Chapter 1: Heartbreaker

"Rose! I heard my mother yell from the other room.

I groaned, turned over, and tried to fall back asleep.

"Rose!" she called a second time. "If you don't get up now, you are going to miss the train! Think about how that will turn out."

I contemplated just going back to sleep, but then the thought of miss the train made me shutter. An entire year away from Hogwarts would be absolutely awful. I could just imagine my parent's trying to teach me all my lessons. I shuttered again.

I quickly pulled the covers back, knowing that if I tried to do it slowly, then it wouldn't work as well. It was like ripping a band-aid off. The light streaming through my window was blinding. I quickly jumped up and closed the curtains. Much better.

I started rummaging around, looking for something appropriate to wear for the train ride. I settled on a pair of jeans, and my favorite t-shirt. I fixed my flowing, red hair and added a touch of make-up.

"Come on, Legacy," I told my cat as I grabbed the top of its carrying bag. "It's time to start the new school year!"

I was just exiting my room when my mother yelled from downstairs, "Rose we are leaving!"

I quickly made my way into our living room where the rest of my family was waiting. My mother looked perfect, as usual. There wasn't a hair out of place. I think I get my perfectionist attitude from her, one of the many things I inherited from her. The only thing in me that resembled my father was the bright, red hair. That was a classic Weasley trait, though. I think everybody would be more worried if I wasn't born with it. That would probably mean my mother had an affair or something. Hugo, on the other hand, looked exactly like my father. Both of them had the "I don't really care how people think I look" thing going on for the both of them. It suited them. Today Hugo, who was starting his fourth year, looked like he just rolled out of bed. My father was wearing a plain black shirt and some slacks.

They were all waiting patiently as I walked in. My stomach grumbled almost instantly upon entering, but I tried to ignore it. I was late enough already. I didn't have time to eat. I would just have to wait for the trolley on the train.

"How are we getting to the station this time?" I asked. Every year, I feel like we get there differently. Sometimes we apparate. Sometimes we fly. Other times we floo to the nearest location, then walked the rest of the way.

"By car," my father, said nonchalantly.

Both Hugo and I stared at him as if he were wearing a frog for a hat. He didn't notice. My mother was the one who replied. "It's perfectly normal to go by car."

Hugo and I glanced at each other quickly before saying at the same time, "Exactly!"

Our parents look confused.

"Yeah," Hugo then said. "We don't even own a car? Did it just appear out of thin air? Does it do anything interesting, like fly?"

My father looked slightly uncomfortable all of a sudden. "No, it's actually a perfectly normal car," my mother replied. "Your father borrowed it from the ministry for today."

"Since when do we do anything normal? Since when does our entire family do anything normal?" I then explained.

Both our parents started to laugh. "It was just the easiest way of getting you all there in one piece," my father replied in between his chuckles.

Hugo and I shrugged before following our parents to the car. My father was making his way to the driver's seat when my mother said, "Maybe I should drive. Remember what happened last time? We don't want to erase all those memories again, do we?"

My father again looked slightly uncomfortable, before tossing the keys towards my mother. She smirked.

It was times like these that I sometimes wished that our parents told us more about their past adventures. I know for sure that the definitely had amazing ones. I mean, you don't get put on a chocolate frog card for just doing anything. For some reason, though, they don't seem to like to tell us all that much. I don't understand why and whenever I asked, my mother just tells us that we aren't ready and a lot of dark magic was involved.

I was fine with that most of the time, but sometimes I was just so curious that it almost made me mad that they wouldn't tell us. I mean, they were our age when they experienced their adventures. Why shouldn't they tell us? All I really knew was that they played a huge part in helping Uncle Harry defeat Voldemort in the Second Wizarding War. Nobody will tell us much more than that.

As I watched the trees fly past us from the backseat of the car, my thoughts drifted to Scorpius like they always seem to do. The last time I saw him was that night before the summer holidays began. I thought things were finally going to change between the two of us, but as far as I could tell things pretty much stayed the same. I thought that he might ask me to be his girlfriend, but he never did. Actually I barely heard any word from him at all this summer. He rarely sent letters, and when he did, they seemed to be short and formal sounding. I came to the conclusion that he was probably going to wait until he sees me before talking about that night.

Though we have been going to the same school for four and a half years now, and we have had multiple classes together, I hadn't started to really hang out with Scorpius until about a year ago during the summer between fourth and fifth years.

My two best friends were had been friends with him since the moment they met him on the train. I, on the other hand, took what my father told me to heart and didn't really want to be friends with him. Of course, it was inevitable that I would have hang out with him. We ran in the same groups. Not only was he good friends with my two best friends, Charlie Corner and Addison Hayes (nicknamed Addie), but his best friend was no other than my favorite cousin, Albus Potter. But the two of us would never really acknowledge each other's presence when all of us hung out together.

