TEN

I don't think I have actually ever heard my dad scream any louder in my life, than when the howler arrived. At least he had the decency to send it in the evening so only Gryffindor had to be subjected to his dulcet tones. I could just picture his ears glowing bright red like they always do when he's mad at Hugo.

"…disgusted by you! If you ever get drunk at school ever again I will come down there and drag you home…"

When the howler finally stopped screeching and tore itself to pieces in front of my horrified face, the common room was completely silent. Slowly the common room inhabitants began to chatter again and I was left to stop Al from laughing.

For some reason he finds other people getting told off hilarious.

"Oi, shut up, or next time you get a howler I'll laugh at you," I said kicking his foot.

Al finally stopped laughing, but still had a huge grin plastered all over his face.

"You have to admit, it is kind of funny though, I mean…perfect prefect Rose Weasley getting in trouble," he said, but cut off at the look on my face.

"Don't remind me…I'll never make Head Girl now," I said, sulking.

"Yeah you will. Even with this little mishap under your belt, you're still the best behaved sixth year," Al replied, casually ruffling his hair.

I sighed. I sure hoped that this wouldn't make a difference to my odds at becoming Head Girl. It sounds fairly pathetic, but that is my dream – to be Head Girl of Hogwarts.

From that moment I resolved to not get in trouble again.

Fat chance – I'm related to Albus remember?

"By the way, it's Tess' birthday tomorrow," Al said quietly, with a quick look around as though it was a secret he didn't want anyone else to hear.

"Shockingly, I am well aware of that fact," I replied sarcastically.

Al rolled his eyes, "We're going to have a party in the Gryffindor common room," he muttered back, trying to look inconspicuous.

See what I mean? With Al being my cousin, the chances of me making it through the rest of the nine months of the year without getting in trouble were pretty slim.

"Why are we whispering?" I whispered back.

"I don't want the prefects on our tail," he replied with a sneaky look at me.

"Err…Al?"

"Yeah?"
"I'm a prefect," I said with a grin.

"Oh…yeah…but you wouldn't tell on your own cousin, would you?" he asked nervously, as if expecting me to sprint off to McGonagall's office that instant and spurt out all of his party plans – none of which I actually knew at the time of course, seeing as he was taking so long to tell me.

"Of course I wouldn't," I said, and he looked relieved. "What are you planning?"

"Just your average party with an open invite, and several gallons of firewhiskey…" he smirked at me.

"No way am I coming to this! Firewhiskey and Rose Weasley don't mix!" I screeched in his ear.

"Aww come on! It's Tess' birthday, you can't let her down!" he pleaded.

"You're only doing this party because you feel bad about covering her in ink aren't you?" I asked with a smirk.

He blushed furiously.

"Uh…no…well…partly. And partly because she's my friend, of course," he replied, as I laughed at his worried face.

"I wouldn't not go to Tess' party, idiot!" I told him, as he still seemed worried that I was going to miss it. "But I am steering well clear of anything alcoholic."

Al laughed, "Yeah, that might be for the best!"

"Do you think she'll like it?" Al asked nervously, as he paced up and down in front of the fire in the common room the next morning, eyeing the parcel in his hands with a worried frown. He'd bought her a deep purple dress, well actually his mother, my Aunt Ginny, bought her a purple dress, and he was worried that she wouldn't like it.

Apparently he doesn't trust his mother's taste. Personally, I wouldn't trust his taste, and thought that anything Aunt Ginny picked out would be nice.

"Of course she will, now stop worrying, she's coming down in a minute," I said in an attempt to calm him down. He put the parcel down on the table nervously, sat down for several seconds, then resumed his pacing.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!" Tess screeched as she flew down the stairs into the common room and pulled Al and I into a huge group hug. "I'M 17!"

"Oi, keep it down, you'll pop my eardrums!" I said with a smile, pulling away from the hug.

"Presents!" Al shouted, and gave me an apologetic grin when I clamped my hands over my ears in mock pain.

"Presents! I love you guys!" She squealed and pulled us each into another hug before kneeling down on the floor next to the table and grabbing the first present.

She tore the wrapping away surprisingly quickly, for the amount of time it took me to wrap it.

