Dear Lily,
Happy tenth birthday! Since I can't buy you anything - first years can't go to Hogsmeade, and I'm not about to sneak in like you would - I decided just to send you a letter. I know how much you love getting letters, and I thought that this could be my present to you. So again, happy birthday, Lily.
Another student was attacked. It was a Hufflepuff sixth year this time, Grayson Mark. He was flying around by himself on the Quidditch pitch, and apparently, somebody came and cursed his broom so that it would throw him off. It was dark, so Grayson wasn't able to see what the attacker looked like. He's fine now - he was only twenty-five feet up, and thankfully, his friends came and found him quickly. He was Muggle-born also, just like Alexandra, the other girl who was attacked. Looks like this person is serious. I don't want to spend your whole birthday letter on that, though, as much as this whole situation probably interests you. I know you're curious about it all - I swear, you'll make a fantastic Auror if you still end up wanting to do that - but I won't make your birthday letter about this.
So, anyway, to change the topic. I'm staying at Hogwarts over Christmas holidays. Scorpius, Al, and Leda are staying as well. Since less people are here over the holidays, if somebody gets attacked, there's a more narrow list of people to choose from, and we'd be able to narrow it down much sooner. Oh, bloody hell, I'm writing about the attacks again. Whatever, it's not like you mind. So we're staying in an effort to figure out who did it.
Speaking of the attacks, since it's taking up so much of my mind right now, Victoire refuses to tell me what Rachel Thewlitt looks like. Apparently she believes I'm going to bother Rachel, as if I'd be stupid enough to confront a seventh year on my own. No, I would have Leda and Scorpius subtly observe her in the Slytherin common room, since they are experts on being subtle, apparently. (They're reading over my shoulder right now. So is Al.) But now, we can't even do that.
Al and Leda are worse than my parents when it comes to bickering. Maybe it means they'll end up together, just like my parents. Of course, now they're trying to start an argument with me about how stupid that idea is. Wow, they agree on something for once. I wish I had a camera - I'd take a picture so I could remember this event, since I highly doubt that it will ever happen again. And if they're insulted by reading this, then they should stop reading over my shoulder.
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and keep trying to get information about the Muggle-borns' murders for us, if you can. As always, we love you, and Al insists on telling me to write 'Al says hi' because he's too much of a lazy person to write his own letter. Boys.
Love, Rose.
Rose tucked her quill and ink back into her bag before standing up, folding the parchment and sliding it into an envelope. She turned around, glancing at Al, Leda, and Scorpius, who all tried to look rather innocent, as if they hadn't been reading right over her shoulder just seconds before. Rolling her eyes at them, she waved the envelope. "We should go to the Owlery. I want Lily to get this on her birthday-"
"You've mentioned that," Leda interrupted. "Let's go. It's almost supper - we've got to hurry."
They half-jogged to the Owlery, where Rose handed off the letter to her owl Athena. From there they went directly to supper, dividing when they reached the doors, as usual, and sliding into their seats just as Professor Clearwater began speaking. "Students, you still have two days to sign up for whether or not you're staying here over Christmas break. And as you know, since a student was attacked just a couple of days ago, we should all still be on the watch and alert. I do believe that is all, though, so now we may eat." The students promptly dug in to the food, and as always, conversations broke out.
Rose quickly found that Nina, Veronica, and Isabella were all going home for the holiday. The only other Ravenclaw first year staying was Allison, although she didn't seem too happy about it; apparently, her parents had decided to take a cruise without their daughter, something she kept on bemoaning. She changed her tone slightly, though, after, when a large crowd of Ravenclaws headed back to the common room. Rose and Allison ended up together, separated from their other three roommates by the crowd. The blonde girl glanced around and breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't want to be here over Christmas," she said, not for the first time. "But, looking on the bright side - no Veronica!"
She cracked a smile. Allison and Veronica were still in that uneasy gray area of people who don't like each other, but were forced to get along. It was obvious that a couple weeks of a Veronica-free dormitory was something to look forward to for Allison, and even Rose certainly wouldn't have any objections to it.
The crowd of students entered Ravenclaw Tower, splitting up once inside. Rose found a small table by the fire and began to work on a Charms essay that was mostly completed. She glanced around at all the other students, knowing that in a short while, most - although not all of them - would be gone.
"Rose."
"Rose!"
"Rose Weasley, it's ten in the morning!"
That last one caused Rose to leap out of bed, her mind racing about how they were going to be so late. It hit her, though; it was finally Christmas holidays, which meant that they could sleep late (although she had, obviously, missed breakfast, and her stomach was rumbling). She glanced up at Allison, who was smirking slightly at the reaction. "It's Christmas - let's open presents."
