Thank you for the review! :)

Note: I own the plot and the characters that you don't recognise. Apart from that... well yeah, it belongs to JK Rowling.

This is my first fan fiction. I just want to say now that the first few chapters of this story will probably bore you, sorry.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Please review.

CHAPTER TWO

'Ow! It bit me!' shrieked Rose, much to the amusement of her annoying cousins, Fred and James.

The now-seventh-years were leaning against the outside wall of the Burrow, watching her, Albus and Lily de-gnome the garden. Hugo, who had been "sick" on the morning of the de-gnoming was still in bed, having been spared of all chores until after lunch.

'Why are you two just standing there? I thought you were supposed to clean the shed or something?' Lily asked. She looked thoroughly irritated, and was beginning to develop sunburn in her neck, where she had forgotten to apply sun cream.

'I think you're forgetting that we're not underage anymore,' said James, wearing his most annoying lopsided grin.

'That's not fair!' said Rose, Albus and Lily angrily.

'Life's not fair, m'dears,' chuckled Fred.

'Why can't you help us?' asked Lily.

'Yeah,' agreed Albus. 'Just a simple Banishing Charm.'

'Why should we?' said James.

'Because I'm your brother!' retorted Albus.

'Which is exactly why I won't be helping you,' said James. 'Fred?'

Fred grunted. 'Let them suffer a bit.'

'Yeah,' said Dominique, who had just walked out of the kitchen and joined Fred and James. 'Think about all those poor Muggles who have to household chores without magic. If they can do it, then so can you.'

'Muggles don't de-gnome their gardens though, do they?' said Rose.

'Who cares?' said James. Then turning to Dom, he added: 'Me and Fred are going down to the village. Are you coming?'

'Yes,' said Dom. 'It'll be good to get away from the Burrow for a while. Mum and Gran are starting to get on my nerves. And anyway, I've finished washing the dishes – with magic of course.' She said the last part purely for the sake of aggravating her younger cousins even more.

'Anyway, come on. Let's go before Gran gives us anymore chores.'

'Piss off,' said Albus.

The three seventeen-year-olds chortled loudly as they walked over the fence and Disapparated with a loud crack.

'Come on,' said Lily, sweeping her hair out of her eyes. 'Let's go sit in the shade for a bit.'

Rose, Albus and Lily walked across the garden and sat underneath a tree near the fence, and relaxed.

'So you still don't know what you want to be when you leave Hogwarts?' Albus asked Rose.

'No. I have no idea,' she replied, absent-mindedly pulling yellow grass out of the hard, sun-baked soil.

'What subjects are you taking next year?' asked Lily.

'Charms, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies,' Rose replied, counting each subject off with her fingers.

'Muggle Studies?' Albus repeated incredulously. 'Why on earth do you want to do that? Your grandparents are Muggles anyway. What's the point?'

Rose shrugged. 'It's an easy NEWT, and it's quite fun actually.'

Albus shook his head in disbelief.

'But that's seven subjects,' said Lily. 'Isn't that a lot? How are you going to keep up with all?'

'Well I'm clever, so I suppose I'll manage.'

Lily snorted.

The blinding sun was very high up in the clear blue sky when Grandma Molly called Rose, Albus and Lily inside for lunch. The Burrow was much bigger than it had been a few years ago; Rose remembered how she used to share Aunt Ginny's old room with two of her other cousins before her grandfather had decided to build an extension to the main building.

Grandpa Arthur, with his fascination for Muggles, had built the entire four-storey high extension on his own, the Muggle way. It had taken a long time, but his efforts were worthwhile. The Extension was probably the most secure part of the Burrow as it was standing because of bricks and cement, and not just magic.

The summer had been quite fun for Rose. Every week or so, she had gone to Diagon Alley with Hugo, and had come across many of her friends.

