush "Weasley Red." "Well, my mum taught me the full-body-binding curse, but the other one…" she trailed off, "I may have gotten my hands on Uncle Harry's old potion book…"
"He should have hidden it better," remarked Teddy. "But I do see how you have inherited your mother's brains." He added as an afterthought.
Rose beamed again. Yup, she thought, Malfoy definitely deserved that…