Rose yawned, feeling her body complain at the moment. She could feel a weight at her side. Her brother's mop of hair was barely in view and she contemplated the shouting from the night before. What had been broken? Slowly she shuffled away from her brother, grabbing the covered diary as she moved. It had closed during the night and thankfully had not been damaged. She grabbed some clothes and moved into the bathroom to ready herself for the day.

The rest of the house was void of life and she was pleased she had the place to herself. As she moved into the living room she noticed a red stain near where Draco had sat. A towel had been tossed nearby, some of the liquid had soaked into the fabric and away from the carpet. Had her mother not bothered to clean it? She frowned. Tentatively she stepped towards the towel, picking it up. It smelled like wine and Rose released a breath she had not realised had become trapped. Her next goal was the kitchen, she felt hunger start to ebb into her. The diary was placed on the kitchen table and the towel found a wash basket to rest in. She began to drag a chair towards one of the higher cupboards. Normally her mother made them breakfast but occasionally Rose would rise before her and ready herself breakfast, it did not feel unusual. Her mother was likely still asleep. As she sat eating her cereal she started to flick through the diary again, finding another entry to read.

-x-

We had potions with the Hufflepuff's today and Professor said that it'd be a longer assessed piece of work. Mixing a potion, followed by a short essay, followed by a presentation. We got to select which potion and the Professor claimed it was an experimental piece of assessed work. Presentations are not commonly done, it will be interesting to see how people do. We had to get into groups of two to work on it and I decided to take advantage of this and asked Severus if he was happy to work with me. He looked at me for a long time like I was crazy but eventually agreed. He stipulated that I did exactly as he requested in mixing the potion and did not get in his way. I agreed. Worst case situation I would not have to do much work. Some of the other girls gave me strange looks for my choice of partner, Severus often does group work on his own. If need be I can explain my choice as merely wishing for a good grade, it would not be that unusual.
Severus had already decided on the potion and went to get the ingredients, more strange looks of course but everyone seemed to be going about their potions quickly. Most of the other groups were still comparing and working out which would be best. When he returned I was mostly relegated to chopping and cutting while Severus did most of the potion work himself. I must admit it was fairly pleasant, although he worked mostly in silence he was nice when he wished for me to do something. I had kind of expected him to be aggressive or shout based on his previous insistence, but he seemed to have developed levels of patience. Occasionally he would instruct me to write some instructions down as we worked. His notes were far more complicated than I had expected, and occasionally I'd have to get him to repeat them to ensure I got them correct. In spare time I copied a spare set of his instructions, so that we could both have a copy. He has agreed to meet with me after lessons to get some of the extra work done. It is slightly easier as we are both in the same house. I must admit I am slightly nervous, it is the best opportunity I have to acquire the information I need from him, but I do not know how to approach it even slightly.

The rest of my lectures were of little interest but Lucius managed to corner me on the way back to my dormitory. He was attempting to be sweet to me, I think. He asked me how my lessons had gone and generally made small talk. He seemed nice enough, but I am still unsure about him. Something seems strange in his behaviour and his gaggle on hanger on's does not help my opinion.

I shall write more after my meeting with Severus, I guess. For now I have nothing else to write about.

Narcissa

-x-

Rose finished her cereal as she finished the entry and moved to place it in the sink. A figure appeared at the door and she almost jumped.
"Oh, morning dad" She muttered, shutting the book and smiling. He looked haggard, his hair a mess of red.
"Morning" He muttered, stepping into the room and slumping into one of the chairs. "What is that book?" He leered at the cover, appearing annoyed.

"I'm borrowing it from Scorpius" Rose lied fluently. She figured mentioning Scorpius would be safer then telling the truth. Her father scowled.

"You should not hang out with that boy, he is trouble" Rose remained silent, unsure how to reply. "Just like his father".

"I need to go finish packing" Rose blurted out, thankful for the ability to escape. She and Scorpius would soon be going to Hogwarts and she was pleased that she would be away from the shouting, although she wished she could take her brother as well.
When she got into her room her brother was missing, presumably having awoken and returned to his own room. She sat on her bed in silence for a few moments. Was everything going to be okay between her parents? Their arguments had gotten more frequent and the topic always seemed the same.