The night was warm, and the stars were bright. Rose Weasley put her eye once again to the lens of her telescope, praying to see something more than a black stretch of sky in front. Absolutely nothing shone through. Rose huffed and smacked her telescope in frustration causing it to swivel. The hand of the boy sitting beside her had caught the scope before Rose was slapped in the face by the whirling machine.

"Calm down," he smiled with amusement. "Now we have to re-center."

Rose sat beside the boy and crossed her arms. "I was a stupid to sign up for Divination, Illya, I can't see a thing, and that's paramount in the subject."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there," Illya replied while peering through the telescope. "I never took Divination. I chose Arithmancy instead."

Illya had been staying with Rose and her parents for the past three days. He lived in Russia, but his parents had an opportunity in Japan that they had to take and wouldn't be back in time to take him to Britain for his boarding school. He and Rose had been writing as friends over the summer, and she invited him to stay with them so they could all go to King's Cross Station when it was time to leave together.

Rose watched him try to find Mars and pulled her wand from behind her ear. She couldn't use magic outside of school and she couldn't understand what made her carry it everywhere she went. Force of habit, she supposed. Rose Weasley was a witch, and a clever one at that. She crawled across her rooftop to peer at her neighbors below. They had no magic powers and were completely oblivious to being in a magical community. Rose just hoped that they weren't going to enjoy the warm night either or else she and Illya might be caught on the roof with a telescope which could raise awkward questions.

"Of all subjects, Rosie, I don't know why you drug me out of bed for Astronomy. You know I'm lousy at it," Illya mumbled.

"I can't even set the thing up; at least you could do that," she shrugged.

Illya straightened up. "Well, I found a blob but haven't the slightest what it is. Do you have your chart?"

Rose pulled a small pamphlet from her bag and sat beside Illya. He scooted closer and crossed his legs.

"We're staring west so I think that's… uh-" He turned a couple of pages from the book in Rose's lap, and his chest grazed her arm.

He was warm and smelled like ground cloves. His wavy blonde hair curled over his forehead, and his eyes were just as sparkling blue as always even despite the low light. Something tingly swept through Rose, and she shook slightly to get it out. No! Not now!

"You cold?" he asked, evidently noticing her little shiver.

"No," she replied, but didn't elaborate.

"Yeah, sorry, hun, I have no idea where we are," he laughed while giving up on the book.

He often called her hun, or sweetheart, or doll, she wondered if this was normal where he came from. She knew that many people further down South use those names. But usually people referred those names to their significant other, or maybe he used them because she was small, like a doll. Now that she thought about it, she did look a bit like a baby doll. Her hair was red and curly, the frizz had softened slightly over the summer and now actually resembled bushy ringlets. Her eyes were round and chocolaty brown, her skin was fair but covered in freckles and she was rather short. Though she was a lot stronger than people would first assume. She had two years of Quidditch muscle (Quidditch was a popular wizarding sport). But her height didn't bother her too badly, she was only thirteen after all. And next to Illya who was sixteen and very tall, also with Quidditch muscle, she would understand being something small referred to as Sweetie and little-bit.

"Max would know exactly where we were," she huffed. Max was her best friend at school and was a rather complicated boy with severe mother issues and incredible healing powers.

"Why don't you ask him?" Illya proposed, laying back with his arms behind his head. He was wearing an orange turtleneck and looked incredibly cozy.

"We leave for school in two days; it's not worth a letter."

"But doesn't he live a few hours away? A reply would be back in time."

"We don't know that! Something could happen to my owl or his! Besides, we're expecting major storms are sweeping through, and I don't want Cromwell taking the trip," she argued.

Cromwell wasn't exactly her owl, which was used to deliver post in the wizarding world. Cromwell was her roommates at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But the owl had bonded with her through both school years and somehow found out where she lived and kept returned with her post and taking the letters she wanted to be sent. He was currently snuggled on her pillow.

Illy sat up and slung his arms over his knees with raised eyebrows. "You just want an excuse to not finish your stargazing for the summer," he said knowingly. He always knew when she was lying which she realized since him being here, she did quite often. He never lied. He was a Hufflepuff at school and known for being honest, and hardworking, and kind, and loyal. Rose was in the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts herself. She was known for being brave, and chivalrous, and headstrong, and competitive. The other two houses were Ravenclaw (known for being wise, creative, and original) and Slytherin which houses a couple of her other really good friends. Slytherin was known for being cunning, and sly, and resourceful.

"Is that so wrong?" Rose asked, flopping back on her shingled roof.

"No," Illya replied. "No one would really know if you did all twelve hours. I mean, I did them each year, but for you, no one will know."

Rose sat back up and grinned. "Are you telling me to deceive the Professors?"

"It wouldn't matter if I did; you were going to do it anyway."

