A/N: Hello everyone! Hope you had a lovely Christmas and here's a little extra present for you, one day early! Disclaimer: don't own.

Happy reading!

7. Observe the fact that his father has the exact same hair

Note: This step may, however, have to be completed in very uncomfortable and/or tedious circumstances. It may or may not also entail having to work with someone you do not wish to work with. This also could be completely unrelated. The author(s) remind the reader that all complaints should be sent to How-To books and Co.

What? What! WHAT! No, no, no, no. This was not good at all. The stupid book was still there. It had not unfortunately disappeared from the surface of the Earth during the Christmas holidays. True, she could have left it under her bed, wedged between Lizzie's copy of Hogwarts: A History and some mouldy socks that she was pretty sure belonged to Albus and whose presence she couldn't possibly justify (mainly because of the fact that he was a boy and a Slytherin. Seriously, there was some weird magic going on in her family) BUT she was far too curious for her own good and she needed to check if the threat of the embarrassment of the Christmas holidays was truly over.

After that mortifying experience at Christmas (which Lily and Hugo apparently couldn't tire of reminding her about it), the prat-in-chief had left to go back to the cold, dark and dusty dungeon he lived in (Albus may have called it 'Malfoy Manor' once, but seriously, Rose couldn't quite see the difference) and Rose had returned to the small but comfortable house the Weasley-Granger's owned in the suburbs of London where she had finally been able to retreat to her room and think over what the heck had happened at Hogwarts the last couple of weeks, and finish off the last of her essays.

This had been much appreciated, as this time had allowed her to come to some very rational and wise decisions, because Rose was a very wise and rational person. They went as followed: Thomas was her boyfriend, she liked him, he was sweet and they shared a love of study. She was glad to come back to Hogwarts to study with him again and just spend some time together.

s for Scorpius 'Please-kick-my-head' Malfoy, FINE! Maybe the Amortentia was slightly, possibly right. He wasn't all that bad looking. She couldn't stand his hair though, just to make that clear, for the STUPID book, and she sure wasn't appreciating it. That stupid 'smell his hair business' had done strictly nothing to make her appreciate it. NOTHING. However, his personality was horrible. He was always driving her crazy by taunting her, and beating her at everything, and basically bullying her. He was obnoxious, thought he was better than everybody else, proud and a jerk. His personality was detestable. And those rare moments when he had seemed perhaps not quite as detestable as she had firmly painted him in her mind (like that time in detention with the cup, or that time he was weird at Christmas) had been firmly stashed in a dark, forgotten part of her mind where she would never have to think about him again.

Besides, the idea of her possibly appreciating him was completely preposterous: they had nothing in common, they were both in relationships (though his was probably not going to last the month) and their families firmly detested one another as her father had reminded her at Christmas, throwing the boy nasty looks during the whole stay and completely freaking out at Uncle Harry's stupid mistake (mental note: no Christmas present for him next year).

Speaking of families, what was the book THINKING? Once again, it had done that stupid thing where she couldn't control the happening of the step. Excuse me, how was she supposed not to observe something? Literally, if Draco Malfoy walked into the dormitory right now (which would be kind of weird, and she didn't quite understand under what circumstances he would) she couldn't help but observe that he was there! Also given that Malfoy (junior) and Malfoy (senior, confusing, right?) were supposed to look as similar as Uncle Harry and Albus did, it was literally going to be unavoidable.

Thankfully, she had spotted a flaw in the book's evil (possibly Dark), malicious plan: for what reason would Rose ever have to meet Draco Malfoy? HA! Take that book! Truly, she was back at Hogwarts, where parents weren't allowed to come except in extreme circumstances (which hopefully wouldn't happen), the next Hogsmeade weekend where there was a possibly of meeting people from the exterior (didn't that make Hogwarts sound like a prison?) was in ages and the Easter holidays were even further away. That meant that she was pretty safe from, what was it again? Oh right: uncomfortable and/or tedious circumstances, as well as having to work with people she did not wish to work with.

Seriously though, what was the book thinking? Rose loved working with absolutely everyone. She was super friendly, and had tons of friends (and no that was not a pleonasm) and people loved working with her. That was another thing that was sure not to happen, if ever she happened to meet Draco Malfoy

Well, there was, of course, the one glaring exception of Scorpius Malfoy but she seriously doubted anyone would be stupid enough to pair them together after the catastrophe in Potions mast December. No one in their right minds would ever want to pair them again together, ever again. At least, that was what she firmly believed and hoped would never happen.

Anyway, she very much hoped she was never going ot have to meet Draco Malfoy, and she strongly suspected he felt the same way about her – or at least, that was what she had gathered from the horror stories her father told her (and that her mother was always rolling her eyes out.), a fan favourite was, of course, the-time-mum-punched-the-slimy-ferret-in-the-face or the-time-Ron-won-a-chess-game-so-they-won-the-house-cup-and-enjoyed-watching-Draco-Malfoy-eat-his-hat. Fun times).

Thankfully, the ride back on the Hogwarts Express had been largely uneventful. After giving a quick kiss to her mother and father,: the first one reminding her to study hard and telling her to expect some possible new challenges (which did not necessarily mean a lot, her mother thought a random essay was a new challenge) and the second one reminding her to stay clear away from boys, despite the fact that she had a boyfriend (he had still not swallowed it well, even if the said boyfriend was not Malfoy) and especially the git supreme as they both liked to call him.

