Rosie jumped off the train at Hogsmeade station, and held open the door for the other students. She didn't look them in the eye, she just held the door open whilst floods of first years in their plain black uniforms, with their plain black cloaks and no house ties, excited about being sorted into a house. She remembered how excited she was to be going into Hogwarts, but also how scared she was about ending up in the 'right house'. She was affraid of the sorting hat, Rosie had never been more affraid of a peice of clothing before in her life, but she was affraid of the sorting hat. She was so affraid that she wouldn't end up in the house her father had wanted, so affraid that she'd be a family disgrace; she nearly puked on her way across the black lake in the boats, and once again on her way up the great hall between two of the tables. She began to wonder what it would have been like if she'd been sorted into a different house. Perhaps, would things have been less complicated if she were in Slytherin? Would she be in less fights if she were in the meek and humble Hufflepuff? Would her mother have stopped lecturing her about her exams had she been placed in the witty, all knowing Ravenclaw? Her mind had been in a thousand million different places and could-have-beens and was woken up suddenly and crashed back down to earth when James and Natalie jumped infront of her waving infront of her daydreaming eyes.
"Wake up dolly daydream!" James laughed, "The little 'uns are off the train now, we can go get into a carriage, c'mon!" Natalie held her hand when James walked away quickly to catch up with his seventh year friends. Natalie gave Rosie an all knowing look.
"Everything okay?" she asked, guiding Rosie to a black open top carriage that seemed to have arrived there completely by itself. Natalie knew things were not okay, she could always tell when Rosie was upset, even if Rosie hadn't even acknowledged it to herself yet. They had been best friends since they were in their second year, and so Natalie had had plenty of experience to Rosie's wild and frequent mood swings.
"Yeah, everything's fine," Rosie lied, trying not to put her head up, knowing she had tears streaming down her face. She wasn't crying because she had left David, she was crying because she knew he'd felt nothing when she walked away. That was the reason she cried so much these days. She had felt too much for the wrong person, and had nothing else to do about it other than cry. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She smiled at Natalie, wiping her tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her robe. It was hard not to spew everything to Natalie about what had happened in the book shop, what had happened just then on the train, and how she was getting a little bit giddy seeing Malfoy walking past them just that moment. She saw Albus, the twins and Layla all sat in a small black carriage and tugged Natalie along with her.
The carriage ride was bumpy and long, but the laughing and chatting from her friends made it a little less bearable for Rosie; it was really begining to hit hard how much she was feeling. She was so confused and had no idea why. She could see the friendly, warm, bright lights of the castle and her heart was begining to fill with almost a homesickness (the kind of releife you get when you get home after a long holiday), and she zoned out of her friends conversations and focused on how much better everything would be once she got inside the grey stone walls of the castle. Once she was inside, the healing echoes of growing up studying magic would fill her again, she wouldn't need to reminisce on how pathetic she had felt when she was with David; all she needed now was a reason to fight again. A reason to be zealous and heavy handed. Something she could do and do well. Something she could be passionate about. Something... something extraodinary.
The carriages stopped at the main gate on one side of the school, a long walk approached all of the students and Rosie nearly jumped out of the horseless carriage while it was still moving. She pulled Albus out of the carriage with her, and Layla fell out after being so brutally shoved by Albus in his attempt to follow without being killed. She flug him towards the school, her face beaming, her eyes alive again. Albus knew the whole story, from start to finish, and knew that she needed someone to listen without her having to talk; she was a cunundrum like that. A living contradiction of silence and a timultous storm all in one person. At the moment, she was a storm of energy with no words to speak. She didn't speak when she was trying to hide the hurt, and Albus had seen the breakdown during the summer and had done his best to fix whatever he could of Rosie. Two problems being; one, Rosie never liked to be helped, she was as stubborn as a muel; two, how could one possibly try to help someone who didn't like talking about her problems unless she had to.
Rosie pulled them all along the path on the walk up to Hogwarts, leading the way on her own, all of her friends rediculously sluggish and tired. She was starting to feel just how hungry she had become on the train, remembering how long she had slept for, realising that she must have been asleep when the woman with the trolley came along selling cakes, and biscuits and drinks. Her stomach gave a hungry pang, and she felt cravings for chicken legs, pizza, pumpkin juice, profiterole gateux and ice. She had to admit, that as much as she loved her aunt, whom she had spent the entire summer living with; she wasn't terribly good at cooking, and the whole summer long she had had cravings and pangs for the food served at the start of year feast at Hogwarts. Realising just how hungry she was, she walked faster, eager to see other friendly faces in the great hall and to finally be able to eat- skipping out lunch was never a good idea.
