The Harry Potter Universe belongs to J.K. Rowling.


Note: I know it's short, but it's what I could come up with, as my muse is distracted at the moment. Perhaps it's the nice weather?


Tuesdays saw the First Years get a late start, much like Thursdays would, though the latter would be because of the Astronomy class all forty first years shared at midnight. The First Years were joined at their late breakfasts by the Third Years, who had spent Monday night up until well after midnight watching the stars.

And so it was that Rose, Hermione, Neville, and Ron found themselves with Ron's older brothers, Fred and George, as their breakfast companions.

"We'd have bothered Charlie–"

"This morning–"

"But he's in Romania–"

"What with him getting all his NEWTS–"

"Just last year," said the twins back and forth across the table.

Rose made an exaggerated rubbing of her neck, "Guys, if you're going to sit here, you'll need to cut down on that back and forth."

"Back–" began the Weasley twin next to Rose.

"And Forth?" finished the one across the table, next to Neville.

"Yes, it's quite annoying," said Hermione, who was reading her Defense textbook at the breakfast table.

"It's just like that at home, Dor," said Ron around his mouthful of bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, and oatmeal.

Rose looked to the Weasley twin next to her, "Is he just like at home too?"

"Oh yeah–" said the twin across from her.

"Ickle Ronnikins–"

"Can't get enough–"

"Of Mum's cooking."

"Okay, I'm just going to concentrate on Neville then," said Rose, looking across from her. "I've got Twins to the left of me, and pigs to the right."

"Oi," said Ron, just before taking a swig of tea to clear his airway, "I'm not a pig Dor, you take that back."

"Who's Dor?" asked the Twin next to Neville.

"She's Dor," said Ron around a fork loaded with blood pudding, pointing at Rose with a sausage impaled on his knife.

"She's Rose," said the Twin next to Rose.

"Well, yeah, that's what she wants you to think," said Ron around his breakfast. He swallowed, "But Dor here, I know he secret, she's not just the Girl-Who-Lived, she's Dorea Dursley."

The Twins both raised their eyebrows, though Rose saw neither as she had her face in her hands.

"Well, she is rather famous," admitted Hermione. "If she hadn't introduced herself as Dorea rather than Rose, I'd have likely gone off like a fangirl."

"A Fan–"

"Girl?" asked the twins.

"Sounds like Ginny," said Ron. "My sister, she's obsessed with Rose Potter, wants to be just like her. having adventures and fighting vampires and all that stuff in the books."

"Books?" asked Rose.

"Oh yeah–"

"Ickle Ronnikins here–"

"Has read all the books–"

"About the Famous Girl–"

"Who–"

"Lived."

"There are books about me?" asked Rose. "I mean, I've never had any adventures. The most I had was when I went off to Paxmead and fell into the Thames from my canoe. Quit the Brownies not a week later."

"Well, I've only seen the mentions in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. Mum wouldn't like if I went for the children's books," explained Hermione.

"Well, I wonder if that's why I'm so famous, I mean, it's been almost a decade since my parents died, but I'm still as famous as Lady Di," said Rose with a sigh.

"Who?" asked Neville.

Hermione and Rose both looked shocked and were speechless for nearly a minute, mouth's agape.

"She's… she's… she's the Princess of Wales," stammered Rose.

"Or was, rather," corrected Rose.

"Princess of Wales?" asked Neville.

"Used to be married to Prince Charles," said Rose, as if it was obvious. When the pureblood men looked confused, she continued, "Who's the son of the Queen."

Then, finally, there was recognition, "Oh–"

"That Princess."

Ron, though still looked confused, "What's Wales got to do with things?"

"Ron–"

"Keep Quite."


The Defense Against the Dark Arts class was perhaps the most difficult for Rose. Not because she didn't understand the material, that was simple enough after having read the textbook (and unlike Hermione, she'd only read it once, not five times). No, the problem was that, between Professor Quirrel's stammer and her constant headache, she couldn't focus on what was being taught.

That History of Magic was after Defense was perhaps worse, since while her headache finally went away, she tried and, along with the Hufflepuffs and her fellow Gryffindors, aside from Hermione, failed to stay awake during Professor Binns' lecture.

Supper an hour or so after History of Magic was dominated by Hermione berating her fellow Lions for falling asleep.

"Yes, I know that his voice is monotonous," admitted Hermione while gesturing with her hands, "But that's not excuse for sleeping during class."

"Hermione, that's every excuse, I talked with the older students after class, and they said that they all sleep through class too. It's only the Ravenclaws that don't, and even then, they rotate who takes notes during class while the others work on other classes," countered Gina. "I mean, really, what does it matter if we fall asleep during History of Magic, it's not like it's important or anything."

"Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them," quoted Hermione. "I mean, how many Goblin Rebellions have their been?"

"What's Goblin Rebellions have to do with History of Magic?" asked Ron, who in a rare occasion was not actually talking with his mouth full, but that's only because his brothers hand pranked him by convincing the house elves to take his plate away after he'd only take a single bite. It'd happened a dozen times before he began to take sneaking bites from the plates surrounding his empty one.

Hermione sighed heavily, "The only reason why Gringotts is in control of the Wizarding Economy is because they won most of the Rebellions."

"What, that can't be," countered Ron. "None of the Goblin Rebellions have been successful, otherwise they'd have wands and stuff and wouldn't be kept in their bank."

"Ron, they control the economy," said Hermione. "If they wanted to, they could refuse entry to the vaults and Wizarding Britain would grind to a halt."

Ron and Hermione would spend the rest of supper arguing over the merits of studying history. Rose, on the other hand, was enjoying the show. Aunt Petunia had told her on multiple occasions, "Never argue with an idiot, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." While she'd never outright call Ron an idiot, he wasn't the smartest wizard in their year, and solidly sat at the bottom of the ten first-year Gryffindors in academic prowess. If it wasn't for Hermione nagging him to get his work done, he'd likely not be ready for the second day of classes in the morning.


Published January 23, 2013