For Rose, the next two weeks were the slowest of her life, even visiting Diagon Alley to buy all the stuff she would need for school was hardly exciting enough to placate her. She paced around the house so much that her Ron had to threaten to ship her away to the Muggles to make her stop. But finally, after eleven years of waiting, it was time to make the trip to King's Cross.
That trip was, in her parents' minds, the worst car ride of their lives. Ron, who had only just passed his Muggle driving test was jumpy, Hugo was whining because he couldn't go with his older sister, and Hermione was practically wringing her hands she was so worried that they had forgotten something. Once they had reached the train station Hermione sent Rose off immediately to find a compartment in which to sit. She left at a near run, Hugo following like a lost puppy.
After dropping her drunk off Rose shooed her brother out of the compartment for a moment before changing quickly into her Wizard's robes, the feeling of confidence and happiness they brought with them as welcome as the silky feeling that they had as they slipped over her signature red hair.
Once she was certain that the robes were perfect rose opened the door to reveal herself to her eagerly waiting brother. He clapped for a moment before their identical dark brown eyes met and he burst out into laughter like only one's younger brother can. Hitting him lightly on the arm Rose led the way back to her parents hoping that her cousins would appear soon.
Waiting with her parents Rose was overjoyed when Albus, looking almost green appeared out of the mist. "Hi." He sounded extremely relieved to have found them, likely because it meant that James had left being far too 'cool' to hang out with little first years. Rose craned her head around for a second looking for that missing sibling, but he was gone, and the steam was too thick to see where he could have got to.
Their fathers were having an animated discussion about parking of all things, and the younger children were discussing, just as excitedly, the houses that they would like to be in. Rose barely noticed when her father said something to her she was still peering eagerly around the platform looking for all of the cousins, she saw almost everyone, only James and Victoire were missing.
She turned back to her father just in time to hear him tell her first to beat a young blond boy in school , then not to be too friendly with him, not that she would anyways. It was at that moment that James appeared for the first time, fairly exploding with some secret or another. Sure enough within ten seconds he had directed all members of their party to listen to him before he burst.
"Teddy's back there," He gave a vague gesture in the direction of the train, "Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!" Looking less than thrilled with the lack of reaction that everyone, especially the adults, and shown, James tried to emphasize how important this new was.
"Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-" James' voice was rising with every excited syllable that he uttered.
"You interrupted them?" Ginny asked with a wry smile. "You are so like Ron..."
"-and he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away, He's snogging her!" James had continued through his mother's comments trying to make the rest of them aware of how important this was.
Lily had begun to talk but Rose was more interested in looking around the platform for the couple. And sure enough, a minute later she saw them creep back onto the platform and share a last, quick, kiss before Victoire got quickly onto the train, her ears exactly the same colour as her uncle Ron's turned when he was embarrassed.
Just then Ginny ushered them all onto the train amid hurried goodbyes and many a tearful hug. Ron promised Rose he'd write to her in a day or two right as the train began to move. Lily, unknowingly following in her mother's footsteps began to run after the train waving frantically, tears streaming down her face.
On the train Rose was beginning to settle in for what she was expecting to be a very long train ride. Now that James was freed from his mother's watchful gaze he was mercilessly teasing his younger brother, taunts of Slytherin causing his brother's face to grow gradually more and more green. Once James was satisfied that his brother's face would be a sufficient match for the colours of Slytherin he bid them farewell shooting out of the cabinet to find his friends.
Rid of the distraction that was her cousin Rose was free to look around her compartment, aside from her and the still green Albus there was the strange blond boy her father had pointed out and a pair of older girls who were busy laughing at something one of them had said. The little pale boy, Scorpius she remembered, seemed to think that they were laughing at him. He curled up under his cloak as she watched.
Suddenly Rose felt very tired, all of the excitement that had been building up for weeks was gone, she didn't even feel like comforting Al out of the depression his brother had sent him into. She pressed her long, freckled nose to the window ignoring the increasingly loud and annoying sound of girlish laughter.
"Firs' years this way! O'er here first years!" The familiar bellow of Hagrid the games keeper echoed out over the train station just like they had for almost seventy years. His figure was still unstooped with age and his mass of black hair still reflected the torchlight, all in all, despite his age Hagrid was still an impressive figure, towering over the first years he had in his charge.
Scorpius reluctantly separated himself from the mass of students making their way towards the gate to follow the other first years down to the boats. Unlike many of the other children, especially those who were Muggle-born, Scorpius knew exactly how this ceremony was to work, his father, having already broken nearly ever tradition that his family had held, decided to spoil the secret for his son, and thus to separate him even more surely from the majority of the student body.
Stepping down into the boat Scorpius was quickly joined by two other students, neither of whom, he could clearly see, were excited to be sharing a boat with him. One of them was clearly a Weasley, her red hair glowing even in the poor lighting. Beside her he could see the Potter boy, clearly marked by the trademark black hair. It was obvious from their hushed conversation, and the colour of his face, that he was more than a little nervous about the Sorting.
Not that he has anything to worry about, Scorpius thought to himself, he has parents whose primary concern is not their son's house but his education, to whom tradition stops at being at Hogwarts. Scorpius let out a quiet sigh as the boats suddenly began to drift across the lake to the castle.