It was the first day of school and the Weasley-Potter clan was back for an enticing 6th year of education, parties, Quidditch and boys; these were the things Rose Weasley liked best at Hogwarts. She prided herself on being an intelligent, Quidditch loving, sophisticate with a mind for mischief. Her and the Gryffindor gang, made up of Weasley's, Potters and others, happened to be drawn to a life of drama and fun which made Hogwarts their playground.
On school holidays Rose tended to wake up late, however this was never going to happen on the first day of school, oh no, you see Hermione Granger would never let that happen.
"Rosie Posie!" Hermione called as she swept into her daughter's room, opening the blinds with a flick of her wrist and coming over to sit beside her daughter on the plush comforter.
Rose's eyes fluttered open and she gazed up at her mother, light wrinkles graced the older woman's eyes and some suspiciously greying hair that her mother always tried to charm back to the usual brown escaped her tight bun.
"Good morning," Rose murmured, her face still half buried in her pillow.
"Good morning to you Rose," her mother replied,
"Now, I just wanted to remind you to please try to stay out of trouble this year, you're already a prefect and might be on your way to securing head girl, remember that when you're getting involved in James and Fred's mischief," Hermione said,
"I will make sure that I never take the fall for any mishaps," Rose agreed and Hermione laughed in exasperation,
"You know that's not what I meant, my god how you weren't allocated to Slytherin we will never know," the older woman added,
"I heard that a minister of magic pulled some strings," Rose replied eyeing her mother with a grin.
Hermione only laughed again,
"I must be off I have a meeting first thing, have a good year, I'll see you when I pop in for ministers duties throughout. And please thank Ginny for me when she picks you up…"
A loud pop reverberated through the room and Hermione let out a squeak,
"Oh James," She said, lifting a hand to her chest, as the eldest Potter materialised in the bedroom.
"You frightened me silly,"
"My apologies Aunt 'Mione," James said with sincerity, running a hand through his jet black curls before glancing toward Rose with a grin.
"Well I'll leave you two be, make sure you look out for your brother this year too," Hermione said as she left the room. Getting a grunt of assent from Rose as she headed out.
Rose shifted under the covers so she could eye James and he watched her back as if in wait and just as the door clicked closed behind Hermione, James catapulted himself atop Rose. She let out a yowl at the impact of an 80kg body landing on hers and she wrestled him off her before she rolled out of the bed.
James guffawed, rolling off the other side of the bed and taking his usual seated position on the arm chair in the corner of Rose's room.
"Don't complain, I was just trying to show my favourite cousin some much deserved affection," James grinned, letting his legs drape over the footstool.
"That was about as affectionate as a rabid dog," Rose pointed out, walking towards her trunk of clothes and lifting the neatly laid out muggle clothes that she'd organised the night previous.
"Ready for another school year I see" James said with a wink as he eyed the lacy underwear that Rose had accidentally revealed as she rummaged for a pair of socks.
"Definitely, I'm excited to learn more about the human anatomy this year," Rose said with a shrug. James guffawed at her suggestive tone.
You see the friendship that existed between James and Rose was more like a bond, the two had been inseparable ever since Rose's birth. There was something about the younger red headed baby girl that had touched one-year-old James and the two had grown up together thick as thieves and best friends. This school year however was James' last at Hogwarts and as he was a year older than her, Rose would be left without him the following year. Whilst this struck her deeply, she tried to push it to the back of her mind, it meant that this year was bound to be a good one and she would make that sure it was starting with the Gryffindor welcome party.
"Red" James said using his nickname for her, "are you listening to me?" he asked,
Rose shook her head out of her reverie,
"I just can't decide which shoes to wear," she said looking between her emerald green snake skin boots and her pretty nude mules.
"The boots," James said, rolling his eyes,
"Now as I was saying," he said pointedly,
"We have a problem,"
Rose raised a brow,
"A problem that has arisen since we last spoke on Saturday?" she asked,
"Yep," James said, popping the p.
