Sighing, Rose put down the fictional novel she'd spent the past four hours finishing by wandlight.
Why had she spent the entire evening reading Herding Thestrals when she was only six weeks out from her NEWT exams?
Well other than the fact that it was an acclaimed book in the field of philosophy of magic discussing the impossibilities of controlling things unseen (hence Herding Thestrals), such as loss, death and the unknown irrationality of life – Rose Weasley was burning with procrastination.
She absolutely couldn't bear to study anymore, which was a worry seeing as her exams were still far enough away to necessitate further study!
She was absolutely sick of everything.
.
Every subject, every memorised fact, every spell – fuck it all.
She just wanted it to be over.
Not to mention the 25th Anniversary Victory Day Ball was tomorrow.
In four hours her dormitory was going to become a hive of fuss and bother; hair, dress robes, shoes, perfume.
She shuddered just thinking about it.
As she whispered "Nox," and settled down to sleep in the darkness left by her wand's absent light, she knew that while the end of her schooling career was close, she still had a long, tedious way to go before graduating.
.
.
"On the night I defeated Lord Voldemort, I sacrificed my life for the people I loved. But I was not the only one to do this. Hundreds of others gave their lives for the world we have built in the past twenty five years. Witches, wizards, centaurs, giants, the house-elves of Hogwarts and many more. So I would like to honour every being who contributed to our Victory, this Victory Day."
Harry Potter was standing at a podium in the Great Hall, commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the day the Second Wizard World War ended.
He unrolled a piece of parchment and began to read out the names of all those who had lost their lives under Lord Voldemort's tyranny, an important part of the ceremony which had been his idea to include.
"Gemma Abbott.
Edgar Bones."
.
The sound of Harry's voice resonating throughout the Great Hall was all that could be heard, for this moment of commemoration.
"Regulus Black.
Sirius Black."
.
When Harry's voice choked, thick with emotion, Ginny, who had been standing beside him, wrapped her arms around his waist and Ron stepped up to the podium from nearby and continued reading for him.
"Caradoc Dearborn.
Dorcas Meadowes.
Benjy Fenwick.
Marlene McKinnon."
.
Rose stood quietly, thanking the universe that she had been born in a time of peace.
From the many people with tears streaming down their faces, she knew others weren't so lucky.
She saw Victoire squeezing Teddy's hand when Ron called out, "Remus Lupin," and "Nymphadora Tonks. Ted Tonks."
She saw Nana Molly bury her face in Granddad Arthur's shoulder, Percy silently sobbing, and George's usually joyful face grimacing with grief as he leant his forehead against Angelina's; "Fred Weasley."
Hermione, gripping Ron's hand tightly in her own, closed the ceremony.
"And to Dobby, a Free elf. Let us have a minute of silence, in remembrance for all who gave their lives for a world free from blood supremacy and fascism, a world striving for equality."
Bee couldn't help but feel out of place as complete silence descended, she had never known any of those people, so what exactly was she remembering?
Intellectually she understood the devastation and hardship of war, but she hadn't fought, she hadn't died and she hadn't lost anyone.
Respectfully Bee stood in silence, but as she looked across the room at so many people crying and struggling, she wondered why she had been born into a muggle family.
She'd read every book, biography and article, but her family life was so untouched by the ravages of any Wizarding War to date.
.
Glancing over at Annie, Bee saw her holding hands with her mother, whose face pinched and white with pain.
She was a muggle-born that had been caught by Voldemort's ministry when she was only fifteen, and she'd suffered imprisonment and torture at the hands of Voldemort's Death Eaters.
"Thank you," Hermione's voice returned, "Please be seated at your designated table, and let's celebrate our Victory with a dinner prepared and served by Hogwarts' Elves."
With the food, liveliness returned to the Great Hall and a festive mood took to the air, to remember that this wasn't just a day of remembering tragedy but also victory.
A string quartet began to play in one of the corners, magically amplifying its way around the entire Hall.
.
After sitting down at a Gryffindor table and stuffing herself with an assortment of delicious breads, cheeses, roasts, curry, rice and pickles that was served up at her table, Bee headed over to the dancefloor to join Annie, Jen, Greg and Adam.
As he saw her come over, Greg spun Bee into his arms and they began to waltz.
"How are you doing with all this?" Greg asked Bee as he twirled her around.
He'd seen that she'd looked lost during the ceremony and had been waiting for a chance to check up on her.
Bee pursed her lips, "Well I feel grateful, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Second Wizarding War, I'd probably have already been killed. At the same time, my life has never really been affected by the war. I mean, I only learnt that it existed in First Year, and I know that I have no conception of what it was like. Not really. I never will."
.
Pulling back away from her a little, Greg looked curiously into her dark brown eyes, thick long lashes framing them as the quivered in the light.
"You make it sound like that's a bad thing."
Rolling her eyes and sighing, Bee dropped her arms and started to walk off.
Greg followed her outside into one of the halls.
She sat down on the floor with her back against the stone.
"Bee. What's wrong?"
She was silent, so Greg sat on the floor next to her and waited.
After a few more seconds, she finally replied.
.
"You don't get it. Of course you don't, but I do wish I knew what it was like. Being muggle-born, it makes me different to you. It makes me detached from this world, and I wish that I could understand how the war has affected you and your family. If I did, maybe I wouldn't feel like such an outsider at these events."
She paused for a moment, "Aren't you going to say anything?"
Greg smiled, "I was just waiting for you to finish. Are you done?"