Yasmin stayed true to her word and wrote to Rose at least twice a week. Albus wrote once over the three weeks that he was away. Lysander wrote once to say that they had begun their research, and once two weeks later informing Rose that the hornless type of Snorcack didn't exist after all. Lorcan didn't write at all – typical.

After lunch, it began to rain. Rose hadn't a clue where the clouds had come from, but ran outside with the rest of her family to play Quidditch in the refreshing rain. Though she wasn't on the team at Hogwarts, she loved the sport and made a very skilful Chaser.

After dinner and a bath, Rose went straight to bed. Even though it was only eight, she fell asleep minutes after resting her head on her pillow.

When Rose went downstairs the next morning, she saw the Scamander twins' parents sitting in the living room with hers and Albus's parents.

'Hi Aunt Luna, Uncle Rolf,' Rose called from the doorway. She wasn't related to Mr and Mrs Scamander, but loved and treated them like a part of the family anyway.

'Oh, hello Rose,' said Aunt Luna, smiling at Rose. Her eyes were very wide and like always, she had the image of looking faintly surprised. 'The twins were going to wake you up by throwing one of those Sneezebombs at your face, but I persuaded them not to.'

'Thanks,' said Rose, grinning. The Snotty Sneezebomb was a new invention from Weasley's Wizards Wheezes. It contained a mixture of house-elf snot and a strange substance which made anyone who breathed it in sneeze uncontrollably for at least fifteen minutes.

'You've grown,' said Uncle Rolf. 'You keep getting prettier.' He winked at her.

She laughed. 'Er, thanks,' she said, flashing him a grin.

Rose would have said something else, but she felt a pair of hands on her waist, pulling her back into the dark corridor. Then one of the hands left her waist to mess her ponytail up. She heard laughter from the living room.

'Wha–' Rose began, but she stopped when she saw the bright blue eyes looking at her from the tousled dirty-blond hair. 'Lorcan?'

Lorcan laughed. 'Come on, have some breakfast before Al finishes it all.'

'That greedy goblin,' sighed Rose, following Lorcan along the uneven floor to the warm kitchen, where Albus and Lysander were sitting at the long table.

'Excuse me?' said Albus, looking up from his plate, which was piled high with tomatoes, eggs, sausages and toast.

'Nothing,' muttered Rose. Then, after taking a glance at the table, she frowned; the only food in the kitchen was in front of Albus. She took the empty seat next to him and started eating out of his plate. 'Hi Lysander,' she added to Lorcan's sandy-haired twin.

Ignoring Albus's protests, Rose leaned across the table and took a sip from his tea. When Lysander didn't reply, she looked at him and saw that he was staring out of the window with a look of horror painted on his face.

Rose turned her head to look out of the window too and felt her jaw drop; four shapes were blocking out the morning sun, getting bigger by the second. Her heart started thudding quicker.

'Oh no!' she cried. 'I thought we were getting our results tomorrow?'

'Apparently not,' said Lysander. 'Someone open the window.'

Rose ran to open the window (almost tripping over a stray slipper on the way), and just in time too; four screech owls flew through it a couple of seconds later and landed on the table, knocking a few empty mugs over. She walked back to the table, found the envelope that was addressed to her, freed it from the string tying it to the owl and ripped it open with shaking hands.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Pass Grades: Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades: Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

ROSE WEASLEY HAS ACHIEVED

Arithmancy - O

Astronomy - O

Care of Magical Creatures - O

Charms - O

Defence Against the Dark Arts - O

Divination - A

Herbology - O

History of Magic - O

Muggle Studies - O

Potions - E

Transfiguration - O

Rose couldn't believe how good her grades were. She had even passed in Divination, her worst subject, where she had guessed most of the answers in both the theory and the practical exams.

'How many OWLs have you guys got?' she asked the other three. 'I've got eleven.'

'You haven't failed in anything then,' stated Albus. 'I've got nine.'

'Eight,' said Lorcan, just as the owls ruffled their wings and took off through the open window.

'But you took nine subjects last year,' said Albus.