"Sometimes I feel as though you can read my mind," she said.

"I've been practicing on becoming a legilimens," he replied. Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't intend to use it on you."

Rose pulled her knees to her chest and stared up at the sky; she could see nothing but speckled blobs. She glanced over at Illya who was watching his shoelaces it seemed. Over the past few days, he hadn't been as comfortable or confident as Rose knew him to be. He could play it cool but it was just that, he was playing. She felt similar. She had always been able to be completely herself in front of Max, or her friend, Scorpius, or her cousin, Albus, but around Illya, there was a hand clenching her stomach. She would now admit, not out loud, that she had previously been guilty of liking this Hufflepuff in her first year when she had snuck to the local all magic town, Hogsmeade, and pretended to be a girl named Aubrey. She had spent all Halloween with him but had run away when reaching castle like Cinderella. She had removed her mask and Aubrey hadn't returned since. Illya had unfortunately taken quite a liking to this fake Rose and seemed to have feelings for her. Rose hadn't dared tell him that Aubrey had actually been her. She was afraid he would lash out though he had never done before. Especially after he had been appointed Hufflepuff prefect, perhaps he would snitch. But in any case, she had forgotten about Aubrey though she doubted he had.

Rose was starting to think that having him over wasn't such a good idea. He was an excellent house guest and helped her mother, Hermione, with preparing meals and always washed the dishes after. He made his bed in Hugo's room every morning and always put the toilet seat down, something her dad hadn't ever taken the habit of doing. But, since he's been here, unfortunate but familiar feelings had arisen. She denied it but couldn't mistake that she was redeveloping her old crush.

This is stupid, Rose. She thought as she placed her head in her hands. He's, like, three years older than me and will graduate next year. Ugh, this was a terrible idea, what Max would think.

What Max would think because she hadn't dared tell him that Illya was staying over. They wrote every to every other day, but he didn't seem to like Illya though she couldn't imagine why he hadn't made any enemies and was relatively respected wherever he went. Albus had visited from a couple of miles down throughout the summer and had greeted Illya. Scorpius thought nothing of it, but Olivia, a Slytherin and Rose's only girl friend, had insisted on it being a terrible thing unless she wanted to develop feelings for the Hufflepuff.

"We should head in."

"What?" Rose was snapped out of thought as Illya stood and took her hands.

"It's nearly one in the morning, and we're done stargazing, you should be getting to bed." He took her by the arms and carefully lowered her to her window ledge. They had climbed to the roof rather than flown on brooms because Illya had climbed out before Rose could fetch the brooms. He was muggle born and tried not to use magic when it was unnecessary; he insisted that the easy way isn't always best because you won't appreciate magic when you're always using it.

Rose landed on her window seal and climbed onto her bed. Illya lowered the telescope and hoisted himself down. He landed on the window ledge but didn't step onto her bed. He jumped over and immediately backed through her bedroom door.

"Goodnight," he smiled before nodding and closing the door behind him.

Unlike Max, Scor, and Albus when they all visited, Illya hadn't spent any time in her room. In fact, the only time he was in there was in the brief moments he used the window to climb onto the roof. He thought that it was inappropriate to be alone with a girl in her bedroom and never closed the door while they were together. He was something from the seventeenth century.

Rose sat at her writing desk and filled her quill of blue ink. She took a bit of parchment from the stack and began writing.

Dear Max,

I didn't see you at Diagon Alley yesterday. Is everything alright? I wrote for you to come. Anyway, Scorpius and Olivia were there. Poor Scor was so sore; Olly drug him in a sprint all over the alley. I hope to hear from you before the train, if not, I suppose I'll see you at King's Cross on 1 September. By the way, the three blobs clumped together in the West, what are those stars called?

-Rosebud.

Rose gingerly tapped the brown barn owl on her pillow to stir him awake.

"Cromwell, I've got a letter for you," she whispered.

The owl bounded up enthusiastically and hopped all over her mattress like a buoyant child, flapping his wings and hooting.

"Stay still," she ordered.

The owl froze and stuck out its leg so she could tie the letter to it. Rose scratched his head and sent him through the window where he squealed and spun in the air; he acted as though the task of delivering her mail was an honor.

Rose blew out her candle and climbed into her bed to pulled the sheets over her shoulders, she had already been in her pajamas while she and Illya tried to study. She shouldn't have expected to see anything in the sky. She could only see the stars when she was with Max. She laid in bed, rolling about for two and a half hours straight. She had been having trouble sleeping since the start of summer. It was such a helpless feeling. Lying awake with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling illuminated by moonlight. She had hung school notes over her bed so in these hours of nothing she would at least be able to study. But, these notes caused her to have dreams that she was studying which was actually quite convenient. She would wake and have them memorized. Her mother suggested that the inability to sleep may be a cause of a heavy conscience. She had denied this to her mother but didn't roll it out as not being an option. She and her friends had practically kidnapped a mermaid last year and hid her in the secrets gardens behind a waterfall. It was quite a long story but the merpeople of the lake were furious though not knowing who was responsible. They had actually organized for a search to be made of the school as though one of the students were hiding the mermaid in their bathroom sink.

