Sneak out of the house.

Rose glanced despairingly at the list in front of her. They were already two weeks into the summer holidays and she had yet to complete one item on it. She would love to say that she had been busy doing cool and exiting things, but so far all she'd done was mooch about the house eating chocolate and when the sun came out she mooched outside eating ice cream. It was turning out to be the most depressing summer ever. Not only was it wet and windy outside most days, but the Potters were all sunning themselves in Morocco, without her.

As a general rule, the Potter-Weasley clan tended to stick together on holidays abroad- organising one was much easier than organising five separate ones. Somehow her mother, Hermione, was always the one that ended up arranging them, whether she was going or not. It was something to do with how Granddad Arthur had drilled into them all at an early age that holidays should always be done the muggle way, and none of them could be bothered to organise their own. This time however, the Potter family had gone away with the Dursley family in an attempt to patch things up between the two. (Lily had told Rose that no Potter was particularly convinced by this idea but that Harry's sister-in-law had been so shocked at the idea that the Dursleys just ignored the Potters that she insisted on them reconciling.)

But that was all irrelevant. Rose Weasley was not going to be put off by something as inconsequential as the weather. She was going to sneak out of the house, and successfully at that. With that in mind, she ripped a page out of her (Okay, Lily's) notebook, and started brainstorm ideas.

After thirty minutes and a page covered in moronic and completely unworkable ideas, she slammed her quill down on the desk, sending a splattering of ink all over the sheet. Rose couldn't even gather up enough energy to be angry. And anyway, she reasoned, a rebel's page was more believable if it wasn't pristine. The point was however, that she failed completely at being bad, as shown by her inability to think of a good escape plan. She surveyed the list in front of her, and scratched out some of the suggestions with her quill. The ones left were still pretty bad, ranging from 'Climb down the drainpipe! (CHECK IT WILL HOLD WEIGHT FIRST) to detailed diagrams of complicated pulley systems that would steal the key to the front door and- anyway, it was entitled 'MWAHAHA EVIL GENIUS PULLEY', so it was definitely out. There was even just 'Leave without telling parents where I'm going', which was stupid as she did that all the time anyway. Well, once or twice. And maybe they had actually been out both of those times, so she couldn't have told them anyway.

Rose sighed. There was nothing for it except to start from the top, and hope that one of them worked.

There was no way that this was going to work. It was stupid, stupid, stupid, but now that she was here it would be stupider to try and go back. Rose wiped the sweat from her cheeks, and at the same time smudged the black paint covering it. She took a deep breath and continued climbing down the drainpipe on the side of her house. She was a few feet down from her room now, and there was no viable way to get back up, especially as she'd already pulled down half of the piping in the mad scramble to get onto it at the top. She continued down slowly, inching across slightly to avoid her parents' window, and holding her breath as she heard a noise from inside, but it was only Crookshanks scraping at the door. She was nearing the bottom now, and was just starting to enjoy herself when she heard a ominous cracking sound from just underneath her left foot, and then found herself being separated from the wall and tumbling down into the inky blackness below. The scarf that had been wrapped around her face (if one of her parents saw her, she would pretend to be a burglar) muffling her shriek. She hit the ground with a loud thump, and groaned slightly at the dull pain blossoming over her lower back.

Rose let out the breath that she had been holding and lolled her head back heavily onto the hard ground. This was possibly the worst escape attempt ever. From somewhere above her head she heard the familiar whump of a window being slid open.

"Rose?" The voice of her father called out. "Is that you?" Rose briefly considered her options. Her first thought was to reply in the negative, and state that she was a burglar. That idea only lasted a second, what with both of her parents being proficient in magic, and therefore easily able to turn her into a flea. A flea that could be put into a box that could then be put into another box which could then be mailed back to the house and when it arrived- SMASHED WITH A HAMMER! – Rose rubbed her head. It seemed that the fall had caused brain damage or something.

"Rose?" Her father again.

