chapter 4;

A/N- I've realized that I've added a little too much of Rose's friends (and they're all OCs so not everyone probably likes them) so in this chapter, you get some Weasley/Potter clan bonding :3 Tell me what you want me to add in the reviews!

By the time Friday rolled around, I was almost bursting with anticipation and excitement about going to Hogsmeade. I wasn't sure if I had ever been so excited to go to Hogsmeade before. I wasn't as excited last year when the third years were finally allowed to go to Hogsmeade. I had been to Hogsmeade numerous times in the past. But this time, I was almost too excited.

I wanted to escape all the drama, again, and just spend the next two hours in the village drinking hot butterbeer (as it was getting cold), buying a month's supply of candy with my friends so we could stash it in our dormitory, be forced to go to Zonko's with James and Fred, my cousins, and laughing through the village.

"You're excited," Lily noted once she saw me that afternoon in the Great Hall. Every Halloween, they cut the last class for everyone, which was nice.

"Yeah, I am. I wish you were going as well," I said sadly to Lily. She and my brother, Hugo, still had another year before they could go on the monthly Hogsmeade visits. But again, our families had been to Hogsmeade multiple times before.

"Whatever," Lily waved me off, "be sure to get me something from Honeydukes."

"Sure!" I replied. It was time to go now as all the third years and above started piling out of the Great Hall.

"Bye, Lil," I said to her before walking out of the Great Hall.

"Bye, Rose!" Lily called to me.

I got my folded-up permission out incase someone walked around to collect it.

"Hi, guys," I greeted Summer, Zoe, and Lizzie when I found them standing near the back of the group of kids that were going to Hogsmeade.

"Hey!" Zoe greeted me, pulling her blue scarf tighter around her neck.

"Is it really that cold?" I joked a little. I was only wearing my blue jeans and a matching blue and grey striped jacket. Zoe on the other hand was wearing a blue scarf, black coat, and an owl beanie. Compared to her, I felt as if I was freezing. It was kind of windy, but not too cold.

"Nope. Zoe's just a freak," Summer smiled, putting her hands in the pockets of her maroon cardigan.

"Thanks," Zoe replied sarcastically.

"C'mon, we're going," Lizzie pointed at the group that started to walk.

"Permission slip?" a professor asked us once we started walking. We gave our permission slips to the professor and walked to Hogsmeade.

The walk wasn't that long, a mere 10 minutes. By the time we got to the village, we could smell the butterscotchy smell of butterbeer coming from The Three Broomsticks.

"Where should we go first?" I asked my friends.

"Can we hit The Three Broomsticks please?" Lizzie asked us.

"No! Look at the line," Summer pointed at the crowd of people lining out of the Three Broomsticks. This wasn't too weird or unusual. The Three Broomsticks was always packed on days like this.

"I've got a great idea!" Lizzie exclaimed suddenly.

"If it's bodyslamming the people in the line for the Three Brooksticks out of the way to get your butterbeer, no!" Zoe replied.

"No! Let's go to Miranda's!" Lizzie answered Zoe.

My eyes widened. As much as I loved my friends, I was not in the mood to go to Miranda's right now. I was here at Hogsmeade to hang out and stuff, not shopping.

Miranda's was a dress shop that opened in Hogsmeade a few years ago and it was well known for its party dresses which were popular with us Hogwarts girls. I had been there before when it first opened with my older cousin, Dominique, and we made fun of the girls who were trying on dresses and stuff.

"Great idea!" Summer high-fived Lizzie.

"Um, I'm not really in the mood for dress shopping right now... I'll just go to Honeydukes," I mumbled right before they started walking east of Hogsmeade to Miranda's.

"You're not going with us?" Zoe cried.

"Um, maybe next time. I'm just a little tired right now," I lied. It wasn't a complete lie though. I was pretty tired from the classes and wasn't in the mood to go dress shopping.

"Bye, Rose," my friends called to me as they were walking down the road and to the dress shop.

I had about 2 hours to myself now, alone. What should I do? I had a sack of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts and I was alone in Hogsmeade. I decided to head to Honeydukes first to get some candy.

"Happy Halloween!" someone in the front of Honeydukes greeted me as I walked into the candy shop.

I smiled. I headed over to near the back of the store where the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Jellybeans were. They were my favourite and everytime I went to Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, I had to get at least two bags of them.

As I finally got my two bags of Bertie Bott's Jellybeans and got into line to pay, I saw my cousin Lucy, who was in her fifth year, standing nearby checking out the Acid Pop display.

