Hi everyone! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you like it! New chapters soon! -Kelly

CHAPTER 14

THE GIRL FROM SALEM

Rose arrived on the Express at Hogsmeade Station excited to see who the new student in their year would be. She was also more than a little excited to see Scorpius again, but she wasn't about to admit that to anyone. She didn't even become all that annoyed at the assigned carriages the way she had in September. She and Al struggled to keep warm as the carriages brought them back to the castle, Al complaining again that he wasn't picked. "I can't believe it, I worked so hard on that essay.""Meaning you actually did it by yourself?" Rose asked, and he looked offended.

"I do plenty of assignments on my own!"

"Okay," Rose snorted, not wanting to argue. "Sure. Who do you think they picked, though?"

Al squirmed in his seat. "I don't know. I don't want to think about it."

"Okay," Rose said slowly, and the carriages started to pull up to the castle. When they entered the Hall for the feast, Rose noticed who was missing and her stomach dropped. "Where's Scorpius?" she asked.

"Er… I don't know," Al said, and Rose knew then. She ran up to the table and sat down in a huff next to Min and Roxanne. Al hurried around to the other side of the table to take the seat opposite Rose next to where James and Harry already sat and Rose saw very clearly the empty spot next to him where Scorpius usually sat.

"They picked him," Rose said flatly. "Of course they did."

"Who, Malfoy?" Min asked, eyes wide. "And he didn't tell you?"

"No," Rose said, feeling the beginning of tears starting to burn in the corners of her eyes. She blinked them back fiercely, absolutely refusing to cry about Scorpius in front of James, and put food onto her plate rather forcefully. Soon, Professor McGonagall stepped up to the podium and everyone fell silent. Rose then noticed the small group of students she'd never seen, wearing the neutral all-black uniforms, standing at the back of the room.

"Seven foreign students join us today for the Ministerial Educational Taskforce's student exchange program. They will be sorted into Houses and I encourage you to welcome them to your school sincerely. First, in first year, from Accedemia Reale Magica in Italy, Angelo Marino." A small boy ran up to the front from the group of students and was placed in Hufflepuff.

"They aren't just taking the place of whoever left?" Rose asked in a whisper.

"Well, no, I mean, they could be a different gender," James pointed out, and Rose nodded. A second-year girl from Koldovstoretz was put in Slytherin and a girl from Castelobruxo in Brazil was put in Hufflepuff.

"In fourth year, from Salem Magical Institute in America, Margaret Olson." A girl with olive skin and dark brown eyes walked right up to the Hat and was put into Gryffindor very quickly. The table cheered as she figured out where she was going and walked down to the table. Rose saw her looking at them and realized that Scorpius's seat was one of the only ones empty at the table, and certainly the closest one to her. Rose gestured to the seat and the girl smiled gratefully, sitting down. No one said anything until the Sorting was finished, with the only other new Gryffindor being a sixth year from Beauxbatons. When the noise started to rise in the Great Hall again, the girl smiled a little again.

"Uh, hi, I'm Maggie," she said, and Rose tried not to hold it against her that she had very literally taken Scorpius's place. "Though I guess you all know my name, your principal just called it out to everyone."

"Hi, I'm Al," Al said, ignoring the rest of their momentary confusion at 'principal', Rose quickly gathering it meant headmaster. "Al Potter. I'm in your year. That's my brother James and his friend Harry next to me."

"Hi," Maggie said, leaning over to see them.

"I'm Rose Weasley," Rose said, forcing herself to get over her completely unfounded wariness. "I'm Al and James's cousin. So're Min and Roxanne. Min and I are in your year, too, but Roxanne's a year younger." Min and Roxanne waved and Maggie looked surprised.

"You're all cousins?" she asked. She seemed to have some kind of lightbulb go off in her head. "Hold on, I'm not crazy, right? You're the Potter and Weasley families? We learned about you in World Wizarding History last year. Well, your parents, I guess. That's so cool!"

