A/N This is my first fanfiction, so I welcome any reviews and comments - positive and negative, but please be polite. I'm very sensitive ;)
This chapter links in with the epilogue from the Deathly Hallows, and some of the dialogue is taken straight from there.
Disclaimer: However much I wish it, I am not J.K. Rowling and do not own Harry Potter or any of her characters, or you know, the rest of it. Just the main plot.
Chapter 1
It was the first of September, and eleven year old Rose Weasley was bouncing around the many rooms of the Burrow, which would have been acceptable (she was going to be starting at Hogwarts, after all) had it not been six o'clock in the morning. The singing made it all the worse for her family.
"I'm going to Hogwaaaarrrtttss, going to Hogwaaaarrrrttttss."
"Yeah, we get it, now shut up." Her younger brother, Hugo, was not impressed. He still had to wait two years before he had the opportunity to loudly wake everyone up in the morning.
"Hugo, apologise. Let her be excited." Hermione, stumbling sleepily from her room, remembered how she had felt the day she had boarded the Hogwarts Express – she had still doubted the reality of it all, being muggle-born, but when she saw that beautiful steam train, she had fallen in love.
Ron, who was definitely not a morning person, stuck his head out of the door and sighed exasperatedly, "The Potters aren't even getting here for another three hours, and the Express doesn't leave for another two after that, so calm down and please, please be quiet. You're going to wake up Grandma and Granddad." Rose, quite small for her age, leaped into his arms and whispered into his ear,
"But I'm going to Hogwarts, Daddy." At that, he chuckled and gave her a squeeze. "Anyway," she continued, "Grandma's already started breakfast!"
The four of them made their way downstairs to see that Molly had indeed started to make breakfast – the scrambled eggs were stirring themselves, the bacon sizzling nicely, and the pancakes flipping of their own accord every thirty seconds or so. Ron slipped into the seat nearest to the food, no longer looking at all tired – food meant almost as much to him as his family did.
They had been at the Burrow for the last few weeks, as they always did when summer was coming to a close. Molly and Arthur were eternally glad to see them, as the Burrow was rather large for only the two of them – it was originally built to accommodate their seven children – and they loved their family to pieces. Regularly, the rest of the family would visit as well, and together they would have huge games of Quidditch in the orchard, with an extra Chaser or two on each team, so that absolutely everybody could join in. The family as a whole was a bit Quidditch-mad. As a result of regular visits, the cousins were very close, especially the younger ones, as they were quite similar in age and interests (Quidditch!).
"So, exactly how many Weasleys have those poor teachers got to put up with this year?" Molly asked Hermione, smiling.
"Hmm, well, there's our Rosie, and Albus, of course, then there's James, Fred, Molly, Victoire, Dominique and Louis," She counted them off on her fingers, "So that makes eight in all. Is that a record?"
"You know, I think it might be!" said Arthur, strolling into the kitchen.
At the sight of her ever-cheerful and enthusiastic Granddad, Rose started to singing again, and, much to her delight, he joined in.
Suddenly, there was a crash from the living room, and an extremely over-excited Albus leapt through the kitchen door, followed by an exhausted looking Harry, both with a light dusting of ash from the fireplace. Flooing wasn't a particularly elegant form of transportation.
"Harry!" Arthur exclaimed, "You're early! Did you bring the new plug for my collection?"
Sighing, Harry nodded, and handed Arthur the plug along with a small rubber duck. The glee on Arthur's face was enough to brighten anyone's day.
"Let me guess, Albus woke you up?" Hermione mumbled, pulling Harry into a tight hug before ruffling Albus's hair. Albus frowned before going to jump around with Rose. Evidently he thought he was too old to have his hair ruffled now that he was going to Hogwarts. Harry rolled his eyes,
"How did you know? Ginny's bringing Lily and James along once they're ready, but Lily's been a little upset this morning."
"Hugo's been a bit of a grump. But then, it is early."
Ron was too busy stuffing his face to contribute to the conversation. He gave the briefest nod in greeting to Harry and grinned broadly at Albus, mouth still full, before returning to his eggs.