"Present," She answered. "I was just... admiring the drain system? It's broken. Just thought you should know." With that she stumbled to her feet, and then immediately fell down again as she was blinded by a bright blue light only milliseconds after her mother's cry of 'Lumos!' Shading her eyes, she looked up to see her mother's figure had joined her father's at the window.

"If you were admiring the drain system, Rose Weasley," Her mother's voice was both icy and mirth filled at the same time, which was some impressive feat that Rose did not have the power to do. "Then why are you covered in black paint?" Hermione had Rose there. Knowing that there was nothing else for it, she slumped her shoulders and put on her best apologetic look.

"I was sneaking out of the house." She said. "I'm so sorry about the drain." There was a pause that seemed to go on forever. Oh Merlin, was she going to be grounded? Rose had never been grounded in her life! What if they didn't let her to Annie's party next week? Her life would be ruined! This was so awfu- But no. Her parents weren't being silent. They were laughing. What had before been little chuckles were now turning into full out chortles, and soon both of her parents were laughing hysterically, clinging on to each other for support. Rose grit her teeth.

"It's not that funny!" She yelled up at them. "STOP LAUGHING." Not that it made any difference. Rose could clearly see them practically wetting themselves. This was humiliating. The very idea of her being even slightly rebellious had them in stitches. Rose bit her lip to stop herself shouting. The only thing that could make this worse was if-

"Mum? Dad? What's going on?" Was if Hugo showed up. Thank you fate. Thank you so very much. Rose looked up to see then see her bratty little brother's head appearing at the window, to the left of my father. "Why is... Why is Rose standing outside covered in paint?" This set her parents off laughing again. She hated them all.

Her dad got his breathe back enough to tell Hugo all about Rose's escape attempted, further humiliating her in the process. With that, Hugo joined in the incessant laughter of her parents.

I really wish I could sectumsempra them all about now. Or maybe something less violent because I do not want to clean up all the blood, which I would inevitably end up doing. It's not that I'm a neat freak exactly, but I don't see anything wrong with things being in their proper places. But try telling that to any of my dorm mates! Anyway, so no blood. In that case I wish I could just wingardium leviosa them away. Maybe drop them in the Malfoys' garden so they get the blame. Mwahahaha. Oh crap, dad's been talking to me-

"-Rose, you just carry on." And he shuts the window. Rose's eyes widened as she processed what her father had just been saying. Something about making sure all the windows and doors were locked... She gave a start as everything fell into place.

"Oh no they didn't..." She heard herself mutter as she sped off towards the back door of the house. She had left it unlocked in case of an emergency and – It was now locked. As in unopenable. As in sealed. As in impenetrable. Without a wand at any rate. Rose Weasley was many things, but physically strong was not one of them. She pounded on the door for a moment, but she knew it was useless. Her parents were probably just behind it, giggling to each other. Rose sighed. It was an annoying fact of life that her mother rarely laughed unless it was at her or Hugo. She was sadistic like that.

Rose trudged back to the bush that she had just destroyed and gazed up at her open window in contemplation. There had to be a way to get back in. Her parents wouldn't just leave how outside for the night, and had obviously left the window open on purpose. She gingerly walked over to the drain piping and gave it a small tug. It groaned under the pressure and she leapt back lest it should fall on her. That way was out then.

The frustrating thing was just how easily she could have got up with magic. A simple floating spell would have gotten her up in a second, or a reparo to the drainpipe would have done. Hell, if she'd had the mind, she could probably have shrunk the house, grabbed on to her window and then resized it again. In theory. Actually, that was a pretty stupid idea. Much like all her other ideas she thought sourly. But the thing was, she couldn't do magic. At all. For some impossibly stupid reason there was a law preventing that before a young witch or wizard became of age. Probably so that teenagers don't shrink their parents houses a nasty little voice in her head suggested. Rose told it to shut up, and then lamented the fact that she had only been locked out of the house for five minutes and she was already arguing with herself. She should just do what her parents wanted her to do and hurry up and find a way back into her room.