"Er, thanks," Rose said, smiling a little. "So, er, where is Salem?"

"It's in Salem, Massachusetts," she explained. "Well, uh, Massachusetts is a state on the little tip that sticks out of the east side of the U.S.?" Rose nodded, vaguely remembering it from a geography unit in Year 5 at Muggle school. "Okay, well, it's sort of a medium-sized city. We're hidden in the woods though. It used to be some rich Muggleborn's property and she hid people in it during the witch trials in Salem. She was one of the founders, too, about ten years later."

"Do you have Houses?" Al asked, and she nodded.

"Uh-huh. I was in Andover, which I think is kind of like Gryffindor. From what your Hat said. We're all about bravery and individuality and stuff."

"Yeah, that's pretty much Gryffindor. Do you play Quidditch? We've got a spot open now," Rose said, trying not to sound bitter.

"Yeah, we have Quidditch. Have you heard of the Fitchburg Finches?" Rose and Al shook their heads, but James interjected excitedly.

"Won the North American League seven years in a row in the 2000s?" Maggie nodded. "They're brilliant!"

"They practice about twenty minutes from our school, we go to watch sometimes," Maggie said. "I don't play, but I like to watch. We have Quodpot, too, though. I'm sure you don't. It's got exploding Quaffles, we aren't technically allowed to play it on campus, but people still do."

"Well, Rose, James, Harry and I play on the Gryffindor team," Al said. "So you should come watch."

"Yeah, sure," Maggie said. "Uh, so do you know where my room is? Do we sleep in Houses?"

"Yep, Gryffindor Tower on the seventh floor," Rose told her. "Just come with me, actually, you're in my room."

"Oh, okay, great," Maggie said. "So I just got my schedule and it says I've got to pick two electives?"

"Pick Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, you'll be with me and Rose," Al said. "Well, actually, don't pick Muggle Studies, it's rubbish this year. The Ministry won't stop mucking up the curriculum. So pick Runes, you'll be with Rose; or you could pick Divination, that's an easy O."

"Uh, okay," Maggie said, "I guess Divination?"

"Cool," Al said. "So you'll have basically the same schedule as me, and Rose just has a couple different classes."

The rest of the night progressed fairly casually, without Maggie talking that much about anything but small talk, and when the feast was over, Al went up to the tower with James and Harry, and Rose was left with Maggie.

"Hey, so you're my guide?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah, I suppose," she said. Maggie followed her out of the Great Hall and up the first staircase. Rose felt more awkward around her than anyone else; she didn't want to be stuck with her, she wanted to be alone so she could write a letter to Scorpius.

"The staircases move?" Maggie asked, bringing Rose out of her internal thoughts.

"Oh, er, yeah, they don't at Salem?" she asked. Maggie shook her head, staring at the shifting stairs all the way up the eight floors of the castle. When they reached the common room, Rose said, "Hippogriff." Maggie looked at her in confusion and the Fat Lady said, "That's changed."

Just then, Alice arrived with the Beauxbatons boy and rolled her eyes at the portrait. "It's Bubotuber now," Alice said. "There's a password," she explained to the Beauxbatons boy, and Rose turned to see that Maggie had heard. The Fat Lady swung the portrait hole open and they all stepped into the common room.

"Come on, we're up here," Rose said. "They've moved your things, don't worry." Maggie followed her up the steps to the fourth year girls' dormitory. When they entered, she started to introduce herself to the others and Rose slipped away to the bathroom. She quickly got ready for bed, trying not to make too much noise, and passed Maggie having a conversation with Min and Ariana. She sat in her bed and tried to distract herself with a book, but eventually couldn't anymore. She rolled over and closed her curtains, hoping she could at least sleep without thinking about Scorpius.

