A/N: Usually I am more of a Slytherin!Albus kind of person... but for all intents and purposes of this story, I have chosen to Sort his elsewhere. Thank you for your kindness and your patience with the story thus far!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine. However, anything you DON'T recognize belongs to me. Let's keep it that way.
Rose's stomach turned this way and that as she waited for the train three weeks later. For the last six years of her life, Platform 9 ¾ had been a source of unbridled excitement at the prospect of seeing her friends and once again returning to Hogwarts to learn even more than she had the previous year. This year, however, she was dreading the arrival of the train. The train would, undoubtedly, be where she met up with Malfoy after so many blissful months of separation.
"I can't do this," she said, shaking her head in a way that rivaled Hermione Granger-Weasley.
"Of course you can, Rosie!" Mum smiled and smoothed her daughter's hair out of her face.
"Nope. Not with him! He'll make my life even more miserable than he already does!"
"Now, Rose-" Hermione started.
"He does, Mum!" Rose insisted, "I swear he lives to make my life a living hell!"
"Rose Nymphadora Weasley," Mum Voice, "you will shape up this. Instant. I do not want to hear another nasty word come out of your mouth about Scorpius Malfoy, do you understand me?"
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Yes, Mum."
"Good. Now… do you have your bag?"
Rose smiled at the way her mother asked the question softly, bittersweet in the way she knew it meant goodbye, "yeah."
"Jumper?" Every year she asked, and every year it was almost as if she hoped Rose had forgotten something so that she didn't have to leave. Rose smirked and nodded. Hermione could never keep her eyes dry when saying goodbye to Rose and Hugo, "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you, too, Mum." After a long hug and a kiss on the cheek, Rose turned to her father.
He beamed down at her with obvious pride.
"Can you believe this is my last year at Hogwarts?" Rose asked; the question sounded like it was directed to the air, "seems like only yesterday you were dropping me off for the first time with a hug and a bag of Wheezes in my pocket," she offered a timid smile. Ron was silent, but smiling. "And who knows," Rose continued, an evil thought entering her brain, "next you'll be dropping me off at the isle!"
Without warning, Rose found herself wrapped in her dad's warm, suffocating embrace.
"Merlin, Rosie," he whispered into her ginger colored hair, "not yet, please." It was the please that caught her attention; Dad never begged.
"Believe me, Daddy," she joked, "that won't be any time soon!"
He didn't laugh; he held her at arm's length and gave her a small smile that said all she needed to know. He said it aloud anyways, "I love you. Do well."
"I will," and with that said, she turned and headed for the train, leaving her parents to say their goodbye's to Hugo.
Rose quickly found her way to Compartment 1, where the Prefects and Heads met up for the first time to discuss what needed to happen when they arrived at Hogwarts, and discovered that Malfoy had not yet arrived. Although she didn't expect anything less from the Blonde-Wonder, anyways.
"Is everyone here?" Rose asked the large group of Prefects who were mingling in the magically enlarged car. Most of them turned to her with anticipation in their eyes, excluding the Slytherins. "Good! Now, before we begin, I would just like to-" she was cut off by Scorpius Malfoy barging into the compartment like a bull in a china shop (another saying she learned from her mum).
"Sorry I'm late!" he huffed as if he had sprinted all the way to Hogwarts and back, "I- oh! Weasley! What a pleasant surprise," he smirked. Rose didn't want to, but she felt her heart sink just a little bit; she hadn't expected the torture to start so early on in their journey.
"Don't act so surprised, Malfoy," she drawled in a near perfect impression of his usually bored demeanor, "you got the same exact letter that I did."
"Yes, but I had forgotten how punctual you are… quite annoying, isn't it?" he said with a sneer in her direction and a smirk in Petunia's.
"What's annoying?" Rose asked, trying hard not to show that she was seething underneath her own sneer, "the fact that I know how to be on time? What were you doing, anyways?"
"That's classified, Weasley," Malfoy said dismissively with a wave of his long, pale fingers, "now, how about we get down to Head business?" Rose gagged when he winked at her with his repulsive grey eyes and elongated pretty-boy lashes.
"You're disgusting."
"Hush up, Weasel. I know you like it."