Though they had actually, through a peculiar set of events, taken the mermaid from the lake and wheelbarrowed her across grounds pass Filtch the caretaker and Hagrid the grounds keeper to the gardens pass all of the house elves to hide her behind a waterfall in the spring season of the gardens to be tended to by Yoman, their favorite house elf. Albus had befriended this mermaid through his dormitory window and he and Scorpius had begun sneaking out every night and every morning to the lake so they could teach her English. They had given her the name Stella, because her birth name, Heranem, meant dirt. Max, Rose, and Olivia had later learned about her and had taken apart of the biggest and most dangerous feat in transfiguration history. They had agreed in giving Stella what she so desired, getting out of the lake and away from her people, in the only way they could think best to do it. They had begun trying to figure out how to turn her human. This was impossible thus said by many famous scholars, but the children knew otherwise. They had learned that anything was possible as long as you have enough nerve. Their strides were slow and they knew that this task would take nearly their entire school years. But one thing was discovered at the end of the previous year. A book was found, a book belonging to the Marauders, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and the newly discovered, Ezekiel Dalbert. In this book was the recorded steps one needed to become an Animagus as four out of the five were. This book would have been the answer to their task if James Potter the second, Rose's cousin, and his friend Tyler found it as they were both trying to become illegal animagi. But for the five who did find it, there was still a significant amount of riddling to do as they were learning to do reverse animagi that they called Sugamina. They had left the book with Albus Potter because he was more crazed about this mission than any of the rest. He had made major breakthroughs and his room looked similar to a detective spider wed of red yarn connecting the steps to plants or names or people that could be referenced as reverse. Nobody was allowed in unless they were a member of 'Sugar' which was what the group called themselves. Albus had even booby trapped his room for when James came snooping as they all knew he would.

Stella and Albus had been in contact over the summer by means of magic hand mirrors which worked like video call. They had been conversing what they had learned or riddled out. It was incredible that the mirrors appeared to be waterproof. This way, Stella would speak to Albus underwater so her voice was angelic and sweet. Above, she sounded more like a parrot because her throat wasn't equipped with the parts to make certain sounds. Rose had been studying for Sugamina too and worked as hard as Scor, Max, and Olivia were at their homes. The issue was, each of their brains ran on different tracks, which meant that if they were each given the same phrase, they would all come back with a different meaning behind it; they would each have deciphered it differently. This may not be a bad thing as they had more options and more views, but they often broke into educated and civil arguments about why their perspective made the most sense.

Rose finally closed her eyes and shot them open again within the next few seconds, though the sun was now shining through the window to warm her legs and the weight of her eyelids suggested that she had indeed fallen asleep through the night though it felt like fifteen seconds. There was a soft knocking on her door. Rose quickly sat up and finger combed her hair before rubbing any crumbs from the corners of her eyes. She knew who was behind her door. If it were her brother, Hugo, he would have just-

BANG!

Her door flew open to make the dent in the wall where the doorknob rested give way to a small opening.

"Wake up, Rosie!" Hugo called, Illya still had his hand raised at the door and looked shocked by Hugo's demeanor. Her brother was twelve and now entering his second year at Hogwarts. He had red hair which was a mound of neat curls atop his head and his freckles were just across his nose. He was already taller than Rose and thought by the other girls at school to be incredibly cool. "Illya's been knocking for three minutes straight, I told him to come right it."

"I'm not allowed into a girl's room unless given permission," said Illya. "I just wanted to give you your owl, Rose. It came through our window because it couldn't get through yours."

Illya released Cromwell who had been snuggled cozily in his arms and hopped on her bed with a letter tied around his leg. Illya nodded curtly and left the doorway. Hugo was standing in her room with his arms crossed and jabbed his thumb in Illya's direction.

"Is he for real?" Hugo mouthed.

Rose smiled. "Yeah, he is." Hugo left, and Rose took the letter from Cromwell before gently patting his head. She opened it to see Max's cat scratch handwriting. His writing looked like he lifted the quill after each individual stroke.

Dear Rosie,

It read.

Yeah, I couldn't come to Diagon Alley the other day, things have been a little difficult here, with dad and all. I wish I could have come; it sounded like you guys had fun. But I'll see you tomorrow at King's Cross. The information you need is on the back.

The following page consisted of a map and coordinates with Max's handwriting labeling each constellation and star. Her question was answered along with her entire summers worth of Astronomy homework on just that back page.