She did sleep for a few hours, but Rose woke up at what she guessed to be a little after midnight. She wasn't sure what had woken her up, but she knew as soon as the events of the day flooded back into her head that she wouldn't be going back to sleep for a while. She sighed and sat up, leaning her head against the headboard, and after a few minutes she couldn't wait any longer. She pulled her curtains open just enough so she could lean over onto her bedside table and took a quill and parchment. She dug around in her trunk for her wand as quietly as she could, and whispered, "Lumos." She pulled her supplies into her bed and closed the curtains again. Trying very hard not to wake anyone else up, she began to write.

5-1-2021

Scorpius,

She couldn't think of anything to say.

"Are you up, Rose?" a voice whispered from the other side of the room. An American voice. Rose opened her curtains and whispered, "Maggie?"

"Hi," she said, and Rose heard someone walking over to her bed. Maggie soon became illuminated in Rose's wand light as she sat down on the windowsill between Rose's bed and the door. "I couldn't sleep. I've felt kinda funny since I got here."

"Must be the time difference," Rose said.

"Yeah, it feels like I should be eating dinner now or something, not sleeping," she said, and Rose realized that Scorpius was at a different feast thousands of miles away.

"Right," Rose said quietly, looking down at the letter.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Maggie asked, looking down at the letter.

"I'm writing a letter," she said, realizing how short she'd sounded as she said it.

"Okay, who left?" Maggie asked. Rose looked up at her and she shrugged. "I mean, whose place am I taking? Your boyfriend or something?"

"No, no," Rose said quickly, "he's just… my friend. My best friend."

"And he didn't tell you he was leaving?" Maggie asked.

"No," Rose muttered. Maggie frowned.

"Sorry. So you're writing an angry letter?"

"No… well, I don't know. I mean, I am angry at him… sort of. Scorpius, he… had a lot going on. I just wish he'd told me… sorry, you don't need to hear all this," Rose said, laughing a little. "I'm just being stupid."

"It's fine, actually, it's more than fine. I kind of want to know what I'm walking into here. Anything else I should know?"

"Well, I don't think so," Rose said quickly, avoiding mentioning the Army. "Er, I hardly know anything about you, though."

"Sure, okay. Uh, I'm from Boston… that's another city in Massachusetts… both my parents were wizards, and they taught me some wandless magic before I got to school…"

"Hold on, wandless magic?" Rose asked, eyes widening. She'd never heard of this being done before except by extremely powerful wizards.

"Oh, you only have European magic, don't you?" Maggie asked. "Wow, okay, so I'm Seneca… Native American… and the line between wizard and Muggle is a little more blurred in our culture, so we still get taught some old magic from our ancestors. The European American wizards don't really like that, though. They only really teach European magic in school, but there are electives. It's a lot better now, but people used to be attacked and hunted down by crazies for it. Kind of like your blood thing."

"Is blood purity not a problem over there?" Rose asked. The idea seemed so strange to her she could hardly imagine it.

"Not as much, there are a lot more No-Maj-born wizards in America-Muggleborns," she added when she saw Rose's confusion. "The pureblood wizards actually used to hate wizards, sounds crazy but it's true; there was a lot of conflict with Scourers in the 17th century but they've died out a lot by now. There are still a couple extremists but no one's ever, like, imposed a terrorist regime or anything," Maggie said. "…Uh, speaking of which, are you really one of the Weasleys?"

"Well, yeah. And Al and James are Harry Potter's sons, but don't make a big deal out of that, Al doesn't like it," Rose said. "But yes, I'm Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's daughter."

"That's really cool but I'll shut up about it. I'm sure you don't want to hear about it all the time," Maggie said and Rose nodded.

"Thanks."

"Well, I'll let you get back to writing to… sorry, what's his name?"

"Scorpius."

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "Scorpius?"

"It's a constellation. Pureblood thing," Rose explained, shrugging. "And I'm actually going to go to bed. I'll write to him tomorrow."

"Okay. Good night, Rose."

"Good night."