A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to update, lots of stuff going on.

"Uncle Harry?" Rose asked pointing her wand squarely at her uncle's chest.

"Rosie? What are you doing here?"

"Dad?"

Rose looked at Harry again; she started to lower her wand but thought better of it. She had been trained to assess threats before relinquishing weaponry; the side effect of being an Auror's child was that you became overly suspicious.

"What did I say to you before I got on the Hogwarts express this year?" Rose asked her wand perfectly positioned for attack if necessary.

"Please don't let dad do anything embarrassing" Harry answered with a smirk in Ron's direction. Rose took a deep breath and dropped her wand to her side. Ron beamed in Harry's direction; his daughter was a smart girl.

"Very good work Rose, everyone is a threat until proven otherwise. I really do wish you'd consider being an Auror" Harry said taking his niece in a bear hug.

"I would Uncle Harry, but I truly possess no interest in chasing bad guys. I did not have to face Voldemort so everyone seems scary to me." Ron took his daughter and gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head. Rose looked between her father and his best friend, they both looked at her and then they all began to laugh. It was a strange situation to be in after all.

"So Rosie, what are you doing here?" Harry asked when they had all calmed down.

"I came to study, what are you doing here?" Rose asked puzzled.

"We've been having reports at the Ministry about noise coming from a known hideout of Lord Voldemort, and after the last time we thought we should probably check it out, we did all think that bastard was dead once before." Rose stared at her father, if her mother had been around to hear him use that kind of language in front of her Ron might be seriously injured by now.

"That was probably me, I've been practicing Charms, conjuring mostly. I probably have been making a little bit of noise, I forget that people can hear things coming from here, I didn't bother to but up any charms because I thought people didn't come up here anymore."

"Did you consider, perhaps, that you are particularly loud?" Harry asked smirking at Rose. It was no secret that Rose was perhaps one of the quieter members of her family, there was her Uncle George of course, which set the bar fairly high.

"What on earth could you possibly need to study? You've had all of the N.E.W.T. level spells down since summer" Ron stated, remembering very well the hours of endless practice his daughter had engaged in both with her mother and alone.

"I've still not got conjuring large items down."

"Rose, what exactly tdo you think they're going to ask you to conjure? A bedroom setting? You made this chair right? I think that is probably more than enough." Harry shook his head.

"I suppose you're probably right, though I might point out that you have never done your final exams so you have no right to comment, you don't understand the stress" Rose said with far more drama than was needed and throwing her hand on her forehead for extra effect.

Harry put a hand to his heart pretending he'd been stabbed by the sharpness of her comment, stumbling around the room before finally falling into the chair he'd gotten out of. Rose looked at him rolling her eyes, her Uncle did always have a flair for the flamboyant where entertaining the children was concerned. Ron laughed at the two of them before gesturing to his watch.

"Harry we'd better report back to the ministry before the whole department is out here" he said, stepping forward to hug Rose one more time, "good luck Rosie, we all know you'll do very well."

Harry grabbed Rose's hand squeezed it, nodding at her father's statement. Rose smiled at them both as they stood up and prepared to apparate. A moment later Rose was looking at an empty space. She stepped forward pulling out her wand and began to practice some of the spells she'd read about earlier that morning.

Emeraging from the Great Hall that afternoon Rose was relieved that she had managed to conjure every item she had been asked to, all she wanted now was a long bath and to go to bed. She was really starting to feel the effects of the past two night's lost sleep.

She had chosen not to acknowledge Scorpius for the rest of the day, his horrible behaviour that morning, combined with her bruised ego over him not choosing her as his Ball date, had left her with few kind things to say to him. Albus had attempted to get them to talk but it was obvious that Rose had made up her mind.

Sinking into a bath Rose sighed, this is what life is meant to be like. She laid her head back against the bath edge and closed her eyes. Her mind instantly floated to Scorpius, the curve of his chin, the shine of his hair, the way his mouth looked so…her eyes flew open, so much for being mature and accepting him not being with her. Rose swam across the bath and back trying to expell some her her nervous energy. Perhaps she was better off not talking to anyone until the N.E.W.T.s were over, everyone was only going to distract her by saying something about Scorpius.

Rose read over her Transfiguration essay once more before she was happy to hand it in. She was the last student left in the Great Hall intent on using every second of the alotted time to perfect her exam. She had been the last person during each and every written exam they had done to leave the room, even Josh had handed in his paper over twenty minutes ago. She was certain there was something she had forgotten to mention and she was determined to find it in the next ten minutes before her time was up. Correcting her final paragraph Rose ran to the front of the room, placing her parchment on the pile with ten seconds to spare.

Rose stretched her arms above her head not believing it was all over, she was now offically done with school, there would be a graduation ceremony next week, the Ball the following night and then she would be released into the 'real world'. For everyday she spent at Hogwarts after her first exam the stronger her feelings about going too muggle college got, she needed a break from magic, from the same old people. There wasn't anything she wanted in this world right now.

Rose took a deep breath and headed up to the Gryffindor Common room, preferring that to spending the rest of the day outside with the other seventh years. Rose had become more withdrawn over the fortnight of exams, she hadn't felt like rehashing her every answer with every one. Scorpius was ignoring her, believing that she had over reacted to his outburst. Albus had tried talking to her but had found her particularly unyeilding; Hugo seemed to be the only person that could get her to string more than two words together.

Rose collapsed on her bed, she would have a week to do as she wished before her graduation and she intended to spend most of it in a bed. Perhaps she would take herself away, a lot of the other seventh years were taking trips together and Rose felt like getting out of the castle. Laying in the silence of the dorm room Rose considered where she might like to go, she knew that she should talk to her parents before taking off but she had some money put away from summer jobs and birthday gifts, she guessed she'd have enough for 5 nights away by herself.

There was only one place that Rose wanted to go, Muggle London. She wanted a lush bed, fluffy carpet and cable television. It had been so long since she'd seen a movie or gone to the theatre, ridden a double decker or the Eye, she wanted so much to be away from the magical world. It was a longing that was taking over her every day thought, she wanted to find out what else was out there, do things for herself. It wasn't that she disliked being a witch, simply that she didn't know what it was not to be one, and it interested her.

Now all she needed was to make the proper arrangements.

A/N: Aha, I think I know where I'm going to take this again…

Read and review, as always.

Much love and later dayz

Manda

xx