Rose spent the rest of the day on her living room sofa finishing her Astronomy homework. She used Max's notes he sent and practically quoted word for word onto her parchment, with his permission, of course. Illya looked over her summer History of Magic homework to be sure the information was correct. To her surprise, Illya enjoyed the subject, unlike anyone she knew. He corrected most of the spelling that she could never get right.

Hugo had already finished his summer work not having Sugamina or any extracurricular work to occupy his time or distract him. In fact, he finished his work in the first three weeks so to have the rest of the summer off. Hugo was like that.

"It's your last day," said Rose over her star chart without looking up.

"Yeah," Illya replied with a slight tone of sadness.

"You know what that means?"

"What?"

"Dads gonna drag you out to play Quidditch," she replied.

"Well if I'm being drug out then I'm taking you with me," he grinned.

"No, you won't! I just showered," she huffed.

"Really? I think you missed a spot just-" he touched the bottom of her chin causing Rose to squeal and jerk away. This surprised Illya. He smirked. "Rose Weasley, are you ticklish?"

"No!" she lied in a high pitch voice.

"So, it doesn't tickle when I do this?" he poked her in the ribs.

Rose screamed and ultimately gave herself away as Illya was in total control, not being ticklish himself. Though she screamed and whaled, she didn't tell him to stop. The closer he got, the more pungent his smell of cloves and snow was. To put it simply, he smelled of Christmas, and when he was around, Rose felt full of warmth and wanted to begin singing carols and go Christmas shopping.

"Stop!" she finally laughed. He immediately backed away.

She shook her head, red-faced, at him and huffed a smile. She had been right. Her father, Ron, did drag Illya out and with an imploring look at Rose, she joined. Playing Quidditch with her dad just before a Hogwarts term was now a tradition. The wind swept through her hair and across her face as she yelled when she hit a bludger. She did this because the extra energy released when shouting forced more momentum into her swing. She played in the position of beater on her Quidditch team at Hogwarts. This meant it was her and her partner, Enoc Hubert's, job to hit these rock-like balls away from their teammates and at the opposing team's players while the three chasers tried to get a red leather ball called the quaffle into one of the three fifty foot high goal hoops on either end of the pitch. The Keeper guarded the goal hoops and the game continued until the Seeker caught a tiny gold ball called the snitch ending the game and earning their team one-hundred and fifty points. Though, since this was just recreational in her back yard, Rose both blocked bludgers and played chaser while keeping a lookout for the snitch. Hugo had been pulled out to play Keeper on one end while Ron played on the other. Illya and Rose were competing and played nearly all positions.

Rose, Ron, Hugo, and Illya all sped to the ground when Hermione called everyone for dinner. Illya touched down, tassel-haired and red-faced and was the only one to place his borrowed broom back inside of the shed. Hermione had made Illya's favorite meal, it being his last with them. It had only been a week, but all of Rose's family had taken quite a liking the Russian. They all feasted on roast beast and potatoes while Hugo tried to explain why it was alright that he tore the innards from all of their clocks to see how they worked. Rose noticed that Illya was eating with his left hand though dominantly using his right. She then felt warmth against her left hand resting neatly on the table and glanced across the red table cloth to see the back of Illya's hand touching ever so gently against hers. She gasped suddenly as something tightened in her chest and she felt the atmosphere become hot.

Stop it, Rose, you're stupid! She repeated to herself as she had been doing all week.

She shoveled food into her mouth to keep from saying anything foolish. Illya ate with his left hand throughout dinner, and he didn't move his right.

Rose had finished packing for school with all her new school books, cauldron, viles, telescope, and broomstick. It was after she dressed into her pajamas and was trying desperately to pull the brush from her hair that a soft knock pounded on the bedroom door.

"Come in," she announced, her eyes now watering with the effort and pain of the brush now completely stuck in her hair.

Illya opened her door and smiled slightly. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. Why?" she grunted testily and with much frustration.

"Your eyes are watering," he replied. "Here, let me." He entered the room, leaving the door wide open, to gently take her hands away so he could get to the brush.

"This is embarrassing," Rose could have sworn she said to herself, but Illya shook his head.

"I have a sister," he said. "Lola's always doing this. Yours isn't the first brush that I've had to unearth." He placed her hairbrush on the desk where she was sitting. Lola had stayed with her friend over the summer in Hogsmeade, so getting her to school was not a problem.

"Thanks," she mumbled, red-faced. "What did you come in here for?"