The summer between fourth and fifth year, Scorpius ended up staying with the Potters. I was sent there too for about two weeks, when the Golden Trio—both my parents and Uncle Harry—had to go for some event about them. It was all of us under Aunt Ginny's supervision. At the time I had nobody else to hang out with besides Albus, and by default Scorpius. That was about when we truly became friends. For some reason something just clicked between the two of us, and I was fine with that. I didn't want to be anything more than that with Scorpius at that time. Plus he had a girlfriend, but the more time I ended up spending with him, the more I realized I liked him way more than I should.

Towards the middle of fifth year, his girlfriend broke up with him. At this point we could almost consider each other best friends, we spent so much time together. That was partially the reason why she broke up with him.

I thought that things would go back to usual (just minus Scorpius with a girlfriend), but I found that he started to flirt with me, and I was flirting back. It was only in private though; he would act completely normal in public. Almost to the point where I thought I was imagining what was happening between the two of us. Then he asked me if I would meet him at midnight on top of the astronomy tower, and I found myself—good, little, never-breaks-the-rules Rose—sneaking out way after curfew, because I knew what was going to happen between the two of us that night, even before I left the dorm room. Scorpius had been hinting at it for a while now.

That night we ended up snogging for hours.

I didn't tell either Charlie or Addie about that night. First of all, I knew Scorpius hated it when the girls he snogged with kissed and told. Secondly, I didn't want to jinx anything by telling someone. Though I knew Addie would never tell anybody, Charlie wasn't the quietest person. She knew everything about everyone and was a horrible gossip. No matter how hard Addie and I tried, we couldn't get her to stop. I knew something as juicy as this would be around the entire school and back to me before I even woke up the next morning if I told her.

Before I knew it, I found myself at King's Cross Station. It looked much as I remembered. There were people bustling everywhere, trying to find where they are supposed to be and getting on and off trains. My father helped Hugo and I unload our belongings unto carts. Then the four of us started to walk towards the entrance onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

I had an unusual extra bounce to step, and Hugo pointed this out.

"I'm just excited for the new year to start. I can't wait until we start classes," I lied. Hugo fell for it and rolled his eyes.

Soon enough all four of us were on the platform. It was almost busier here than it was in the entire station. There were parents bustling around, making sure their children had all their belongings together. There were kids trying to find the best compartments on the train. There were all sorts of animals crawling everywhere. I found myself checking to make sure Legacy was still in her bag and hadn't escaped while I wasn't looking.

"Rose!" I heard a voice exclaim. I turned around to see Addie's smiling face running towards me. She was wearing an emerald green shirt, which brought out the green in her eyes well, and some shorts. She looked tanner than I remembered, and her hair was slightly blonder. This was probably due to the fact that she spent the entire summer lying on the beach in Spain. When she was younger, her mother went slightly psychotic and just randomly decided that she didn't want to be married anymore. She left London and moved to Spain. She tried to convince Addie to go with her, but she opted to stay in London with her father instead. She was required to spend every summer with her mother, no matter how much she complained about how much she would just rather stay here.

"Hey! How was your summer?"

"Oh, it was fabulous," she said, sarcastically. "The life-giver wouldn't shut up about how amazing Spain is, and how amazing her new boyfriend is, and how I should live with them year-round because of how amazing it all is. I think I was literally going to puke, if not from how many times she could say amazing in one sentence, then from the way she acted around her boyfriend, who I would like to say was basically a toddler."

"That does sound like fun!" I replied, before laughing.

"You haven't seen Charlie?" she then asked.

"Nope, but I only just got here. Maybe she is already on the train," I then suggested, while shaking my head. I also wondered to myself where Scorpius was, but I didn't voice my question out loud. I knew I would be seeing him soon enough, though I could barely contain my excitement.

Al then called from the entrance of the train, "Come on guys! Scorpius and Charlie are already on the train!"

I then said, "I guess that confirms my statement. We should probably join and get a compartment unless we want to completely miss the train."

She nodded in agreement.

I said one last goodbye to both my parents before running onto the train.

"Hey Al!" Addie exclaimed when we caught up to him.

They got into a conversation about their summers, Addie ranting again about her mother, while Al talked about getting to go to a bunch of parties.

"Where are Scorpius and Charlie?" I asked, not being able to hold back excitement anymore. I added Charlie's name more so it wasn't too obvious.

"They are in the third compartment to the right," he said, never taking his gaze away from Addie. I started to walk towards the compartment her pointed out. Just as I was opening it I heard Al shout, "You probably don't want to-"

But I never really heard the rest of the statement, because I slid the entire door open to find the most shocking thing ever. Charlie was basically in Scorpius' lap, and they were sucking each others' faces off. I stood frozen in the doorway.

They pulled away from each other when they realized someone was in the room with them. Charlie stood up off of Scorpius' lap and tried to make herself look a bit more presentable, when blush crept into her cheeks. Scorpius, on the other hand, looked completely unfazed.

"I… uh…" I couldn't even form a full sentence, as I felt my heart slowly fall apart. I didn't realize until now that I had completely fallen for him.

"Hey, Rose," Charlie said, awkwardly. "As you can probably tell by now, you missed quite a bit over the summer."

