19 years later
21 June, 2028
"Graduation day!" Gwen yelled, leaping from her bed, much to the annoyance of her room-mates. Gwenyth Cauldwell had never been much of a cheerful or excitable person up until recently, when the exhilaration of nearly having finished with school for good appeared to finally have caught up with her.
The other Slytherin girls groaned—Roxanne was fairly certain she heard the quiet thump of a pillow hitting the floor in a missed attempt at hitting Gwen in the face—but Gwen only began to cheerily hum to herself as she dashed into their shared lavatory to prepare for the day.
"I bloody swear, she's made even me happy we're getting out today," grumbled Joanna Bartley, who had slept next to Roxanne for the past seven years. "I mean, for fuck's sake, how can Gwen have gone from Slytherin grump to Miss Bubbles and Sunshine?"
"Mm," Roxanne replied, sitting up. "I dunno, Jo, maybe all those Cheering Charms finally got to Gwen's head, or the stress of N.E.W.T.S. made her lose it for good."
"Certainly did me in, that's for fucking sure."
Roxanne nodded absent-mindedly, turning her attention to the picture on her dresser; a friendly boy with a lop-sided grin waved up at her. The boy was, at most, nineteen or twenty, and looked quite similar to Roxanne—which was understandable, as the boy in the picture was Roxanne's older brother, Freddie Weasley.
Roxanne sighed as Freddie continued to wave happily up at her, wondering how it was that she was expected to have everything packed up by the time her mum arrived for the graduation ceremony. She had collected so many things over the past seven years, it was ridiculous to believe she'd have everything ready in time.
"Perhaps you should've started sooner Roxy," Jo replied when Roxanne conveyed her feelings to the girl. Jo had been packed since Monday, because she was the responsible one, the one who always made sure everyone else was prepared for class or holidays or whatever else Jo could think of to prepare for.
Roxy, on the other hand, took a much more relaxed approach to life—case in point, that she had yet to pack up a single item yet, despite the fact that parents would be arriving by noon and it was—oh, fucking Merlin, was it already so late?—eight-thirty.
She scrambled to get up, wondering how rude it would be of her if she kicked the now-singing Gwen from the shower, but then decided against it. Getting into an argument with a dorm-mate over showers? And on the last day? Roxy could be childish sometimes, but never petty.
Or at least not without good reason.
"So are your cousins coming by then, Roxy?" Aleah Vanwert asked innocently from her own bed, where she had been finishing up her morning routine of brushing her hair one hundred times, something she swore was just a Muggle custom picked up from her next-door neighbour and not a sure sign that she was slowly going mad.
"Dunno, I suppose they will," Roxy replied, noticing the slight blush that crept across Aleah's face at the mention of Roxy's cousins. "I mean, it's sort of a Weasley tradition, attending each other's graduation ceremonies each time. I always went to theirs'."
Aleah was, of course, not the first girl to have a weird crush on some cousin of Roxy's. Rox had, in fact, spent much of her Hogwarts years dealing with questions from the other girls, who wanted to know all about Louis and James and Albus.
A few times, people had even approached to ask about her brother, which had been massively weird, but most of the questions about him had stopped after her second year, luckily. She didn't think she could have handled answering some love-sick girl about Freddie's personal life.
"Is it weird—" Aleah started, and then fell silent when Jo frantically attempted to shush her. Roxy noticed, though, because she had been expecting the question to come up eventually.
"Mum'll be there for me," Roxy said with a shrug. "At least I'll have that, yeah?"
"Yeah," Aleah replied, giving Roxy a smile that tried to refrain from containing pity—she, as usual, failed miserably.
"Mum's always been there for me, you know. And I'm glad, really, that everyone will be coming up to see me. Emily's even bringing Faith, so I'll finally get to meet her."
"Oh?" Aleah's eyes went wide. "That'll be nice, won't it? How old is she now? Three?"
"Four, I think."
"Wow, four? It's already been so long?"
"Aleah," Jo said around a cough, shooting her dorm-mate another warning glance. Aleah blushed again and looked down at her hands.
The dorm had fallen awkwardly silent, with no one wanting to say anything, until the lavatory door burst open and Gwen came bounding back out.
"Shower's open for anyone who wants it!" she practically sang, oblivious to the uncomfortable tension between her dorm-mates. "Has anyone woken up Cheyenne and Lyric? We haven't got that much time, you know."