The rest of the ride was mainly filled with Lizzie's many stories of the ridiculously hot boys she had met on her holidays in the Caribbean, which Rose only half-heartedly pretended to be not interested in because she had a boyfriend (while she was actually very, very interested on who those smoky, foreign wizards were. But, hey! Don't judge her, she couldn't stop being a hormonal sixteen year old girl!).

Rose met Thomas at the station, where he had arrived on a different train that came from Glasgow. After a number of complaints from annoyed parents who had had enough of having to go to London to catch a train to go to Scotland, while they lived in Scotland, the school had been forced to reconsider it means of transportation, and while Platform 9 and ¾ remained the most important and busiest of the stations, there were now a couple of departure points all over the British Isles for the students. The station at Hogsmeade had been rebuilt to be able to receive more trains and they usually tried to coordinate the arrivals.

"Thomas! How was your holiday?" she laughed as she hugged him.

"Lovely," he replied, "and yours?"

"Absolutely chaotic, as expected," she brushed off, not caring to add the fact that there had been an unwelcome guest. Thomas's 'jealousy' (which he claimed not to feel, but Rose knew all too well he did) at the Slugclub party hadn't gone amiss and she knew it would not do any good to mention he was there. Besides, it wasn't like he had pressed her for questions during the holiday, was it? As a matter of fact, had he asked any questions?

"By the way, Rose, I'm so sorry I didn't reply to your letter,' Oh. So that explained some things. Huh. She hadn't even noticed. Was that good? Did that make her a good girlfriend? "I was just so overwhelmed with homework and all the things we were planning for Astronomy club." Ah. Astronomy club again. Well, Rose knew that a healthy, good relationship always let the other person continue doing what they loved. "I'm so sorry I'm such a terrible boyfriend..."

"Don't worry about it!" she reassured him a fabulously chirpy voice. Maybe he hadn't been a good boyfriend by not sending, but she hadn't been a good girlfriend by not even noticing. Oh well. One things for sure, was that she had noticed when Lizzie had stopped sending letters when 'Manuel' had apparently invited her dancing for later that evening, hmmm. "Are you ready to start the new term then?"

"Of course! Oh, and Rose, I'm so sorry to have to ask this of you, but would you mind stopping the study sessions we had together on Sunday, I'm afraid I might have some Astronomy stuff coming up."

Aww. She miked those study sessions. Oh well, never mind. "Sure! As long as I get to spend at least some time with you." Besides, given her schedule, something was surely going to come up that was going to fill her usually lazy Sunday afternoons. Seriously though, whenever it seemed like she had time off, some teacher was probably going to assign a really annoying group project, or another extra-curricular she just had to attend (Lizzie was NEVER EVER going to get her wrapped up in 'Cooking Club again') generally popped up; making sure she was always super-stressed and never had anytime of her own. It was almost as though she was cursed... Well, she was living her best life after all.

Yes. Yes, actually. Rose confirmed it. She was cursed. She was so definitely cursed, and if she expected this term to be a nice, easy, relaxing one; she had been completely delusional. The Sunday before the start of lessons had been relatively calm, just catching up with her friends and spending the evening cosied up on one of the nicest (read: less shabby) sofas in the common room, next to Thomas, curled with one of her new volumes of the Wizarding Encyclopaedia (Lizzie had rolled her eyes: "How can someone read that for fun?").

However, the moment she sat down in Defence Against the Dark Arts that morning, things started to go awry. Let's just say that a 16 inch long essay on "Spells and Creatures" (an especially vague subject Professor Windylow was expecting a lot of personal investment and interpretation for full marks), followed by 20 inches of exercises on the magical properties of prime number in functions, then topped by a particularly complicated potion that Slughorn expected them to come and tend to during their spare hours.

And if all of that wasn't enough, Carmen, her tutee, spent the good part of their hour crying about some History project she was going to fail (though Rose privately wondered why on Earth Binns was doing a project. Really, it went against anything Binns-like. He generally contented himself with reciting an endless monologue on the Goblin wars, which most people found irremediably boring, the sole exception perhaps being herself) while Rose tried to comfort her.

That sounded like a lot, right? WRONG! The universe was against her that day and Kyle Westwork, her Quidditch captain, gleefully announced that practice was now going to be Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, all of Saturday morning and Tactic Discussion every Sunday evening too. And finally, Rose found out that she had been attributed an extra patrol because she had been the last to write her name down for them, successfully filling up her Monday, Friday and every other Thursday. Wonderful, right? Seriously, if anyone took the time to look at her schedule, they would've had a heart attack. See what she meant when she said she needed to be on holiday to think. Yep.

And Tuesday didn't go much better, no. Rose still had a bit of the energy holidays were supposed to give you, but it went down the drain when McGonagall strolled in saying: "I've got good news." Rose groaned and wondered what other torture was about to be inflicted upon her.

A/N: Any guesses as to what Headmistress McGonagall is going to announce? Please, please, please leave a review, they're better than Christmas presents. Hope you all have a lovely New Year, and I'll see you again on the 8th of January 2021 (finally!). Until then, stay safe!

Butterflies765