For the Calendar Challenge: October, 10, cat, "You know everything about me, so if we stop being friends, I'll have to kill you, because so help me…you are taking it to the grave."
The Nineteenth Year
Chapter Ten: Sisters and Brothers
"It was nice growing up with someone like you - someone to lean on, someone to count on... someone to tell on!"
"A friend is someone who sees through you and still enjoys the view." –Wilma Askinas
"Make new friends, but keep the old; those are silver, these are gold." –Joseph Parry
Dear Rose,
How are you, darling? We hope you're enjoying your classes—
Though not too much, don't forget to have fun, Rosie, just because you're in Ravenclaw doesn't mean you've got to keep your nose permanently in a book—
Just as long as you're taking your studies seriously, Rose darling. Anyway, if your father would stop trying to steal the quill, I could write what we mean to tell you.
All right, Ron?
Good.
You see, honey, your father and I have an announcement—I really don't know how you're going to feel about it, but hopefully you'll understand that this is really a marvelous opportunity for all of us—
Oh, get to the point, Hermione! Rosie, in about nine months, you and Hugo are going to get a little baby brother or sister.
That's right, Rose—I'm pregnant. The baby's due in July. I understand if you feel it's rather sudden, but your father and I were hoping you'd owl us some suggestions for names—
And before you start, I'll tell you what I told Hugo: your mother and I are certainly not so "ancient" as to make us having another child "gross" in any way—
Hugo said that? I'll have to have words with him—
Anyway, Rosie, we hope you're doing well at school, not getting too friendly with Malfoy—
Ignore him, Rose, you can be friends with whomever you'd like—
Yeah, just as long as—
Shut up, Ron! Anyway, dearest, we're sending you some Halloween candy, but be careful, some of it's from the shop, who knows what you'll turn into—
George isn't some amateur, Hermione! Whatever it is, it won't be permanent; Rosie, you'll like the Bloody Beribboned Berries, they're really a feat of enjinjeering—
Engineering, Ron. I hope your classes are going marvelously, and that you're making lots of fabulous new friends, my darling, darling daughter.
All our love,
Mum and Dad
I got the letter the morning of Monday, October 30, 2017—almost two months since I first arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was sitting with my roommates, Hermione Pearson, Jetta Grant, Alexis Shacklebolt, and Valeriana Jesper. The sky above us was cloudy, and I suppose that's why I was in such an off mood. I'm surprisingly weather-sensitive.
Whatever it was (the weather, my cousin Albus glaring at me from the Gryffindor table when he thought I wasn't looking, or the fact that I hadn't had a test in a while and was starting to get restless), all was not sunshine and daisies in my world even before I opened the letter from my parents.
I guess it should've cheered me up, but how nice is it to be the last in the family to know something so important? After all, Hugo's home, they must've told him. A new brother or sister…I wish I could just jump for joy, and be done with it, but somehow I'm less jubilant than I should be. I just don't know how to feel about another sibling.
Mum, Dad, Hugo and I have gotten along fine, so far. I was too young to remember when Hugo was born; for me, he's been around almost as long as Albus. And Al's like another brother to me already—we're the twins that weren't; we were even born on the same day.
Which made it hurt that much more that he hadn't been himself with me since the Sorting. I know he'd rather I was in Gryffindor, with him and the rest of the family, but, well, the Sorting Hat seemed to think I'd do my best in Ravenclaw, so that's where it put me. And everyone here is really great, too—I've made plenty of new friends and study partners. I don't see what's so wrong with that.
That morning, I couldn't help reflecting on my family, its huge extended environs, the fact that this baby will be the youngest Weasley cousin (poor Lily; although really her position's already been usurped by Luna's seven-year-old twins and her two-year-old twins)…The baby's due in July, Mum said. So that means he or she'll be about twelve and a half years younger than me, and ten and a half years younger than Hugo. By the time the baby gets to Hogwarts, we'll be grown up, and presumably pursuing our own lives and careers.
It's hard to imagine.
"Rose? You okay in there?" Hermione waved a hand in front of my face. "Earth to Rose!"
"What?" I asked. "Oh, sorry, Hermione." At first it was odd, having a roommate with my mother's given name—though that was truthfully nothing compared to her instant, somewhat reluctant hero-worship of me. Sometimes, being the daughter of two great war heroes can really grate on the nerves.
"I was just saying, that cousin of yours is looking daggers today. What'd you do to him?"
"Nothing," I said, thinking, I got Sorted into the wrong House. And now he refuses to get over it.
"Well, we'd better hurry if we're going to make it to Herbology," Jetta spoke up.