"Yeah, I'll do that," Jo replied, sliding off of her bed to wake up the other two girls who shared their dorm. Roxy was surprised to see they were still asleep, given how noisy Gwen had been, but Cheyenne was a heavy sleeper, and Lyric was probably just faking sleep in the hopes that they'd leave her alone.
"I'll take the lav next, if no one else minds," Roxy said, heading for the door, glad for the chance to exit the shared room. She knew Aleah didn't mean to be intrusive, but that didn't make her questions sting any less.
Roxy tried to hurry through her morning routine, knowing the other girls would grow restless and grumble at her if she took too long to get ready. But, as she was brushing her teeth, Roxy couldn't help but look at herself in the mirror.
She was a tiny girl—at only one hundred and forty-seven centimetres, she was the shortest of her cousins—with a mess of curly dark hair with the slightest red hue to it, and eyes that changed from brown to blue depending on the lighting. Roxy was also rather slender, which had led to several worried discussions between her parents about her eating habits when Roxy was younger, but Roxy had alwaysbeen naturally thin, much to her dorm-mates annoyance.
When she finally finished, Roxy scurried back into the dorm to see her last two dorm-mates had finally gotten out of bed and were grumpily getting themselves ready for the day. Cheyenne wordlessly headed into the lavatory while Lyric sighed endlessly as she brushed her hair.
"I decided to start packing for you, since I'm already set," Jo said when Roxy noticed her trunk had been opened, her belongings half-packed, the contents settled in much more neatly than Roxy had ever been able to manage.
"Oh, thanks Jo," Roxy said, and Jo gave her a small smile as Roxy finished up the job by tossing everything else into the trunk. Soon enough, the only thing left was the picture of her brother, which Roxy gave one last look before tossing it into the trunk along with everything else.
She really didn't feel like letting Freddie overshadow her day.
Roxy headed towards the Great Hall, where the graduation ceremony would take place, talking with Jo and Aleah about how weird it would be to wake up tomorrow—tomorrow, for Merlin's sake!—and no longer be Hogwarts students.
"Oh, Roxanne, darling Roxy!"
The next thing she knew, Roxanne's vision was full of red hair as her cousin Lily grabbed Roxy into a tight hug, threatening to topple the short girl over.
"Lily, you're suffocating me," Roxy said, letting out an airy laugh when Lily squeezed her tightly before finally letting go. "You might've broken a rib there, Lils."
"Sorry, Rox," Lily said, grinning at her cousin. "I guess I got a bit out of hand—I was just so excited to see you again! It's been so long."
"We saw each other at Christmas, Lils."
"Ages and ages ago," Lily said, waving her hand impatiently. "I've broken up with two boyfriends since then, you know."
"Have you?"
"Oh, don't look at me like that, you know how I am. The famous Lily Potter, letting herself be tied down for more than a few months? Imagine the scandal that would start."
"Oh, yes, Witch Weekly would have a field day with you, I imagine." Roxy laughed, imagining the ridiculous stories that had popped up in the past about Lily's previous relationships. "I suppose they'd suspect you're planning marriage next."
"How dreadful," Lily replied, looking horrified. Though she was only twenty, Lily had made it perfectly clear she had no intentions of marrying—ever—and had made it her solemn vow that she would never date a boy for more than ninety days.
"So who is it now?" Roxy asked curiously. "Last time I checked, you were going out with…Rahul Vedatha, is that right?"
"Oh, him? Like I said, ages ago."
"What was wrong with Rahul? I thought he was pretty cute."
"Try boring with a capital B, Roxy. It was like dating Uncle Percy—all he ever wanted to talk about his job as a printer. He had no personality at all."
"Then why'd you date him, then?" Roxy couldn't contain her laughter at Lily's antics. Her cousin had always been a little ridiculous at times, but she was especially bad when it came to partners.
"Oh, I don't really recall," Lily said vaguely, sounding bored. "But Rahul is in the past. Now it's all about Tolkien."
"As in Smith?" Roxy asked, shocked. If she recalled correctly, Tolkien was the youngest of five, a year older than Lily. Most importantly, he'd been in Slytherin and had gained a reputation as rather, well, sleazy. Roxanne remembered seeing him around a few of the more…unsavoury parties she had attended with Jo."I didn't peg him as your type, Lils."
"Oh, Rox, everyone's my type, remember? Besides, I rather like the idea of dating a bad boy. Daddy doesn't approve—of course—but he can't really say much, now can he?"
"Mm," Roxy replied quietly. She secretly suspected that Uncle Harry, who was the Head Auror for the Ministry of Magic, could probably say and do whatever he wanted if he felt like stopping Smith from dating his daughter, but figured that right now wasn't the best time to get into that argument with Lily.
