Everyone in the hall clapped loudly for the hat, although a few of the first years looked shell-shocked about the singing hat. Rose assumed they were the muggleborns who had only known that they were magical for a few weeks.
Professor Skrewt called the first student, 'Abberwell, Jessica' was sorted into Hufflepuff.
"Ammett, John" went to Slytherin and on down the list until "Longbottom, Stella", who received a few whispers, and an incredibly proud expression from her father sitting at the staff table. Stella was sorted into Gryffindor and Professor Longbottom swelled with pride at the staff table. Then there was an object of speculation called: "Malfoy, Scorpius."
Apparently most of the school felt the same way about the young Malfoy as Rose did. Because there was a good bit of muttering and whispering as he was called. He walked tentatively up to the hat and sat down looking nervous. The hat took an inordinate amount of time to sort him, and shocked everyone when he called out "RAVENCLAW!"
The Ravenclaw table clapped politely for him, but not energetically as they had for "Ditor, Beth" who had already been sorted into that house. The Ravenclaws all looked a little upset at having the son of a former Death Eater, who was indirectly responsible for the death of their last Headmaster as part of their house. The Slytherins all looked a little disappointed at having not gotten him, because his entire family had been in Slytherin for generations, and it had been expected.
Right after Malfoy was "Mixon, Meg" who was sent to Gryffindor to roaring applause. Rose thought she was imagining it, but she thought that Malfoy looked a little sad, or disappointed. He couldn't have wanted to go to Gryffindor could he? But no, it was probably just the fact that Meg Mixon was an unknown to the majority of the school populace, and she got so much more applause than Malfoy himself had received. Or even more likely it was a trick of the light and Rose had imagined it all.
Rose missed the next few students as she was considering the expression, or trick of light and was forcibly pulled from her reverie by a familiar name, "Potter, Albus." Rose looked up to see her cousin James beaming and telling everyone around him in whispers that Albus was his little brother.
Albus was sorted into Gryffindor where most of their cousins were sitting (Molly of course was with her house in Hufflepuff). Rose clapped for him enthusiastically, but she wasn't at all sure that she would be joining him in a few minutes.
The sorting passed uneventfully until Rose was the last one standing and her name, Weasley, Rose" was called. She went up quickly hoping for the sorting to be very fast, and the hat was placed on her head.
"Another Weasley, eh? You breed faster than rabbit! But you're more like your mother, all brains and a little bravery on the side. You want to be different." It wasn't a question, Rose did want to be different, and yet she was terrified of not being with the people she knew. What would she do without her cousins, her stalwart family?
"You're afraid though, afraid to be alone. No house would leave one of their own all alone without a fight, you know. I think you'll do best away from that pack of troublemakers you call family. Yes, you'll make good friends in…RAVENCLAW!" The last word was shouted aloud to the entire house and the Ravenclaw table and the entire Weasley clan cheered for her. They all knew somewhere deep inside them that Rose wasn't a Gryffindor she was too much brain and not enough brawn for them. But they would love her all the same despite that.
As Rose made her way to the Ravenclaw table she noticed that there was a rather large gap around Malfoy in all directions, and no room for her to sit anywhere else at the table, because they had made so much room so that no one would have to sit next to Malfoy. So now Rose was stuck across from him and to one side so she could talk to some of the older Ravenclaws about what could be expected of their classes which wouldn't start till Monday, so they had two days off because it was Friday.
The Ravenclaws mostly spent the next two days before classes reading through their textbooks and starting in on the school library. Rose didn't know what the rest of the school was doing, but Rose herself spent her time wherever Malfoy wasn't. Which was pretty hard because it looked like Malfoy had made friends with Albus, which left Rose short one cousin. The rest of her cousins had other things to do than hang around with their younger cousin. Especially an 'ickle firstie' cousin who happened to not even be in their house.
The first week of school was harder for Rose to avoid Malfoy; they were in all the same classes after all. But Rose never sat next to him, or even close enough to him that she might hear his voice in class, and when she was studying in the library or the common room she sat far enough from him that she couldn't hear him, and positioned herself so that she couldn't see him either.
After two month of this however a flaw was noticed in Rose's mastermind plan to avoid all contact with the youngest Malfoy. Not only was a flaw noticed, it was pointed out to Rose by her unavoidably stupider (although braver) cousin Albus. The flaw? Malfoy hadn't done anything to anyone to warrant his treatment.
Albus brought it to Rose because they were in the same house. Rose however was not feeling kind to her fellow men, and screamed at Albus about how he was a Malfoy and look at all the things they had done to their family, and why was Albus defending the little booger? Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you ask, Malfoy himself overheard Rose's screaming rant (very few in the school could have said they missed it), and he did his best to stay out of Rose's way for the rest of the term.
Rose and Albus didn't say another word to each other until they got onto the Hogwarts Express, and that conversation was very short.
"You sitting with Malfoy?"
"Yeah, you sitting with the Ravenclaws?"
"No, Stella,"
"Fine, see you on Christmas,"
"Bye,"
Obviously not the most civil conversation between cousins who used to be the best of friends. Unfortunately, this rocky relationship was doomed to get worse before it could get better.
~*~
So, This story has a much faster pace than I normally write, and that has always been the plan for it. I plan on having ten chapters at the most, and we're going to traverse three years in Rose, Scorpius, and the rest's lives. So we've gotten to Christmas break, Rose is on most everyone's bad sides and it's going to get worse before it gets better. I'm thinking I'll go into more details in the next chapter than I did in this one, but I haven't decided yet.
If anyone is mad at me for Rose's prejudice and how mean she's being I have a reason, and remember, Scorpius and Rose do get together in the end, they just had a bumpy start the size of Mount Everest.