She found herself quite a distance away from her friends, but her legs carried her all the way into the entrance hall, and into the great hall, leading her to the bare plain wooden table that was begining to overflow with Gryffindors. There she took her seat where she, Albus and Natalie had took residence every day since their first year. She sat squarely at the table, avoiding looking over at the Ravenclaw table where she could see a dark mass of short curls and a smug face. she didn't want to see that. She just wanted her friends over with her, and to be able to finally start eating. She looked past the Ravenclaw table, to the far side of the room from the Gryffindors. Blue-grey tint eyes cut through the gaping space between the two tables, watching her intently, the eyes brushed gently by silverly blonde locks of hair, and set into a pale, chislled face. She blinked, confused, and found herself giving a little smile at the concern Scorpius' eyes.
"You okay Weasley?" he mouthed to her. She was confused. What did it matter to him if she was okay or not? But she nodded, blinkng back tears she hadn't quite finished shedding on the train. Mouthing back a small thanks in his direction and pretended there had been no interaction between the two of them as her friends came towards her, taking their places at various parts of the hall.
The common room was always quiet in the morining, first thing before breakfast, and Rosie Weasley seemed to be the only Gryffindor up and out of bed, and completely ready for the day. She was dressed in uniform, her charcoal grey pleated skirt a few inches above her knee, her white school shirt crisp and ironed, her red and gold tie fastened and garnished with her crimson prefect badge. Her brown, curling locks sat relatively straight today, down and just brushing the halfway point of her back, just past her shoulder blades. She hauled her bag over her shoulder and walked quickly out of the portrait hole. She trudged down the marble staircase and found her way to the entrance hall.
She'd missed Hogwarts during the summer, of course she'd enjoyed the break from school work, but these cold grey castle walls held so many fond memeories for Rosie, and coming back was like meeting up with an old friend after years appart. After a minute or two in the entrance hall Rosie pushed open one of the huge heavy doors that lead into the great hall. The hall had four very long dark wooden tables, one for each house, and at this time in the morning they'd be overflowing with breakfast. Rosie floated over to the Gryffindor table and sat with her back against one of the fires that were lined against the walls of the hall. She sat quite still, letting the glow of the fire warm her back. She picked up a couple of peices of toast from the rack infront of her, and smothered them in butter, plonking them on a white china plate, and helping herself to a large mound of scrambled eggs from a golden bowl that sat so conveniently next to a jar full of cutlery. She helped her self, and found some orange juice was not too far off from her hand either. She poured a large glass full, not noticing as she poured that someone had come into the great hall. She made a start on her breakfast staring at the eggs as she played with them around her plate, and only looked up when she realised a figure had sat down infront of her. There infront of her on the Gryffindor table, was the pale, face with a crooked smile that could only belong to one person in the entirity of existance.
"Hey, Rosie," he smiled at her, that crooked smile that Rosie knew had only been the clever and intricate lips of Scorpius Malfoy, "you seemed really out of it last night. Is everything okay?" he asked, genuine concern lingeredin his tone. Rosie didn't knowhow to take this new spin on Malfoy, but for some reason really liked the attention from him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Didn't know you cared Malfoy." she said staring into him, she wasn't sure how to respond to the caring side of him. She was used to his harsh outer layer, that made him unapproachable and cocky. She was sure that this was just a phase, and that tomorrow he'd be back to his normal irratating self. She gave her morning smile, she couldn't helpit coming out maybe a little softer than she had ineded to be towards Malfoy at the begining of summer, but she was sure he had had being rude to her on his mind too.
"Of course I do, Rosie," he said, looking at her as if what she had said had hurt him, her chest felt tight and yet light at the same time, "it looked like someone had upset you, and no-one gets on Wealey'snerves but mine." he winked. She wasn't sure how to take that. But smiled at him, and felt herself start to blush. Her smile began to get a litle neverous, and hoping Scorpius couldn'tsee it, she stared at her breakfast, intent on not letting him see her face a violent magenta, and played nervously with the end of a lock of her hair.
"Erm,thanks, Scorpius. That's, nice... of you." she faltered a little on her words. She had een thinking about how rude she had been to him in the bookstore and felt a little guilty. Perhaps all he had wanted out of the incident in question was a conversation? She lookedup and smiled at him again, he winked back to her over his shoulder as he walked away.