"But that's not important. What is important is that a little birdy told me that you have a boyfriend?" Lily raised her eyebrows.
"A little birdy?" Roxy laughed. "Do you mean Teddy? Because he's not exactly little—"
"Roxy," Lily sighed. "Off-topic. It doesn't matter who told me. I just want to know—is it true? What's his name? Is he cute?"
"Kieran? He's pretty cute, yeah."
"Wait!" Lily gawked at Roxy, eyes widening comically. "You're dating Kieran Kanallakan? Why didn't you tell me? He's majorly adorable, Rox! If you had told me—Kieran? How long has this been going on?"
"Oh, since January, I guess? I mean, I just didn't think it was really that important, you know? We're not entirely serious or anything, at least I don't feel like we are and—"
"Roxanne Weasley!" she heard her mother yell, and Roxy turned to watch as the woman marched over with a grin on her face. "Oh, Roxanne, I'm so proud of you!"
Roxy blushed when a few of the other seventh years looked over in curiosity. Her mum—a former professional Quidditch player—had never really learned how to speak quietly, even when Roxy begged her to keep it down.
Her mum swept Roxy into a hug, still going on about how proud she was of her daughter; Lily, who seemed to be made uncomfortable by her aunt's almost smothering levels of affection, coughed awkwardly, making some excuse about wanting to congratulate one of her fellow Gryffindors that she remembered.
"But you'll tell me all about Kieran later, right Roxy?" Lily said before flouncing off, making Roxy blush an even darker red, hoping her mum was too caught up in the moment to properly pay attention to what Lily said.
Roxy, finally pulling away from the hug, looked into her mum's eyes, unsure of what, exactly, she was trying to even find. Her mum seemed healthy enough, stable enough—she certainly didn't seem to want to stop beaming down at Roxy any time soon.
"You know, I was worried when you said you didn't feel like coming home for Easter. I guess I'd just gotten so used to being able to rely on you, r cousins to check up on you, and you came home last year, but when you wrote about staying here instead, well, I just wasn't sure what to think. It rather felt like—"
"Mum," Roxy said, laughing. "You're babbling again. Besides, I'm fine, honestly. Like I said in my letter, I just wanted to spend my last Easter hols here at Hogwarts."
Her mum nodded uncertainly, looking around at all the other families who had come to see the graduation of the class of 2028. Roxy noticed Joanne a few metres away, already in an argument with her father.
"You know, I suppose I have been just a bit over-protective, especially as of late, but you're my little girl, Roxy, I live to worry about you—oh, is that Neville? He must be proud of Matilda. First of the class and all," her mum said with a pointed glance at Roxy, who only shrugged.
Professor Longbottom was, in fact, very proud of his daughter, as Roxy could—unfortunately—attest to, having heard him telling several people all about how Matilda had topped the class. Matilda Longbottom. A Ravenclaw to Roxy's Slytherin; their parents had once assumed the two girls would get along fabulously, especially since they were the closest in age.
But Matilda was, in Roxy's opinion, a snooty, stuck-up, know-it-all with no sense of humour. She had been a prefect and Head Girl, for Merlin's sake, positions that were no doubt helped by the fact that her father was the deputy headmaster.
(Not that Roxy would ever accuse Professor Longbottom of nepotism, of course.)
According to Matilda, Roy was a brooding psychopath who had 'future dark witch' written all over her. And only just because Roxy had once threatened to stab Matilda with her stirring rod in potions class.
Well, there was also the fact that Roxy had made it her personal mission to mess with Matilda every chance she got, often charming the girl's hair absurd colours or making snide comments every time Matilda spoke in class. And the time that Roxy had made it begin snowing during one particularly boring History of Magic class, which had cost her twenty points and two weeks detention.
Suffice to say, Roxy was different from Matilda in every way—which was something she was more than pleased to bring up every time her mum, or anyone else, compared the two girls.
"You know, Mum, I did still end up in the top ten," Roxy said loudly. "So I'm not a complete disappointment."
"No one's calling you a disappointment, Roxanne," her mother replied with a sigh.
Roxanne had to bite her tongue to refrain from snapping oh, yeah? She didn't want to be frustrated, not with her mum, not on her graduation day, but she hated being compared to Matilda Longbottom.