"It's gorgeous, Rose!" she said, pulling the ruby necklace I bought her out of its box and hanging it delicately around her neck. "Wow! Thank you so much!"

"That's ok," I said with a smile and gave her a huge hug.

"Mine now," Al said with a child-like grin.

She picked up the next parcel and tore through the wrapping. Carefully, she pulled out the purple dress and gasped.

"Al! This is amazing!" she gushed, still engrossed by the amazing dress. I think that at the moment, Al was eating his words in his head. His mum clearly has amazing taste because that dress was absolutely beautiful. It was made of a thick silky fabric and fell in pretty ruffles. Even me, someone completely immune to fashion, could tell that it was fabulous. "Thank you!" she squeaked, and putting the dress down, she flung her arms around Al, who caught my eye over her blonde locks and I noticed his bright red face.

I smirked at him and he just turned redder (if that were even possible) and smiled nervously back.

"I know it's your birthday, but we still have lessons," I reminded her five minutes later when she was reading various letters from her family wishing her happy birthday.

"Oh yeah. I'll just take my stuff upstairs," she said with another look at the dress and the necklace. "Thank you!" she said for about the fiftieth time in the past ten minutes.

Al and I rolled our eyes simultaneously, "Just take them up, we want to nab the warm toast first," Al said, thinking of his stomach as usual.

A minute later, Tess came bounding down the stairs and we went off to the Great Hall. Sitting at the Gryffindor table, she got various people from our lessons coming over and wishing her happy birthday and in Max's case giving her a flamboyant present of flowers.

"Uh…thank you, Max," she said, with a voice that to everyone but Max clearly said that she wanted him to go away.

"No problem, anything for a beautiful girl," he said with a wink, and for the first time ever I got the impression that he was being a bit of a slimeball. Finally he loped off and with a wink at Tess, left the hall.

I caught Al's eye and we both burst out laughing. Tess' face of confusion turned to us and she rolled her eyes at our immaturity then carried on eating her breakfast.

"What is it with him?" she finally said after she had finished her jam on toast.

"I think he likes you," Al said, a touch of jealousy evident in his tone, but Tess didn't pick up on this.

"Thank you, Captain duhh!," she said with a laugh.

"Al's right. You want to watch out for that one, or you'll have an unwanted date to the Halloween ball," I reminded her and she shivered in disgust.

"There is no way I'm going with him. Besides, we have the Cannon's match and the after party," she said with a grin at Al, who grinned back. And they launched into an animated conversation about the match as we picked up our bags and meandered our way through the other students to get out of the hall. As a non-Quidditch-lover I couldn't really join in their conversation, mainly because I had no idea what they were talking about.

"…no way, the cannon's will probably catch the snitch, I mean…"

Suddenly, I felt a warm hand land on my shoulder, and I turned round.

"Uh…hi," Malfoy said, running a hand through his unruly platinum hair.

"Hi," I said, confused as to why he would be talking to me outside of Transfiguration lessons.

"I was just wondering, you know the Halloween ball, do you -?" he began, but was interrupted by Tess whose conversation with Al had obviously ended, and he was walking down the corridor with some other Gryffindor quidditch player.

"Hey, Rose, do you reckon I could have a party tonight?" she asked, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"I thought Al had already planned one for you?"

"He has," she said, her face lighting up, "That's great! Uh...What did Malfoy want?" she asked. I turned back round and noticed that Malfoy had indeed vanished and I caught a glimpse of his shockingly platinum head disappearing round the corner of the corridor.

"I have no idea, you interrupted him before he could spit it out," I replied, thinking back to what Malfoy had been saying to me. Had he been about to ask me to the ball? "I think he was trying to ask me to the ball," I said, horrified.

Tess laughed loudly, causing a passing ghost to give her an angry glare. "You're not serious!"

"I dunno, he definitely asked me about the ball, but he never finished asking the question," I replied, as Tess burst out into fresh fits of laughter.

"This is the funniest birthday ever! First Max and now Malfoy!" she spluttered through peals of laughter.

I couldn't help but start laughing as well – Tess' laugh is infectious.