Wait a minute- do what her parents wanted her to do. Or even do what her parents expected her to do... Wasn't NOT doing that just a way to hasten her path to being a rebel? It was! She, Rose Weasley, had just had a rebellious thought that was not on her list. She was practically a biker chick already! Still, not doing what her parents expected her to do left her spending the night outside, which wasn't something that particularly appealed to Rose-I-refuse-to-go-camping-eww-there-are-bugs-Weasley. Still, sometimes you had to suffer for your cause.

With the unrelenting sun bearing down on her, Rose Weasley had little choice but to get up. Her legs were stiff and her back cracked as she tried to straighten it up. It took her a while to get used to her surroundings- she couldn't understand why her bed felt so hard. Or why, for that matter, she had forgotten to close the blinds. She tipped her head back, squinting against the light, and immediately wacked it on a brick wall behind her. As the pain blossomed through her head, so did the memories of last night.

She tried to organise her thoughts into something that made sense. She had tried to sneak out of the house. She had attempted to do this by climbing down the drainpipe. She had failed. Laughing. Lots of it, and none of it from her. Her parents locked her out of the house and she decided the stay out, rather than oh... attempting to get back inside. Merlin's pants, she was the biggest idiot in the entire world. She rubbed her head where she had hit in, and sat up, pouting slightly at the circumstances that she now found herself in.

Suddenly a shadow fell across her line of vision and she looked up to see a smirking figure before her. Her father leaned out a hand for her to take and grimacing, she reached out and took it.

"Had a good night sweetheart?" The smirk in her father's voice was evident and she scowled up at him, straightening her robes as she stood up, and reaching up her other hand to wipe her eyes. She groaned when she saw the paint that came away with it. Seriously, this was the worst day ever.

"I had an amazing night, thank you so much for asking." Rose's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"I swear," Her father shook his head "You have the brains of your mother and yet don't think to use the ladder that I thoughtfully placed by the back door. Ah well. 'Mione is making breakfast, so come inside. You must be starving." Rose followed her father round to the door, albeit reluctantly, cursing at herself for not thinking of something so simple. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before trying to sneak out."

Later, as Rose sat at her desk, she fumed. Her plan was not going well. She couldn't move on to step two until she had completed the first, and it was now clear that she was terrible and doing anything faintly rebel like. Her own parents had laughed at the idea of her sneaking out! Not got mad, not grounded her, but laughed. Because they didn't think that she could do it. Well, she would show them. She would sneak out of this house if it was the last thing that she ever did! Actually, going by her track record, it probably would be.

The notebook with all Rose's ingenious plans lay on her bed, and she flung herself next to it, burying her face in the pillow for a few seconds before sitting up straight. She propped herself up on the 'decorative cushions' that her mother insisted on having, and opened the book, sighing. These plans were just as terrible today as they were yesterday, which was annoying. She had half been hoping that they would have magically changed into something workable.

Best get to work.

An hour later the room was filled with ropes and levers, most of them not connected to anything, and operation 'MWAHAHA EVIL GENIUS PULLEY' plan was a go.

Two hours later and Rose was grounded for attempting to utilise her pulley system in the living room, where it had promptly fallen apart and smashed her mother's favourite vase. Rose didn't really see what the issue was, considering that all it took was a simple reparo for it to be fixed, but her parents had taken it personally. Her mother had marched her back to her bedroom, muttering under her breathe.

"We laughed last night Rose Weasley, but if this behaviour of yours continues, you will be in deep trouble. As it is, you're grounded for a week. No excuses! That means no contact with your friends either, not even by owl. You understand?" Rose had nodded in the affirmative, feeling terrible. Her mum really had loved that vase. Still, Hugo was always breaking things and he never got grounded for them. This was clearly favouritism at work.

Three hours later and Rose realised the consequences of being grounded. Annie's party. Bugger. Crap. Merlin's bloody pants. Although, she considered, lolling her head on the desk next to her potions homework. This would be a perfect opportunity to sneak out properly. The thing was, even though she had tried to leave before, she had never had an actual destination. She had mostly just planned on walking to Dom's house, which was only a few streets away, and staying there for the night. Now that she thought about it, sneaking out to stay at your cousins was possibly as far from being a rebel that you could get.