'Yeah, I know,' said Lorcan. 'I got a "troll" in Astronomy.'

'That's only because you slept through the entire exam,' laughed Rose, remembering that particular night on top of the chilly Astronomy Tower.

'You should have woken me up,' said Lorcan, feigning a sniff.

'We tried,' said Albus, 'but you just told us to piss off–'

'–And you went back to sleep,' finished Rose. 'It was quite funny, actually.'

'Oh, shut up,' said Lorcan. 'Hey Lysander, how did you do?'

Lysander made to stuff his results into his jeans pocket, but his brother was too quick for him, and snatched the parchment out of his hands.

'Bloody Bogrod!' Lorcan exclaimed. 'Only one "Exceeds Expectations" in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and the rest are all "Outstanding".'

'So you got an "O" in History of Magic?' Rose rounded on Lysander.

'Er, yes,' mumbled Lysander, smiling at the floor.

'Hey wait!' said Albus. 'There's something else in this envelope.'

Rose looked inside her envelope and saw that her cousin was right. She pulled out the second piece of parchment and read out loud:

' "Sixth-years at Hogwarts will require the following for the new school year:

A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six by Miranda Goshawk

Advanced Defensive Magic by Edgar Moffatt

Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage

A set of dress robes (formal wear)

I look forward to seeing you in the new school year,

Professor Bedloe

Deputy Headmaster" '

'Why do we need dress robes?' asked Lysander.

'That's what I was thinking,' said Lorcan.

'Have we got a dance or something?' said Albus. 'Or is it for more professional careers interviews?'

'I have a bad feeling about this,' said Rose. The boys gave her a funny look.

'Why?' they all asked.

'Well... don't you think everyone is trying to hide something from us? I mean, Dad was talking about that guy from the Education Office at the Ministry, but then Mum gave him a look as if to say shut up or something. And then there was that interview about that Ludo Bagman guy in Which Broomstick? that Aunt Ginny tried to hide from us... what does it all mean?'

'How the hell are we supposed to know?'

Rose just shook her head, deep in thought. Just then, a grey fluffy object flew through the window and crashed into the side of Rose's head. She yelped in both shock and pain. She reached her hand and disentangled the object from her hair. 'Oh, it's Carrie!' she said when she finally looked at the small owl sitting in her hand properly.

'What's Yasmin say?' asked Lysander.

' "Dear Rose, Albus, and if they're there, Lorcan and Lysander," ' read Rose after she had taken the letter out of the envelope. ' "How has your time at the Burrow been so far? We've only just got back from Spain really early this morning. I was wondering if we can meet up in Diagon Alley before school starts. How about the last day of August? That's probably the only day that I'll be free.

' "See you then. Lots of love, Yasmin.

' "P.S. My mum promised to buy me a Nimbus Velocity 3000 for my birthday! I'm so happy! Gryffindor will definitely win the Quidditch Cup this year."

'That girl will never just shut up about Quidditch, will she?'

'No, but seriously,' said Lysander animatedly. 'A Nimbus Velocity? 3000? That's mental! The only other people with those are the Japanese International Quidditch Team. Gryffindor probably will win this year.'

'Well you won last year,' said Lorcan, 'so I suppose it's our turn now.'

Rose sighed. She loved Quidditch, but it couldget extremely boring when her friends talked about nothing but it.

'Are we free to go to Diagon Alley with Yasmin on the last day of the holidays?' Rose asked loudly, interrupting the "Quidditch Talk".

The boys grunted in reply and continued their boring conversation.

The rest of the day went by very quickly. After spending the morning cleaning the kitchen, the afternoon shopping for some Muggle clothes from the village shops with her cousins Lucy and Roxanne, and the evening conversing with her family in the living room (Grandma Molly and Rose's mother baked a large cake in celebration of the OWLs results), Rose went to the bedroom that she shared with Lily in The Extension feeling exhausted.

Scorpius will be introduced in a few chapters, in case you were wondering...

Thank you for reading!