"Right," he remembered. "Look, I just wanted to say thank you for inviting me to stay this past week. I don't know what we would have done. We're a little short on funds so I couldn't have rented a room, and my friends- well, thanks."

"We've enjoyed having you," Rose smiled. "I'm disappointed it's over."

"Yeah, but we'll still hang out. At school, we're living in the same building; there's no reason for goodbyes."

Rose didn't think this likely. They were in separate classes, separate grades, and their subjects ran at difficult times to even see each other down corridors. After classes would be hard to do much of anything with Sugamina. Perhaps at meal times. But for Rose, this was goodbye.

Rose nodded anyway and jumped with the flash of lighting outside her window and a light sprinkle began hitting the roof above.

Illya took her hands gently and smiled, then nodded, and let go before leaving the room. Rose watched him turn the corner before flopping onto her bed with a muffled but exasperated growl. She was really going to miss him at school. Thunder crashed outside and the rest of the night she spent awake while listening to the now extremely heavy fall of rain above. The sky opened and allowed the heavens to cry. Rose didn't sleep for hours. She had the rain to occupy her ears, and Illya to occupy her mind. The boy made her feel special, and beautiful, and as though she were the only person he could see. She wanted to reject the feeling as it was inconvenient for her everyday demeanor and focus. She wanted to deny that she liked him, but then he would smile at her and she would melt.

Alexis would get a kick out of this. Rose thought before finally turning over and dozing off.

Rose had thought that everything was in order for the trip to King's Cross Station, but she had apparently forgotten to do seventy percent of her preparations. Hermione had to help find all of Rose's socks, a few spare quills hiding under the rug, and Rose was on her hands and knees to locate her hair pins which were buried in the shag carpet. Hugo lounged on the sofa eating jam toast and watching having forgotten nothing himself. Illya put away the jams and butter to prevent pests from getting into them whilst they were gone. Rose had been so busy and distraught with all the preparations that she was surprised when she opened the front door with her trunk to find rain pelting from the sky and flooding the driveway in heavy currents.

It was a very soaked family that drove silently through the storm to make it to the station by eleven o'clock. Rose sincerely wanted to use her wand to conjure an umbrella while everyone heaved their trunk through the parking lot of King's Cross, but as they were still the muggle world, she was forbidden, not to mention she still couldn't do magic outside of school. Puddles of water followed them as they squeaked across the marble floors. Hugo was as dry as a bone from the waist up. He removed his umbrella hat gleefully and tucked it under his arms with only damp jeans.

"Illya, you go first," Hermione proposed when stopping before a solid brick wall before platform nine and platform ten while ringing great showers of water from her frizzy hair.

Illya nodded and sprinted toward the brick wall but vanished directly after arriving at it. This was how Wizards entered their platform for the Hogwarts train. They ran at the brick wall and straight through it. If done correctly, the muggles bustling about in suits and ties on either side would never notice. Though, they noticed very little anyway; they were all too focused on electronic devices to pay attention to the outside world. Rose wasn't watching as Hugo ran at the wall a minute after; she had other things on her mind and was staring at her shoes as she thought.

How was she going to explain this to Max? She knew that he didn't like Illya and she knew how protective he was over her as a friend, what excuse would she use to tell him why she had invited Illya in the first place? She hadn't seen Max all summer anyway. But, then, why should she care what he thinks? He's not her father nor is he her boyfriend, why was she so nervous about telling him; she shouldn't be. And what reason did he have not to like Illya? He was perfect! No, she wouldn't stress, Max was just her friend. Though she wouldn't dare tell him what tingly hot feeling swept through her every time Illya was around.

"Rose!"

Rose blinked out of thought and looked away from the domed ceiling drenched in water to see her mother pulling her sleeve.

"Hurry. Go now!"

Rose ran and felt a swooping sensation through her, like a strong wind that didn't force you. She emerged a second later on platform nine and three-quarters. All around were teenagers and children wearing black robes with their house colored ties and crests. There was a lot a chatter and screeching from the owls, squeaking from the rats, and meowing from the cats. Rose wished she had a pet. Steam puffed from a scarlet engine waiting for its passengers. Many children were already hanging out of the train windows to wave at parents and friends.

Rose looked around; she couldn't find Illya anywhere. Hermione placed a hand on Rose's shoulder and directed her onward saying, "Let's find your brother."