"Your disgusting-ness? Or how I can revel in the fact that my Uncle Charlie's stables smell better than you?"
"Touché… touché," he kept that infuriating smirk in place the whole time. Rose hated that he never showed when he was mad, if he ever got mad-that is, because he always kept that smirk. If there were any one expression that made Rose want to drop kick a man in the mouth- it was that one.
"Just get on with it, Malfoy, if you're so eager for the attention."
"I've got all the attention I need, Weasel," he gestured to all of the Prefects surrounding them. She had forgotten about the twenty-two other people in the room who were watching in rapt attention. Rose frowned but let him continue speaking. "Alright, lads and ladies," he said, taking Rose's roll as spokesperson, "let's get down to business…"
"How was the first Prefects meeting of the year, cuz?" Dominique asked with a well-practiced toss of her strawberry blond hair. How she ever managed to escape the curse of the Weasley Frizz, Rose would never know, but it probably had something to do with her very small (but very obvious) Veela bloodline.
"Don't even start with her, Dom," Albus chuckled as he took his seat next to Rose and across from Dom in the Great Hall, rubbing his palms together in anticipation for the no doubt amazing first feast of the new term. "Malfoy showed her up right from the start."
Rose was still fuming; "FIRST of all," she began agitatedly. "Malfoy did NOT 'show me up,' alright?"
Albus and Dom nodded, if only to placate her anger a touch- needless to say it was an unsuccessful attempt.
"Second of all," she stressed each word with careful precision as she glared sullenly at the Slytherin table at the other end of the hall, watching in unsuppressed disgust as Malfoy and his cronies laughed at some stupid magazine article. "I couldn't care less about Malfoy anyways," the chill demeanor she had maintained throughout the meeting came back; this time it was much less forced. "I handled that meeting like a true professional, isn't that right, Al?"
Al coughed as if he were choking up a lung, although Rose wasn't sure what he could've been choking on, seeing as the Sorting was not yet finished; therefore the food had yet to appear.
"Well… not at first…" a quick glare stopped him from taking that statement in an unsatisfactory direction. "But she took control of the situation pretty fast!" he finished instead. "You should've seen her, Dom," he said as he clapped absently for the first year that had just been Sorted into Gryffindor. "She was amazing! Knocked Malfoy's arse down a few pegs, too I reckon."
Rose smiled gratefully, "thanks, Al!" she said as the Sorting ended and the wonderful food finally appeared on table, permeating the air with its mix of aromas. Meats and sweets were piled from end to end, broken up by the occasional bowl of veg or potatoes. All conversation betwixt the three of them came to a halt as they dug in, too immersed in the delicious meal to care about mindless chit-chat. They didn't need to talk anyways; their friendship was deep enough that they could go without conversation for weeks- and still be able to pick up right where they left off (not that they ever went more than a fortnight without any letters or meetups).
Dominique and Albus had always been Rose's favorite cousins. It wasn't that she didn't love her other cousins as much, but she had never connected with them like she had with the cousins in her own year.
Percy and Audrey's kids were all right, she supposed, but twenty-year-old Molly had a rather stiff and sour disposition-even for the stereotypical Ravenclaw. She frowned almost constantly (in fact, Rose couldn't recall a time when the girl had EVER cracked a smile) and she used even bigger words than Rose (though Rose chalked this up to an attempt to impress her Ministry worker, boring-ass father- Molly really had gotten stuck in the shallow end of the Weasley family gene pool).
Then there was Lucy. Sweet, annoyingly naive Lucy… she was only a year behind Rose, but she had an ever-present air of first year innocence that irked Rose whenever she was around. She was so irritating, that Rose felt BAD for being annoyed with her- which was saying a lot, coming from Rose, who felt bad for pretty much nothing she'd ever said or done.
George and Angelina's twins were mischievous at best, and two years older than Rose, but Roxanne had quickly grown out of that stage and become more obsessed with make-up and Muggle fashions in her third year at Hogwarts. After graduation, she became a designer, and her clothes were instantly famous with Muggles and wizards alike. Fred, on the other hand, had always been a trouble maker. The dark skinned ginger had teamed up with James Potter early on in their Hogwarts career, vowing to become the reincarnated versions of Fred and George in their prime, wrecking havoc on the school in a way that would have made Fred's namesake proud. They were working for George now, employees and future owners of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Roxanne was nice enough, but Rose never really got to know her, and Fred… well, let's just say that she'd been the butt of Fred's pranks one too many times to ever feel especially close to him.