"Although, I do wish you could have tried a little harder. I mean, tenth out forty-five isn't bad, but are you sure you were always trying your best, Roxanne? Your brother—"
Roxy tuned her mum out at that point. If there was one person she hated being compared to more than Longbottom, it was her brother. Freddie had been popular. Freddie had been Captain for Gryffindor his sixth and seventh years. Freddie had made eight N.E.W.T.S. and ranked third overall in his year. Freddie had plans and goals for himself after graduation—become the beater for Puddlemere United until he couldn't play anymore, and then take over the joke shop from Dad.
She might have once looked up to her older brother in awe—just one more adoring fan of the great Freddie Weasley—but she was eighteen now, not eight. She wasn't going to compare everything she did against what Freddie had done when he was her age.
"—and that actually reminds me, Roxanne, your hair has simply gotten completely out of control. It's so long now. Are you sure you wouldn't like me to cut it? I think it'd look nice shorter. Oh, look, Neville's heading over here. Hello, Professor Longbottom!" Her mum waved at the professor, who smiled as he made his way over.
"Ange," Professor Longbottom said warmly. "It's nice to see you again." He put an arm around Roxy, giving the girl a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. "We're all very proud of Ms. Weasley here. She's been working particularly hard these past seven years, and I think it really does show."
"Oh, well, she's naturally gifted of course—gets that from her parents. You know, I was in the top five in my year. And George, well." Her mum and Professor Longbottom chuckled, which made Roxy want to scream. How could Mum act so casually about everything? How could she—
"Are you okay, Ms. Weasley?" Professor Longbottom asked suddenly, looking down at the way Roxy was clenching her fists.
"Of course, Professor Longbottom," she replied, doing her best to remain just as cheerful as everyone else here. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Roxanne," her mother said in a warning tone, but Roxy only ignored her and wriggled from Professor Longbottom's grasp. She suddenly wasn't so happy that her mum had shown up for graduation.
"I'm just gonna go, uh, talk to the cousins, okay, Mum?" Roxy said, not waiting around for answer as she hurried off, pretending to be in search of Albus or Louis, but in reality hoping that no one would notice if she slipped outside and went off to the lake for the rest of the day.
"Rox!" she heard someone yell from behind her. Roxy didn't feel like dealing with anyone at the moment, though, and only sped up. "Rox! Roxy! Hey, why're you—hey, Roxy!"
A large hand fell on Roxy's shoulder, spinning her around so that she was staring at her boyfriend—or, more accurately, staring at his chest, because Kieran was incredibly tall. At a hundred and ninety-five centimetres, Kieran was more than fifty centimetres taller than Roxy, part of why she had always thought he was so cute; Kieran definitely had the role of the friendly giant down to perfection.
Kieran gave Roxy a worried glance-over, right hand still gripped on her shoulder while the left one began calmly stroking her arm.
"What's wrong, Rox? You look pretty pissed about something. Was it Longbottom again, because I can fight her if you want—I don't care if she's a girl."
"Not entirely," Roxy sighed. "It's just Mum again. You know, comparing. She's disappointed, I think, because she was top five when she was in school, and so was Freddie and I'm…I'm barely top ten. If Dad hadn't dropped out, I'm sure he would've been top five as well. All my family's always been so successful, and I'm just…not."
"Hey, that's not true, Rox," Kieran said in a comforting voice. "You're totally successful. So what if you're not top five? You still did really well, especially with our class being even larger than most years."
"Easy for you to say, number three."
"I mean it, number ten. You're a bloody genius, fuck what your test scores say."
Roxy shook her head, but she couldn't help but smile anyway. Kieran always knew how to make her feel better. "Thanks, babe. You're really sweet."
"Sweet enough to earn a kiss?"
"Always," she said with a laugh, as Kieran bent down to kiss Roxy. She felt herself melt into his large chest, his warm handed lowering towards her bum—
"Oh, yech," someone groaned, making Roxy jump away from Kieran in shock. It was her cousin James, with that stupid grin of his. "Why do I always manage to walk onto my cousins snogging their partner's brains out? It's bloody disgusting."
"Hello, James," Kieran said with amusement. James pretended to tip his hat in response before turning his attention back to Roxy.
"So, little miss graduate, what're you and lover-boy doing so far away from your seats? The ceremony's going to begin any moment, and what would Aunt Ange think if the two of you had to rush back at the last minute?"
"Stuff it, James."
"Such hostility, Roxy!" James said, but he was chuckling, shaking his head at Roxy like she was an especially amusing pet performing tricks. Roxy was about to retort—angered by his almost condescending attitude towards her—when she noticed Professor Shrever calling for the attention of the seventh years and their families.
The graduation ceremony was beginning.