After everyone had finished their breakfast, they went upstairs to get ready. Rose was desperate to put her brand new Hogwarts robes on straight away, but Hermione convinced her that it was probably best that the Muggles at Kings Cross didn't witness that, however, Rose insisted that she needed to carry around her Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1 and her mother allowed it.
A couple of hours later, Ginny and Lily stepped out of the fireplace, looking considerably less dishevelled than Harry and Albus had.
"Where's James?" enquired Hermione.
"Still struggling to get out of bed. He's far too much like his uncle." Ginny stared pointedly at Ron, who feigned a look of innocence. "If he doesn't arrive within the next half an hour I'll go back for him."
Thankfully, he did arrive in the next thirty minutes (probably because he didn't want to feel his mother's wrath), with his father's messy hair and a cheeky grin on his face.
"James!" Rose squealed, letting go of Albus to fling her arms around her older cousin's neck, "Hogwarts! Whole year! Me!" She couldn't even get out a complete sentence, she was so excited.
"I know, Rosie!" James laughed, but Rose narrowed her eyes as a new expression spread across his face. He was plotting.
"James Sirius Potter, don't you dare pull any pranks on me!"
"Or what, Rosie Posie?"
"Or I'll-I'll, er..." She could feel her face turning red with anger. "I'll set Victoire on you!"
At that, James allowed himself to look frightened for a brief moment. An angry Victoire was not something he wanted to deal with, no matter how much he loved her. She was terrifying when she was angry. The fact that she spoke in French when she was angry without realising it made it all the worse, because you could never tell exactly what she was threatening. Oh, how the many Weasleys and Potters wished Fleur hadn't passed that habit onto her and her siblings.
"Rosie!" Hermione shouted from somewhere upstairs. "Come and get your things, we have to go in a few minutes!"
"Yes, Mum!" She called back; her smile spreading almost to her ears, and then ran up the stairs.
When she returned, she had put her Hogwarts robes on. Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"Rose, we talked about this, the Muggles-"
"Mum they won't care, plus it's too late now. You know what dad's like in the car. Come on, let's go!"
Soon after, the Weasleys and the Potters were climbing into separate cars to take them to Kings Cross station.
Rose climbed out of the car feeling a little bit queasy, but she knew it would pass. Her dad's dangerous driving could do nothing to dampen her spirits. She was finally going to Hogwarts! Due to the speed at which her father drove (if you could really use that word for the way Ron carried it out), they arrived a considerable length of time before the Potters, and decided it would be better to continue onto Platform 9 ¾ and wait there.
As soon as the Potters arrived, Harry and Ron went to put the children's trunks onto the train, while Lily and Hugo started talking about what houses they were going to be in – never mind that the day of their sorting was two years away. When Ron overheard the situation, he said,
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you, but no pressure."
As Rose's mother began to have what she called a 'stern word' with Ron, Rose began to worry. She hadn't really thought about it before, but now she was terrified of letting her parents down. What if she wasn't in Gryffindor? What if she was in Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff, or, god forbid, Slytherin? She didn't even notice her mum talking to her; however she did catch an expression on Albus's face that told her he had begun to worry about his sorting as well.
However, a moment later, her father distracted her by saying,
"Look who it is."
She looked vaguely in the direction that Ron was to see a small, yet visually striking, family. A father and son with platinum blonde hair who looked shockingly similar, and a dark-haired woman who could only be the boy's mother.
"So that's little Scorpius. Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains. "
At the mention of the boy's name, Rose realised that the family were the notorious Malfoys, spoken about in many of her parents' stories from their Hogwarts days. She was still staring as her mother berated Ron,
"Ron, for heaven's sake. Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
"You're right, sorry," but he turned to Rose and added, "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood."
Rose was still giggling as she climbed onto the train, after saying her goodbyes. She could see Albus having a chat with her Uncle Harry, and Lily bickering with Hugo about something or other. Albus cheered up considerably as his father spoke, and she decided she'd have to ask him about that later.
As Albus climbed in beside her, the whistle blew and the train began to move. The two of them waved happily at their family before the train rounded a corner and they disappeared from sight, and they went to find the compartment that the rest of their family had disappeared into.
