A/N: Thank you to all the lovely reviewers! I always appreciate your input to the story!
The last few days of the holidays flew by. I spent most of my time in my room, occasionally coming out for food. I was grounded beyond belief, both for going mental at my dad and for running away. Not even Dom was allowed in to see me. She kept me updated through mail though, and her families owl became my closest friend. No one else in the house seemed to want to spend time with me. Dad and I had hardly spoken since our fight, and mum had been working most days.
Hugo had become suspiciously absent, making himself scarce every time I walked into a room. I was kicking myself for upsetting my brother, we'd always been a team. Even when we were younger and I played dress up with him, or made him drink puddles he never told mum and dad. It was always us against them. When he found me crying when I was 13 because of my first ever E, he snuck into the kitchens to get me ice cream and hugged me until my sniffles subsided. And now he wouldn't even look at me.
"Hugo," I mumbled across the back seat of the car, "you can't ignore me forever." His face remained impassive as we drove through London, showing no sign that he heard me. I sighed and wrapped my arms around me legs, resting my head on my knees. If I hadn't got him to talk while we were staying in the same house, there was no way I'd be able to convince him in the massive castle.
"We're here kids. Get your trunks out of the boot!" Mum called from the front seat as we pulled into King's Cross Station, looking in the rear view mirror. Once we'd stopped moving I hopped out and grabbed my stuff from the back of the car, and waited for Hugo to get his.
I saw him struggling with the trunk, and automatically moved to help him before he elbowed me out the way.
"I don't need your help," he snarled under his breath, glaring at me before he turned back to his case and unhooked the handle from where it had been stuck. I recoiled my hands, hurt. I knew I'd upset Hugo, but I didn't realise how much. Mum locked the car and grabbed dad's hand before we all headed inside.
"I don't get why you're making such a big deal about this," I hissed under my breath, careful to not let mum and dad hear. I could see a stream of Hogwarts students walking in the same direction as us, their families and pets making a lot of background noise.
"Because you've completely changed yourself for some stupid guy. I can't even recognise you Rose, look at yourself!" Hug growled back, his eyes flashing. Hugo had also inherited the Weasley temper, it just took a bit more to get it out of him. We walked through platform 9 ¾, and I felt butterflies as I passed through a seemingly solid brick wall. I never got used to that.
"I'm still the same person!" I protested. The scarlet steam engine was waiting to leave, a load of students already on.
"No you're not. You think you can just put on some eyeliner and tight skirts and act out. You're not being a rebel Rose, you're being a brat." And with that, Hugo kissed mum and dad and stormed off, heading towards the Hogwarts Express to meet his friends.
"Well what was that all about? Did you say something to upset him Rosie?" Mum asked, turning to me.
"More like the other way around," I muttered under my breath.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing! Anyway, I better go. Don't want to miss the train, you might be stuck with me for another term." I joked, smiling at mum.
"You could always fly the car into the Whomping Willow. You wouldn't be the first." Mum grinned slyly at dad, who grinned back at her.
"Speaking of, have you seen Harry and Ginny? I've been meaning to invite them over for dinner," Dad said, looking around and dashing off when he saw his sister and best friend.
Mum turned back to me and pulled me into a hug, flattening my curled hair.
"Have a good term, Rosie. Try to make good choices, okay?" she asked, almost hopefully. She then wan her eyes over my outfit, tutting and pulling the hem of my skirt down. "And show less skin. Deal?"
"I'll try my best mum."
"Alright then. I love you. Now go say goodbye to your father and hop on that train before it really does leave without you!" She pushed me towards the direction of my aunt and uncle, where dad was talking.
"Rosie! Fancy seeing you. Albus was looking for you and Alice. And I think Lily said something about wanting to find you?" Harry said, pushing his glasses up his nose and running a hand through his still-messy hair. Of course Al would be looking for Alice. I snorted, trying to guess when they'd shack up together. But why on earth was Lily looking for me? That was never a good thing.
"I'll find them on the train. I'll see you next holidays Uncle Harry! I just came to say goodbye to dad."
"Ah, well I won't keep Ron from you. I get to see him every day at work, so I guess I can spare a few minutes away from him." Uncle Harry joked, and Aunt Ginny kissed my forehead and wished me a good term before they left me alone with my dad.
"Well, I'll see you next holidays." I said, biting my lip. I didn't know what to say to dad. We weren't exactly on the best of terms.
"Yep." He said gruffly.
"Dad, I just- I'm sorry." I said, looking at the ground. I felt like I was causing a lot of trouble in my family and I wasn't entirely sure how to stop it.
"Me too Rosie." He admitted, and pulled me in roughly, crushing me into his chest. I wrapped my arms around his back and squeezed tightly, like I used to as a kid.
"Now go have a good term, and don't get into too much trouble. But if I get an owl from McGonagall again, I'm going to have to eject you from the family!" Dad laughed, and ruffled my hair before sending me off, even after my protests and the attempts at batting his hands away from my head.
I dragged my trunk onto the train, glad I'd made up –at least partly- with my dad. Now I just had to get Hugo to hold a civil conversation with me and I could pretend things were kind of normal.
I walked down the train corridor, dragging my trunk and avoiding the first years who were running around and squealing like they hadn't seen their friends in ten years. I hitched my black skirt back up from where mum had pulled it down, and adjusted my tights.
Eventually I heard a familiar voice above the din, and followed it to a compartment where Alice, Al and Dom were all sitting. When she saw me enter, Alice jumped out of her seat and threw her arms around me.