"Luce!" I called to her, getting out of my place in line to meet her. Unlike the rest of the Weasley/Potter clan, Lucy wasn't in Gryffindor, but in Hufflepuff. We rarely had time to talk and she was in the year above. Lucy was my closest-to-my-age cousin, excluding Al.

Lucy turned around and smiled when she saw me. "Hi, Ro!" she exclaimed cheerfully. Lucy had long chestnut brown hair and brilliant bright blue eyes. She was the perfect example of a Hufflepuff student; she was always nice to everyone, she was always cheerful and accepting.

"Why are you alone?" I asked her curiously. When I usually see Lucy walking around Hogwarts in the corridors, she would be surrounded by many of her friends. This was unusual.

"They're all at Miranda's," Lucy groaned, "why are you alone? Where are Zoe and those girls?" Lucy knew some of my friends because of Zoe being on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Mine too!" I exclaimed loudly, not noticing that some people had turned to look to see what was going on.

Lucy laughed a little, "I'm not exactly in the mood to go dress shopping. I mean, it's Halloween. Do these people even know how precious Halloween in Hogsmeade is?"

I nodded in agreement. Well, Halloween was only once a year, and Hogsmeade took celebrating this holiday seriously. There were pumpkins carved in elaborate designs everywhere, Halloween decorstions hanging everywhere, and Hogsmeade was flooded with people just handing out free candy.

"Exactly," I agreed with Lucy. After I paid for my Bertie Bott's Jellybeans, Lucy and I headed out of Honeydukes.

"What'cha want to do?" Lucy asked me, "we can always go to Three Broomsticks." She pointed at it from across.

"Sure," I shrugged. The Three Broomsticks didn't look as crowded as it did about half an hour ago and even if it was dead empty, my friends probably didn't want to go to hang out and drink butterbeer anyways.

"C'mon," Lucy said to me as we headed into The Three Broomsticks.

It was about 3/4 full so we found an empty table for two easily. "Two butterbeers," Lucy said to a waitress after we were seated.

"That's it?" the waitress scribbled down our order. I nodded.

"Thank you," Lucy said politely to the waitress once she walked off to get our butterbeers. Lucy then turned her attention over to me, "What's up with your life?"

I sighed. If there was one word to describe how my life had basically turned upside down in less than a week, it would be 'overwhelming.'

"Tiring," I replied, choosing a closely related word to the one I had in mind. But it was true. The Yule Ball approaching, the giant Charms project Professor Flitwick assigned, and finding out that Scorpius has a girlfriend?

"You're a fourth year, it can't be that rough, can it?" Lucy asked me as the waitress came back with our butterbeers, "thank you."

"Oh, it's bad," I said to her. I tried to sum it up about the Yule Ball, the project, and Scorpius in less than 3 minutes.

"Whoa, wait? Scorpius Malfoy? Like Al's best friend?" Lucy asked me curiously after I finished.

"Yup." I took a sip of the butterbeer that was in front of me. Albus, my cousin, and Scorpius Malfoy were best friends even though they were in Gryffindor and Slytherin. Everyone in our family knew about their friendship.

"Wow, who is this girl?" Lucy asked.

"Some girl named Serena Whiteley," I replied.

"Hmm. I've heard of her. She has a nice name I guess?" Lucy tried to make light of the situation.

"Hey, it's Luce and Rose!" We heard a voice call for us.

Lucy and I turned our heads in the direction we heard out names being called.

Our cousins, Fred and James approached us, their hands full of products from Zonko's. No surprise there. Fred and James were the big pranksters of our family along with Fred's sister, Roxanne, and our cousin who had graduated from Hogwarts a few years ago, Dominique.

"Hey, guys," Lucy waved at them. I smiled. They pulled out two chairs from a nearby table once they got to our table and sat down.

"Why didn't you guys get us any butterbeer?" Fred joked, pointing at the two glasses of butterbeer in front of us for Lucy and me.

"Hah, sorry," I smirked, "you can get your own butterbeers."

"Please!" James wheedled, "we spent almost our entire money on Zonko's products." He pointed at the items he and Fred had. Fred nodded in agreement.

"How... how can you even spend all your money on Zonko's products? In my five years here at Hogwarts, I've never even stepped foot into Zonko's!" Lucy cried in disbelief.

"That's because you're an innocent Hufflepuff, Luce. And Molly probably wouldn't let you, would she?" Fred snickered.