Bill and Fleur's children were definitely the most beautiful. It wasn't something they ever brought to attention, but everyone knew it was true. Victoire had long since graduated Hogwarts, since she was six years older than Rose, and had been dating Teddy Lupin since they were both old enough to talk. She was a model, working almost exclusively for her cousin and best friend Roxanne. With her platinum blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and angel soft skin (not to mention the Veela blood), no one questioned her choice of career as anything but perfect for her. Again, though, she was so much older than Rose, and her effortlessly sexy attitude did not mesh well with Rose's blunt sarcasm and blatant disregard of Victoire's vegan lifestyle.
Dom was perfect of course, and so unlike her older sister in every aspect but beauty. Dom was sporty and sarcastic, and just as disgusting as Fred and James when they held their burping contests (Dom won every time). She was the perfect Gryffindor, and the best friend Rose had ever had. Louis, however, was shy and quiet… he and Lucy were in the same year, and the only Weasley's Sorted into Hufflepuff in over fifty years, but that seemed to suit him just fine. He was friendly, of course, but Rose had a certain intolerance for quiet.
And then there were the Potter's. Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry had definitely done a fine job with their brood, because, out of all of her other cousins, she preferred the company of their three children the best (including, Dom, of course). James Potter had inherited his father's ruddy eyesight, but his chic, stylish frames (custom designed by Roxy) out-cooled Harry's ancient, round lenses any day (Rose often wondered why he didn't get new ones- but Mum always said they were like a novelty item to him, so Rose let it alone). He was cocky and arrogant, especially when he was in the same room as Fred (so… always), but he was also charming and fun. He was a fabulous Quidditch player and, when he wasn't helping out at the shop, he played for the Wimbourn Wasps (much to Ron's chagrin- he would have much rather had his nephew play for his favorite team, the Chudley Cannons, although they were the losers of the century).
Albus was sort of a recluse, and definitely more in touch with his cunning side. James could pull extraordinary pranks until the cows came home, but Rose knew, if he truly wanted to, Al could pull off a better one. Plus, no would ever guess it was him. It was a wonder he hadn't been Sorted into Slytherin.
Little Lily, who was in fifth year with Hugo, seemed to be the only Potter child to escape Harry's horrid vision- thank Merlin. She was bubbly, but not so much so that Rose was annoyed by her. She was definitely more Slytherin than she let on, and could probably skip away from a murder scene with a bloodied knife in hand without being sent to Azkaban. Rose respected her, but Lily was closer to Hugo and Lucy.
Teddy was more of an honorary Potter, but Rose had been attached to him practically since she left the womb. He never ceased to make her laugh with his Metamorphmagus skills, and she had, once upon a time, fancied herself in love with him. She had been young, though, and he was obviously in love with Victoire (a poor choice on his part, Rose thought, but at least she was accepting of his acute Lycanthropy, and didn't force her veganism upon him). His relationship with Victoire was eventually what drove them apart, of course, because he was eight years her senior and, especially whilst trying to have an adult companionship, he no longer had time to spend with 'His Favorite Weasley' (this title was always followed by a sly wink and a joking "don't tell Vic").
All in all, Rose loved her family with all of her heart… but Dom and Al definitely took the cake when it came right down to it. She could tell them anything, no matter what, and they would always listen and take her side (even if she were wrong); she would do the same for them. They were joined, hip to hip, and they had even purchased special connection journals from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes so that they could communicate during the classes that they did not share.
Rose smiled at the pair as they bickered over something frivolous like Al's crushes or Dom's Quidditch stats…
And she was finally resolved. She would not let someone as trite as Malfoy ruin her last year at Hogwarts with the people she loved, no sir. So with her new mentality, Rose wasted no time in jumping into their argument ("Are you kidding, Al? She's got the body of a goddess but the personality of a brick wall! No, Dom, I don't think Gorgovitch is going to get his act together anytime soon...")