"Well, what else would we do? It's not like we can eat breakfast," Allison quipped, sounding very Leda-esque in that moment. "Come on." The girls eagerly went down to the common room, where there were a couple piles left. There was evidence that others had already opened their presents; wrapping paper and ribbons were littered all across the floor, as the house-elves hadn't come in to clean so far.
It was with enthusiasm that Rose tore into her pile, which was, considering the size of her family, rather large. There was a Weasley sweater, blue with bronze trim, from Grandma Molly, and she quickly put it on, warming up instantly. That would certainly help during the cold Hogwarts nights. Her Muggle grandparents had sent her some money neatly tucked into a card; it was Muggle money, but it was still useful since her family occasionally visited Muggle locations. She received several books - two from Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur and one from Uncle Charlie, for starters. Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey sent her an extremely useful homework planner, although Aunt Audrey had written 'Sorry, he really wanted to get you this...I would have gotten you something more interesting. Love, Aunt Audrey' inside.
Chuckling to herself, Rose moved on to the gifts from her parents. There were a couple of those; the first one she unwrapped was the old version of Hogwarts, A History. This was the same version that Rose's mother had read back in those Hogwarts days, for, after the war, everything had to be updated in light of recent events and extensive renovations. Hogwarts looked the same as it had, but a lot of things had to be rebuilt, and this, of course, was in Rose's copy of the book. It would be intriguing to see what the old version had looked like.
She promptly decided not to show that to Al, Leda, or Scorpius - they, certainly, wouldn't find it as interesting as she had. She picked up the next one and unwrapped it: a lovely package of sweets that seemed to be from Honeydukes, the Hogsmeade shop. Pushing aside the temptation to dig in now, she glanced over at Allison, who was done. The blonde's pile had been much smaller, although the gifts appeared to be more expensive. Still, the other girl was staring at her pile, not looking extremely happy. "Hey," Rose said, gesturing to the sweets package. "Have something." She paused slightly, unsure what to say as Allison picked out a Chocolate Frog and began munching. Finally, she decided on, "Are you all right?"
The tall blonde shrugged, still chewing the frog. "I guess. It's just...it's pretty obvious that my parents didn't buy me any of this stuff. They made other people do it, because they were too busy with their cruise." Her mouth twisted on the last word. "Your family is so close. Everybody likes one another, or at least gets along. Look at that." She points to Rose's large pile of gifts, some opened, some not. "That's all yours. And they'd never pay somebody off to go Christmas shopping, either."
Deciding not to contradict that - it was much easier than explaining how Lily or James might do that if they explained exactly what to get - Rose fidgeted with a ribbon. "I...er..." She didn't know what to say in this situation either; although she considered Allison a friend, the girls weren't as close as Rose, Scorpius, Al, and Leda. They certainly hadn't had a conversation like this.
"I'm used to it," Allison replied. "It's just disappointing to see that they did it again." She mustered up a smile and gestured to Rose's unopened gifts. "Go on, then. Let's see what you've got."
The rest of Rose's presents included a book on DADA, a framed picture of the whole Weasley-Potter family, a blue bracelet that would match nicely with her Ravenclaw accessories, a few Decoy Detonators - leave it to Uncle George to get her a present that was actually banned at Hogwarts - and a small box full of other WWW products, some owl treats, new parchment, and a couple expensive, long-lasting quills. She and Allison both packed up their things and dumped them on their respective beds before getting dressed.
They headed down to lunch with Ling Xi, who was also a first year, Jim Haverton, the year above, and Molly. When they reached the Great Hall, two owls dropped letters in Rose's seat as soon as she sat down. One was from her parents, whom she had been writing to consistently (although she hadn't told them about Leda and Scorpius; that was something she would rather discuss in-person) since the start of the year. The other, as she soon found, was from Lily.
Dear Rose,
Joseph Thewlitt's escaped. He was being held at some cells in the Ministry, since they weren't allowed to send him to Azkaban yet, because he hadn't had a trial. But now he's broken out. He couldn't have done it himself, though, because he didn't have a wand. He had to have outside help. Dad's really ticked off about the whole thing, and Mum's kind of scared. Dad's kind of yelling, which is actually a good thing. It means that I can hear without getting too close, which is pretty cool. But I've done something very cool - I went to visit Hugo. All by myself. I went over there while I was supposed to be at home alone, and I went back home before my parents got home.
If you tell anyone, well, I'll tell them about the fact that you're friends with a bloody Malfoy, much less a Lestrange. And don't say 'language, Lily' in your next letter.
Love, Lily.
Lily...I love that girl. Anyway, I'm glad I was able to include a little bit of family background for Allison; I want to be able to develop these background characters, since they'll definitely be of importance in later books. Thanks for reading!