"Rosie! I missed you so much! Alaska was cold an miserable and astoundingly quiet. It was literally me and my family and some muggle scientists all week. They were studying glaciers or penguins or some twaddle." Alice slumped back down in her seat, pulling me with her.
"You know there aren't penguins in the Northern hemisphere right? That includes Alaska."
"Okay, so maybe it was glaciers. Who cares? Certainly not me. Although they did have a cute intern along with them. He made the trip a bit more fun." Alice grinned at me, her cheeks flushing. "I'll tell you tonight in the dorm though. I want to hear all about your holidays!" I smirked at my best friend. Sounds like I wasn't the only one who had fun spending time with people outside the family these holidays. I sneaked a peek at Al, and saw him glowering at the ground. I grinned. Potterbottom is so real.
"Well Rosie got up to some shenanigans," Dom mouthed off, sitting up, "She spent half of the holidays at the Malfoy house, half yelling at her dad and half grounded."
"That's an uneven ratio," I mumbled, blushing heavily as Alice stared at me open mouthed.
"So there's progress on the Malfoy front then? Is he into you? Are you two going to become the next hottest Hogwarts couple? I'm so over everyone talking about Felicity and Kade. Like, I don't care if he invited her to their beach house last summer," Alice rambled, clearly excited.
"Well if you call snogging at every single opportunity 'interested', then yeah I'd say so," Dom laughed. I hit her, sticking my tongue out when she started to complain.
"You deserved it!" I defended. "And no, Alice, we did not snog at every opportunity, Dom is just exaggerating."
"I bloody well hope not, I was going to throw up for a second," Al muttered, reminding all the girls that he was here too.
"Alice, we can talk about it more tonight, but I think Al might pass out if he hears any more." Dom reassures Alice, but causes Al to bolt upright again.
"There's more?"
"No! No there isn't!" I quickly glare at my cousin, silently telling her to shut up before Al has a conniption.
Dom mouths a silent 'I'll tell you later' and throws a wink at Alice, before restarting the conversation. "Rose, Lily was looking for you earlier. Wonder what the bint wants,"
"Hey!" Al interjects, "that's my sister!"
"Yeah, and she's my cousin and I love her to death, but Albus you can't deny she's a bit of a git sometimes," Dominique sighed, running a hand through her hair.
Merlin, I'd forgotten what being a part of this family was like. After a while out compartment began to fill up with various family members, though Lily, Hugo and Molly all remained absent. When the space became too cramped and Lysander appeared at the door, I offered him my seat so I could wander about. Dom and Alice protested, but I assured them it was okay and I needed to check my makeup anyway. I love my family, I really do, but there were only so many of them you could fit into one small compartment, and we'd reached that limit just after we'd passed what I assumed was a muggle town an hour or so back.
After ducking into the bathroom and fixing my makeup that had smudged slightly, I continued roaming the aisle, trying to find my younger, more annoying cousin.
After asking a few fifth years whether they'd seen Lily, I got directed to a compartment containing her and a few of her friends.
"Lily," I snapped as I walked in, "I heard you wanted to talk to me." My arms were crossed over my chest and my dark red sweater rode up slightly as I leaned against the doorframe. I watched my cousin stand up, brush the creases out of her jeans and do something she had never done at me before; she fluttered her eyelashes.
"Rosie look, we may have gotten off to a bad start earlier. I now see that you're a really stellar person, and I just feel ever so bad for the things I've said to you before," Lily's voice was sweet as sugar and almost twice as sickening. I snorted and pushed off the doorframe.
"Well that's total bullshit. What do you really want?" I deadpanned. I had to give it to her, she was dedicated. Her sweet façade didn't falter once, even as I glared at her. Her friends had long stopped talking, watching the exchange.
"No really, Rosie, I'm sorry. Why is that so hard to believe?"
"Because at breakfast no less than a month ago you called me a 'pig-nosed slag who was just trying to look pretty to get in Malfoy's pants'. And I do believe that was a direct quote. Now tell me what you want so I can get out of here," I huffed out, eager to leave the compartment.
"Fine," she said flatly, the smile sliding off her face, "I want Theo Nott, and I know you're close with him."
"And you thought I'd set you up on a little dinner date? No way, Lily. I can't believe even you were stupid enough to think that would work." I was so close to laughing. The first nice thing she'd said to me in half a year and it was so I could set her up with one of my friends? She must've been Confounded to think that would work. Her green eyes narrows and flashed at me.
"Come on Rose, we may not like each other but we're still cousins! Can you just do this one thing for me?" She whined, stomping her foot. She actually stomped her foot!
"Fine," I conceded, much to her surprise, "but I won't make any promises. Theo's not into colossal bitches." I turned and marched out, hearing the silence behind me. I shut the compartment door and walked away, before hearing it open back up again.
"He must be if he's friends with you!" she screeched, before slamming the door shut again. I could practically hear the steam come out of her ears.
Good Merlin, all I wanted was a family that wasn't filled with crazies. Is that too much to ask for?
A/N: Alrighty! No Scorpius in this chapter, but it was just a quick lead-in to the return to Hogwarts and some progress with her family. Lots of romance next chapter, I promise!
Again, thank you to all the lovely reviews I've gotten! It makes me so happy when I read them! Please just take a few minutes to fill it in and let me know how you're liking the story and what you want to see more/less of. It really helps me to make the story better and makes me want to update more. Lots of love to you all! Sophie