It didn't take more than Hermione removing her hand from Rose's shoulder to shake an old friend's that caused mother and daughter to be separated. By this time, Rose recognized nearly every student on the platform. She had an excellent memory when seeing faces but she could never remember their names nor where she knew them from. It was their smell that Rose remembered most of all. If she could pin a name to a smell, she would remember. She saw Louis Weasley with Dominique. They were easy to spot. Louis was a very handsome blond boy who was flashing pictures of everything with the camera around his neck. Dominique was a beautiful auburn haired girl in her sixth year at Hogwarts. These were some of Rose's many cousins. Her Uncle Bill, and Aunt Flur, were hugging their two children while Victoire, their oldest daughter who had already graduated from Hogwarts with her boyfriend, Teddy, bid her siblings goodbye as they hopped onto the train which whistled loudly to announce five minutes until eleven.

Rose's other uncle, George, watched while his wife, Angelina, warned her two troublesome children, Fred and Roxanne, not to get into trouble this year.

Any other family members were obscured from view by the thick steam on the engine. Rose walked across the platform with her parents, keeping an eye peeled for her best friends in the world, and Illya. However, she saw none of them. What she did see was a small first year girl, clinging onto her father's robes and bawling about not wanting to go. A teenage muggle boy who was the apparent brother of a witch or wizard sibling, was entertaining a large group of witches about how he broke his leg with a jackhammer. There was a beautiful girl with hazel eyes sitting alone in a corner and looking around as if for someone. She caught Rose's eye and smiled politely. Something red flashed by and Rose was distracted as a young girl danced through the crowd happily.

"Lily!" Rose shouted.

Lily stopped and turned to Rose, then smiled and ran forward. Lily was Rose's uncle Harry Potter's only daughter and was to be starting at Hogwarts for the first time this year. Rose hugged Lily tightly and beamed at the girl who looked very similar to herself.

"Are you excited?" Rose asked.

"Beyond belief!" Lily squealed.

"Are you nervous about the sorting?"

"No," Lily surprised Rose by saying carelessly.

"Really? That's very admirable. Why not?"

"Because the sorting hat will put me where I'll do best and if I don't try to meddle, I'll be put there, and wherever I'm put, I'll do well. So, I'm not worried," Lily said promptly.

The sorting was done for all first years by simply wearing an ancient wizard's hat that had a mind of its own and could peer into your subconscious to decide whether you're brave, cunning, wise, or kind. Lily's reply sparked at Rose's memory and she couldn't remember where she had heard that before.

"Who told you that, Lily?" Rose asked.

Lily pointed to a tall boy with white blond hair combed neatly to the side. He had pale skin, steel blue eyes, a slightly pointed chin, his hands in his pockets, and was watching them warmly with an expression of happiness on his face.

"Scor!" Rose called and threw herself into the boy's arms.

Scorpius was one of her best friends and a Slytherin. He seemed to have grown another fair few inches taller and was just as lanky as ever.

"I see you've been giving Lily some advice," said Rose, trying to ignore how short she felt beside him.

"I might have calmed her nerves a bit," he shrugged.

"Wait!" Rose looked around quickly. Lily was here, and Scorpius was near which meant- "Al!" Rose called and sprang at her cousin.

He was taken by surprise and was knocked off balance as Rose gripped him tightly around the waist. He didn't live far from her and he had visited a few times over summer, but since the fiasco last semester, Albus had become so much more precious to her. Last semester he had gotten into a fight with a merman and came off worse. He had been sliced by the man's spear which was coated in poison. It was this poison that caused Albus to be unconscious and closer to death than in a coma for the next four and half months. He had missed the entire second semester and his friends had to take up Sugamina without their leader. He had been so busy over the summer as he was forced to catch up on the school he missed and take the exams at home with his godfather and Hogwarts Herbology Professor, Neville Longbottom to oversee it.

Albus Potter looked very similar to his father and grandfather before him. He had tasseled black hair and bright green eyes behind square glasses. He was thin and only slightly taller than Rose. But unlike his father and Grandfather before him, he had been sorted into Slytherin house. He was wearing his Slytherin robes and had a guitar case fastened on his back that he hadn't gone anywhere without since the start of the summer Holidays where it was gifted to him by Uncle Bill as a get well soon present.

"You act like you haven't seen me in ages," said Al through a face-full of red hair.

"I know, where's Max?" Rose peered around. "I haven't seen him all summer, and I want to meet his parents!"

"No you don't," said Scorpius earnestly. "I met them last year. They're not a friendly bunch."