Bee nodded, and Greg turned to face her, his demeanor calm and serious.
"I know being a muggle-born makes you feel like an outsider, but that's so ironic because the whole war was fighting for your inclusion in the magical community. So you were introduced to magic eleven years after the rest of us, you're still one of us - that's the point. You're our link to the rest of the world, and you have experiences that are just the same as us. I remember everything you told me about growing up Muslim and Bangladeshi in muggle Britain, how they discriminated against you, saw you as invaders just because your parents came from a different part of the world, it's just as ridiculous as blood supremacy. Your experiences are magical experiences, because you're magical - and your family was involved in other wars, in the muggle world, I guess that's part of being human."
Leaning her head against the cold stone wall and turning to look at Greg, she humphed.
"When did you become so clever Gregory Baddock?"
He smiled ruefully, "Probably through all you bloody Slythindors putting me through the ringer all these years, I had to learn how to think on my feet and get through to all of you."
She laughed gently, and for once felt perfectly understood as they sat peacefully in the torch-lit hallway, breathing in the air of intimacy.
.
.
Rose was seated at Prefects table, annoyingly next to Johnny Astor, who was absolutely chuffed with how the Victory Ball had turned out.
It was taking all that Rose had within her not to groan and roll her eyes at his pompous grandstanding about all the work he'd done to make the ball happen.
Suddenly, Rose was felt two hands on her shoulders and someone yelling, "Boo!"
Jumping in shock, Rose turned and smacked the person behind her, seeing it was James, she smacked him again, "You scared the shit out of me James!"
Ignoring the smacks, he simply held out his hand with a devilish grin on his face, "Care for a dance Rosie?"
Smiling grudgingly, Rose stood up and took James' hand.
.
They made their way over to the dance floor, the string quartet playing a lively number.
"I know you probably don't care at all, and you are of course so much more than your looks, but you still look beautiful," James noted as he spun her around.
"Yep, a bit of help from the WWW's WonderWitch box hair-styles, putting on these stupid dress robes and slipping on some shoes. It took about four minutes tops. But thanks James, you look good too. Even with those ruffles."
"Damn it, I knew the ruffles weren't a good idea. I should have gotten the boring dress robes."
Giggling, Rose whirled around, getting passed around from person to person, dancing with her father, her mother, her cousins and Bee.
.
When her feet were aching and she desperately needed a drink, she headed over to the open bar and got a Butterbeer.
Upon hearing whispers and laughs behind her, she spun around to see Sam standing awkwardly behind her, flanked by Al, James, Fred, Molly, Louis, Lily, Corey, Adam, Greg and Dom.
Rose stared sceptically at all of them, something fishy was obviously going on.
Sam opened his mouth as if to talk, but closed it again without speaking.
Then he lifted his hand as though to ask a question, before dropping it back to his side.
Breathing in deeply to finally explain, Sam held his breath for a moment, then let it out again disappointedly.
.
"Oh just spit it out Sam!" Rose snapped.
"We were just playing a game of Truth or Dare in an empty classroom," Sam speedily regurgitated, finally managing to get some words out.
Rose rolled her eyes in exasperation, "And I give a fuck because…?"
"Because they dared me to dance with you."
"Well surprise, surprise, I don't want to."
.
Sam pursed his lips, "Well here's the thing… we're playing Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes Truth or Dare, so if I don't complete this dare, I'm going to lose control of my body, strip naked and run screaming around the Great Hall for ten minutes under a protection charm so no one can stop me."
Seething, Rose responded bitterly, "Ah, so it's either dance with you, or ruin the event I've been planning for nine months?"
After an extremely awkward moment of silence Sam slowly muttered, "Uhh, well, yes, that's, um, that's about the size of it…"
Stepping past Sam, Rose stared each one of her family and friends in the eye, "And who exactly suggested this dare?"
"They're under oath not to tell," Sam supplied helpfully.
Rose smiled sweetly, "Oath schmoath, I'll find out eventually. And when I do…"
She trailed off meaningfully, and with her threat hanging in the air she walked proudly onto the dance floor, leaving everyone to make fearful eye contact with each other.
.
As the rest of the gang stood on the side of the dance floor, torn between laughter and fear, Corey made his way over to Hugo, who had also been sitting by the bar, a ways down from Rose.
He snaked his arm around Hugo waist, and just from the touch, Hugo knew exactly who it was.
A jolt of electricity ran through his body as he smiled at the boy behind him,"Corey. Hey"
Hugo leaned in and their lips briefly met.
"Woah, your parents are around Hugo, careful."
Hugo laughed, "You're just scared of my Dad aren't you?"
"Oi, it is nothing to joke about. I remember what he did to Sam the summer before third year! And that was just a Quidditch accident, not anything to do with snogging his youngest child."
Looking condescendingly innocent Hugo replied, "Well that was hardly snogging, I'll have to fix that."
With that Hugo grabbed Corey's shoulders and kissed him much more passionately.
Corey responded, but broke away grinning, "You are seriously trying to get me murdered by Ronald Weasley, aren't you? Speaking of, I wonder how if he'll be able to tolerate watching Rose and Sam dance together, I reckon they've got quite the show coming up."
Hugo wrinkled his brow in confusion, "Rose wouldn't dance with Malfoy right now, they're not on great terms."
Laughing, Corey pulled Hugo onto the sidelines of the dance floor to watch, "It's a WWW's Truth or Dare…"