I looked at Scorpius then at Charlie and then back a Scorpius before saying, "Yeah, I guess I did miss a little bit."

I felt anger course through me. I wanted to slap him.

Maybe this wasn't what it seems. I needed to make sure everything was absolutely clear about this situation. "So," I started, "you guys are dating now?" My voice was slightly higher than it usually is, because I was trying to hold back my tears.

"Yeah, we are," Scorpius then said, as his eyes bored into me. I broke away from his gaze. We both knew what I was thinking about, though I was sure neither of us would mention it anytime soon. Not with this new twist.

"How did this happen?" I then ask. I thought I saw Scorpius lose a bit of his composure for a second out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked at him properly he seemed no different.

"Well, last year when he broke up with Erica, we started talking more often than usual. We flirted for a while and he kind of just grew on me. So when he asked me out on a date this summer, I said yes. We have been official ever since," Charlie then said. I felt my heart completely shatter at this news. That was about as long as he was flirting with me.

I was his rebound girl.

I thought he actually liked me, when I was just another girl to him.

He was my first kiss, and I was nothing more than another one to add to his list.

I wasn't sure if Charlie could tell how high the tension in the room actually was.

This was about when Al and Addie stormed into the room.

"What's going on?" Addie asked, instantly noticing something was up.

"Charlie was just telling Rose about how she and I are dating now," Scorpius said, finally taking his gaze off of me.

Addie squealed and jumped around to compartment. I believe Charlie thought this was a better reaction than mine, because she joined in with her. Not wanting my disappointment to be obvious, I jumped and squealed with them.

Al rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Girls."

I felt Scorpius' eyes on me, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of looking back. I wasn't going to let him know that this hurt me more than anybody could ever think it did. I was going to hide that fact from him.

"I think I should get going to the prefects' compartment. It looks like the train is about to leave, and they usually like it when we get there early," I said, thankful for the excuse to leave the party.

Unfortunately I heard Scorpius say as I left the compartment, "Yeah, I think I should probably go with you."

I didn't wait for him as I walked down the long hallway, but he had longer legs than I did, so he quickly caught up.

"How was your summer?" he asked me. That was it. He didn't give me any explanation as to why he led me on nor did he mention if he even had feelings for me at all. He just inquired about my summer.

"It was fine," I replied, tartly. I wasn't in the mood to play his games.

"What did you do?"

"Ate, slept, read a couple of books. The usual."

I usually consider myself a chameleon. I adapt to fit my surroundings. In other words, I change so that I can get along easily with my friends. For example, if they want me to be girly and braid their hair, I could do that. If they wanted me to be brainy and smart, I could do that too. I was never one to chase drama. In fact, I was always the girl who tried to stay away from it the most. I didn't get into fights all that often, but when I did all hell would break lose. I was seething at this moment.

I also wasn't the girl who usually had crushes. I was the one who acted the same around all her guy friends. If one showed any interest in me, and he was a good guy, then chances are I would like them back too. But most of these mini-relationships would never go much further than that. I never had a serious boyfriend, and I really thought that Scorpius would be my first. Just like he gave me my first kiss. Of course, knowing my luck, things went totally different than planned.

"Sounds nice," he said.

"It was," I replied. "I assume you had a good summer too."

"Yeah," he merely said.

This is about when we finally made it to the prefects' compartment. Again I was thankful for a reason to get away from Scorpius. I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up with the charade.

I walked across the room and sat down next to my fellow sixth year, Gryffindor prefect, Nathan Thomas.

I always thought it was easier to talk to guys than it was to talk to girls. That was the reason I never really had many girlfriends besides Charlie and Addie. I instantly took a liking to most males though, and Nathan was no exception. He was one of the funniest people I have ever met, but he was also very smart. Overall, he was just easy to be around. You didn't have to talk much, and he usually brightened my day knowing exactly what to say at the right moment.

"Hello, Red!" he said, using the nickname he gave me back during our third year. I only ever let him use it.

"Hey, Nathan!"

We struck up a conversation about Quidditch standings, before the Heads walked into the room. They told us to quiet down as they told us the usual beginning of the year announcements.

After the Head Girl talked for about fifteen minutes, they released us to patrol the halls. The Head Boy then added before we all left, "The patrol schedules are on the counter. You can pick one up on your way out. Your partners for today should be the same partner you have for the rest of the year. Please don't ask us to change them, because they took us a very long time to arrange. When Quidditch starts back up again, we will rearrange it to fit the practice schedules."

I walked out with Nathan, and we both picked up a schedule on our way out. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "Looks like you and I are partners, Red."

I was relieved. I almost thought that some cruel force would find some way to make Scorpius and me be put together, but I was with Nathan! Patrolling would be easy with him. He really takes being a prefect seriously, and so I wouldn't have to patronize him all night like I would with Scorpius. Plus things would definitely not be awkward.

I merely replied by giving him a smile and saying, "We have the first shift today. We should probably get going then."