"Shut up!" Lucy replied. Molly was Lucy's older sister and was a Ravenclaw and from what I saw, Molly was kind of protective of Lucy even though Lucy was already in her fifth year. Molly was in her seventh and last year here at Hogwarts.

"You guys are so weird," I said to the three of them. Lucy narrowed her eyebrows. "Not you, Luce," I said quickly to her.

"But seriously. You've never been to Zonko's?" James asked Lucy.

"Again, Molly doesn't allow it, does she?" Fred teased.

"But I've gone out with more guys than her!" Lucy cried annoyedly.

"You have!?" I laughed. I couldn't believe it. I had never seen Lucy with a guy walking around Hogwarts or her talking about one, but again, we're not in the same house, and she's older.

James wolf-whistled and Fred patted her on the back. "Shut up!" Lucy said angrily.

"Fine. But Luce, you know we're just playing with you?" Fred asked her.

Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Are you going to the Yule Ball, Little Rosie Posie?" James turned his attention over to me.

"Don't talk to him. Stranger danger," Lucy said to me.

"Cousins by blood," James reminded Lucy.

I laughed. "Well, I dunno..." I replied to James.

"I wanna see who you're going to ask to dance," Lucy said to James.

"Someone awfully desperate and ugly and probably has shagged half the school," I joked. It was rare of me to make jokes about shagging or making fun of people but again, it was James.

Fred burst out laughing, "Good job! Little Rosie Posie is growing up!"

"Don't call me 'Little Rosie Posie'," I scowled at Fred.

"Well, I've been asked to the Yule Ball once..." James said.

"By who!?" Lucy asked him, not believing him.

"Sammy Endyn," James replied.

"Did you say yes?" I asked James, "and who is this girl!?"

"I said no. And she's a sixth year Ravenclaw," James replied.

"Poor Sammy Endyn," Fred said dryly.

"I told her that it was too early to decide whether I wanted to go to the Yule Ball with someone or be home with my family," James replied.

"You liar! You're obviously going to the Yule Ball! You're not spending time with family any time this holiday!" Lucy said to him.

"I'm spending time with you people right now. You're my cousins. Cousins are family," James pointed out, "and besides, Sammy Endyn isn't at all my type. A little too ugly."

"James! You git!" Lucy stood up and smacked him on the arm,

"you don't call people ugly! She might've been really scared to ask you!"

"She's not my type! Calm down!" James exclaimed defensively.

"Still!" Lucy said.

"Okay, we're bored," Fred said and stood up. "It's been nice talking to you two cousins," he added and pushed his chair in, "let's go, James."

"Yeah. Somewhere where people don't hit other people," James said, eyeing Lucy.

"Somewhere where people don't call other people ugly!" Lucy shot back.

"Nice comeback," I complemented her once Fred and James were out of earshot.

"Yeah, I have my moments," Lucy smiled.

"We still haven't finished our butterbeers," I pointed at the two half-drank butterbeers that Lucy and I had long forgotton about and now were dripping onto the table.

"C'mon, let's chug it," Lucy suggested, smiling a little.

"Alright," I shrugged and picked up my glass, "go!"

Lucy and I slammed down our glasses nearly at the same time. The glasses were completely empty now. It was kind of nice, chugging down the cold-ish butterbeer. It left a butterscotchy after taste.

After we finished, Lucy left a Galleon on our empty table and we walked out of The Three Broomsticks.

"C'mon, let's head back to Hogwarts. I bet the feast is starting soon," I said to Lucy once we were outside of The Three Broomsticks. The sky was now an orangeish pink and there were less Hogwarts students around and they were all heading down the path back to Hogwarts.

"I forgot about the feast!" Lucy exclaimed as she and I started walking back to Hogwarts.

"Yeah, the feast where they serve ubër good food, floating carved pumpkins and cool bats flying everywhere?" I reminded Lucy playfully.

"Oh yeah! I love the Halloween feast!" Lucy smiled. I loved the Halloween feast as well. It was one of my favourite days of the year.

"Ditto!" I replied to Lucy.

We continued talking about the Halloween feast and our favourite Halloween feast memories until we got back to Hogwarts. When we got to the Great Hall, most kids were sitting at their house tables waiting for the feast to begin.

"Bye, Luce," I said to my cousin as she headed to her table, Hufflepuff, and I walked to the Gryffindor table. As I headed there I thought, 'Wow. This has been a good Halloween so far.'