So. Sneak out to Annie's. The party would be tomorrow evening, from 8:30 till 'late', according to the invites. Annie's parents were muggles, and they had gone away for the weekend. Rose wouldn't actually know many of the people there, as it was mostly for Annie's muggle friends, but it should be fun anyway. She had already replied to the invite, saying she would definitely be there, so it was just a matter of getting there.

She had planned to ask her mum or dad for a lift, but that was clearly out of the question. Floo though... Annie wasn't connected to the Floo network, but the Potter's were, and they only lived a few doors down from Annie. So if Rose could get there, then the rest would be simple. She smiled as her plan came together, and swept her potions homework of the desk in a way she was sure rebels would, picked up her notebook, and started planning.

The next day she was very careful not to do anything that would make her parents either more angry, or suspicious. She quashed her instincts to make them breakfast, because that was like sticking a flashing light on her head saying 'GUILTY' but she did make them both cups of tea, which was enough in character for them just to smile at her.

At about 7 the Weasley family settled down for dinner, and partook in friendly familial banter. Rose, however, was unable to join in, due to the butterflies in her stomach. She just smiled tightly when her parents asked if she was okay, and then inspiration struck her.

"Actually," She said, interrupting one of Hugo's terrible jokes. "I don't really feel very well. After dinner I think I'll just go to bed. Maybe take a Pepper Up potion? That will help me sleep." Hermione nearly upset the table in an attempt to get the potion to her quicker.

"Of course darling! I should have known you were ill, you haven't been yourself recently. I'll just get you the potion, and then straight up to bed with you! Do you want me to come up?" Rose felt something twist uncomfortably in her chest as she tried to smile.

"No!" She said quickly. "Just a stomach bug. I'll be fine by myself." And with that she grabbed the potion from her mother's hand and ran upstairs before her guilt overcame her and she blurted out the entire plan.

An hour later she was dressed and ready to go. The pepper up potion lay, untouched, under her bed. She opened the door a crack, and peered out. Then, in a sudden burst of genius, ran to her desk in order to get the extendable ears that Uncle George had given her as a Christmas present. Using these, she was able to ascertain that Hugo was in his bedroom listening to some god awful track by his new favourite band 'The Magical Moosi'. Her parents were both in the front room, listening to the Wireless, something they usually did at this hour. Some comedy programme or something. She could hear them both laughing at any rate. This was good, all going as planned. The fireplace that they used for Flooing was in the front hall, which was quite a way from where they were. All that she needed to do was be quiet, and she would be home free. In a manner of speaking.

She crept out of her room, willing the floorboards not to creak. It wasn't hard to get past Hugo's room into her parents, where she was able to open the box in their cupboard where they kept the Floo powder. It was supposed to be a secret, but they had to get it out enough times for that to be a joke. Rose was able to take a fair amount, making sure to smooth it over again so it wasn't obvious that she had been there.

Once downstairs, she crept past the front room that contained her parents, still laughing. She held her breath, and threw the powder into the fireplace, called out 'Potter Mansion' and stepped into the flames.

A few seconds later, she stepped out into the empty hall of the Potter's house. They were on holiday, but their Floo was open from the Weasley-Granger house alone, in case they needed to get in. It was the same the other way as well. When her family went away, only the Potter's could get into their house. It was quite sweet really.

But she had stuff to do. She brushed herself off, and wandered over to the front door. The key was kept under the pot plant in the front hall, and she took it and slipped out of the house.

Part one of her plan 'To become a rebel' was complete.

XxXxX

Thank you so much to everyone who has read this and from the people that commented! I'm so happy that you enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll be able to update quite a lot, considering that it's the holidays, but I can't promise an update every day. Still, if you put this on story alerts you'll be informed straight away ^_^

Anyway, comments are always welcome.

Kirby_T xx