"Well," Rose thought. "If his father raised someone like Max, Clent can't be all bad."

"I think Max raised himself," came a confident voice from behind Rose.

Everyone spun to see Olivia Merik. She had long black hair and bright blue eyes. She was the only female of her quince and was the only Slytherin of her three Gryffindor brothers; the last was a squib. Olivia hugged Rose, then Al, then Scorpius. After hugging Scor, she backed away coughing and holding her nose.

"What?" Scor asked, sniffing himself.

"Do you bathe in that cologne, Hyperion?" she asked him, making a much bigger deal of it than it was.

The train whistled again to announce take off.

"Shoot!" called Olivia. "I can't miss the train!" She took Scorpius by the hand and sprinted toward the engine.

"Rose, come on!" called Albus, taking off as well, but Rose had caught sight of little Ava.

"Just a minute. I'll catch you later!" Rose called back.

"Don't miss the train!" Al called turned back toward the engine and running again. "We're a little short on flying cars!"

Rose shoved through the crowd as quick as she could. Ava was Neville and Hannah Longbottom's first child. The little girl was just over a year old and had Neville wrapped around her tiny finger. Rose slid to a stop in front of her family friend and their child.

"Goodbye, Ava!" Rose gasped, taking the girl from Hannah to be cradled in her arms. Ava had her father's dark hair but her mother's blue eyes. She was wearing a yellow bonnet and white dress small enough to fit Rose's old baby dolls.

"Rose, you're going to be late!" Hannah called over the crowds.

"Next time I see her, she'll be twice this size," said Rose, handing Ava back to her mother. She had been trusted to babysit the child a couple of times and loved every non-crying moment she had.

"Rose, the train!" Neville raised his voice and spun Rose around.

Another whistle blew, and the train gave a lurch and began puffing away.

"No!" Rose cried and burst toward the tracks.

The engine was gaining speed while Rose ran along the side. All of the doors had been shut, and there was no way she could reopen one.

I can't miss the train! I just can't! She thought to herself.

Lorcan, Lysander, and Lily were all being sorted this year, and she couldn't miss it!

Rose banged on the side of the train as though it would make much of a difference. She heard a few familiar voices call her name as she ran, but she didn't look. Many students were hanging from their windows to watch her as she was growing closer to the end of her tracks and the wall.

Rose stumbled to a stop to grab her hair with tears welling in her eyes.

"Rose!" came a loud call.

Illya was hanging from his window with many friends by his side.

"Take my hand!" he called.

She took off again and tried to grab ahold of his and his friend's outstretched hands. So close she was to gripping his palm, but she slipped as Illya, and his friends fell back into their window to avoid getting their arms broken off by the tunnel wall they had just disappeared into.

Something else had gripped her arms before they fell back at her side. These hands were rough unlike Illya's. They gripped her wrist tightly and heaved her off her feet where she was yanked through the open window of the train. Rose felt her shoes hit the stone tunnel walls as she fell through the window into the train and onto her rescuer. Illya and his gang sprinted pass the compartment she was in, looking highly distressed.

"What in the world were you thinking? You could have missed the train! Why did you have to say goodbye to that baby? Look at you. Rose, your hair!" The boy who had caught her took her now very wind-swept hair in his hands and tied it into a knot on the back of her head. She didn't have to see the boy's face to know who it was. His hands took her by the arms and spun her around. Max shook his head at her and took Rose in his arms which was very uncommon as he rarely hugged.

Max was hardly recognizable. His hair was raven black rather than the indigo he regularly sported. He was taller, and his chest had grown. Max still had a strong chin and small freckles across his nose, but his eyes were a hazleish-yellow rather than purple. He could change certain aspects of his appearance due to being a metamorphmagus, but he had changed by time, not by magic. Rose gripped him tightly around the waist and hugged him.

He forced her into the bench opposite and waited for what she couldn't figure out.

"What?" she gasped.

"Catch your breath," he replied patiently.

She hadn't realized how much she was panting and did pause to take a steadying breath. Max watched her with his head on his elbows.

"Are you alright?" he asked unexpectedly with a quizzical look.

"Besides jumping into a moving train, yeah, I'm fine," she replied.

"No, I mean, you have something on your mind," he emphasized.

This wasn't the first time he gave Rose the impression that he could read her emotions. Did she wear her feelings on her sleeve so much?

Before she could respond, the compartment door was flung open, and Illya with his gang swung through. Illya immediately pulled Rose from her chair and hugged her.