Standing in front of the greenhouses, we watched the Slytherins troop down the steps of the castle to join us. I waved to Helle Bellatrix Easton, a tiny girl with a fierce, largely assumed, temper. She and I had bonded over the unfairness of a history class taught by the dullest ghost alive (or dead, as it were). She really doesn't deserve that awful name.
Helle waved back to me, and I caught Scorpius Malfoy smirking at me. If he thought he was getting more points for Slytherin in Herbology than I was getting for Ravenclaw, he would soon realize his mistake.
I straightened my back, thankful for the focus. The class went by in a joyful whirl of learning, and the final tally was Ravenclaw, twenty points; Slytherin, twenty-two points—but those last two points were for Brethe Yaxley's extreme and appropriate care when dealing with the Venomous Tentacula. So they don't really count, right?
"I'm calling this one a tie," I told Scorpius, my eyes daring him to dispute my assessment.
"Fine—but I say that's still advantage me, since Professor Longbottom's a friend of your family," Scorpius insisted.
I didn't add, and he hates yours, but I thought it. Instantly penitent, I shrugged partial agreement to the advantage Scorpius take on the situation.
"See you in Defense Against the Dark Arts?" I challenged.
He grinned and gave me a sardonic salute.
Helle and I walked back up to the castle together. "So then Professor Longbourne took ten points from Slytherin! Not good for our House, but it was nearly worth it to see Scorpius's face when she called him impertinent!" Helle said.
I blinked, realizing I'd missed the beginning of the story. "What?" I said intelligently.
"Rose! What's the matter?" Helle asked, slapping my arm lightly. "Earth to Rose!"
"Sorry," I said. "I seem to be having difficulty focusing today."
"Something wrong?"
"I—sort of," I admitted. I couldn't tell Helle about the baby, since it wasn't my secret; the press et al will have to know eventually, but there's no reason to make it easy for them. Instead, I told Helle all about my troubles with Al.
"And now," I finished, "he won't even talk to me—except to give me messages from our numerous cousins. We used to share everything, and now he's just shutting me out entirely!"
"Wow, and you're not even in Slytherin!" Helle agreed. "Ravenclaw's not exactly a polarizing House."
"I know. I just want us to be friends again!" I almost-whined.
"I guess it's just about showing him he's still important to you," Helle suggested. "I mean, he probably feels kind of abandoned. Who wouldn't, in Gryffindor?"
I laughed. "Thanks, Helle." I couldn't help the feeling of relief that inevitably follows knowing what I'm going to do. The plan wasn't completely mature in my mind, but the beginnings of it were definitely there.
That afternoon, I sent Louis with a note for Albus, telling him to meet me by the lake after dinner. "And make sure he comes," I charged Louis.
I suppose I could've sent one of the school owls, but that seemed like an unnecessarily complex way of sending a message to a fellow student. I don't have an owl of my own—not that I mind. My cat, Cyra, is a much better pet. In my humble opinion.
"Sure thing, Rosie. You're doing okay in Ravenclaw, right?" Louis asked.
"Yeah, I really am. But don't call me Rosie." That's Dad's special name for me, and I will not tolerate it from anyone else.
"Whatever you say—Rosie," said Louis, and left, laughing, before I could retaliate.
I was a little nervous, heading down to the lake. Maybe Al wouldn't come? I probably ought to have got James to get him there for me…Louis is great, honestly, but he doesn't care much about things unrelated to Quidditch, and James always gets the job done.
And suppose my plan didn't work? I wasn't sure what else to try, honestly—but I hated the silence between us. And if anything, I needed Al's friendship more than ever now that I was about to be a big sister again.
"Rose." Al stood there, by the lake, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. "I can only stay for a minute," he blurted.
"Al," I said. "We need to talk."
"So, going to the Quidditch match next week?" Al said nervously. "I heard it's going to be fierce—"
"Al," I said slowly, willing him to understand, "you know everything about me, so if we stop being friends, I'll have to kill you, because so help me…you are taking it to the grave."
Al stared at me, then burst out laughing, "You're kind of scary, Rose," he managed to get out between hysterical wheezes.
"Why thank you," I smiled. "Al, just 'cause I'm a Ravenclaw doesn't mean I'm not the same old Rose. You understand, don't you?"
"I guess," he admitted. "It's hard, being away from you."
"Not that far—different towers in the same castle," I pointed out.
We both sat down at the edge of the lake (I cast a surreptitious Drying Charm first; no reason to take chances), and were silent for a while.
"Do you want to go to the Quidditch game together?"
"Got any ideas for baby names?"
We spoke simultaneously, and Al gave me a weird look about the baby names thing. Not my fault!
I felt like our friendship was at last repaired, and I grinned over at my favorite cousin.
No matter what happens, while I have such good friends I won't be alone. It's nice--not being alone.