"You see, our beloved Fred has landed himself into muggle jail,"
Rose snorted at that,
"You're joking," she said.
James gave her a look and she raised a brow in shock, before she let out a bubble of laughter.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Maybe after this has all passed I might find it as funny as you do, but right now I feel like strangling Fred," he said stretching out on the armchair.
"So explain" Rose said as she reigned in her giggles and turned her back toward James lifting her pyjama top from her body before reaching for her crop.
"Fred went out to London to get some explicit contraband for our welcome back party. Seeing as how he burnt bridges with our Hogwarts supplier, we needed to find someone else with what we needed and Fred said he knew of a muggle who had a good quality supply. Turns out Fred used some of the contraband and on his way back to diagon alley stumbled into some muggle aurors, they could tell he was high and searched him for drugs. He'd be out of their jail by now if he hadn't poked the police officers with his wand, they confiscated it."
James finished and looked at Rose expectantly,
Rose couldn't quite believe it, out of everyone in the family only Fred could have found himself in a situation such as this.
"Do we need to help him escape?" Rose asked with a laugh,
"That dunderhead should be getting out by the end of today, Uncle George is going to pick him up, but as for the party we are short of all of our drug supply and we have no way of getting any."
The Gryffindor's were famous for their start of year parties, as the Slytherin's were for their end of year party. So that included providing everything and everyone with the best night possible. It was more important than ever that they host a good night as this was James, Fred and Dominique's last year at Hogwarts. They had a reputation to uphold and everyone was expecting it to be bigger and better than the years previous. That meant they needed it to be absolutely perfect, even if illicit substances were involved.
"Shit" Rose said taking off her pyjama bottoms to chuck on a pair of slightly flared jeans.
"So we have no contraband and we can't get any at school because Joey is still angry," Rose said
This was because the Hogwarts resident dealer Joey McCarthur and Fred Weasley didn't exactly have the best relationship. It had something to do with Fred sleeping with Joey's girlfriend the year prior at the Slytherin end of year party. Joey had punched Fred's lights out and vowed that he wouldn't be supplying Fred or any of his family or friends with contraband the following year. This was why they'd needed to source their own illicit substances in the first place.
"Exactly" James said "so I asked Albus if he could get it for us, but Albus told me it was Fred's fault and he wasn't prepared to get on Joey's bad side" James was standing up now and playing with the fish bowl sitting on Roses desk.
Albus, James' younger brother happened to be a member of Slytherin house, a surprise to everyone when he'd been sorted.
"So I have a job for you" James said looking up at Rose, she was facing the mirror and their gazes met.
"I'm not going anywhere near Joey" she said bluntly "but I could get Andre to get it for us" she added
James smirked,
"That was my plan exactly, you've got Andre wrapped so tightly around your finger he'd probably jump off a cliff if you asked. And we both know the only person that Joey answers to is Andre."
You see, not only was Andre Zabini the unofficial leader of Slytherin house and captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, but Andre was incredibly attractive and wealthy which meant that he was unaccustomed to not getting what he wanted.
Which was why he'd been pursuing Rose ever since she'd turned him down in her fourth year. Rose was the first to admit she hadn't always been pretty, it was hard to miss the transformation that had occurred over the summer of third and fourth year. She'd returned to Hogwarts with sleek waves, pouty lips and a slim, curved body. Even though she was a year younger, Andre had asked her out immediately and she'd turned him down just as quickly. It wasn't because he wasn't attractive, he was and it definitely wasn't because he was Quidditch captain. It had just felt wrong, James and Andre were unofficial rivals, they both held similar roles as house leaders, frankly Rose's loyalty lay with her cousin and best friend.
Andre hadn't accepted Rose's rejection laying down. At first he had little messages put into her books, when that didn't work he'd started walking with her after classes. After that, he'd started getting desperate, one stunt had involved asking her to Hogsmeade in front of the entire Great Hall at dinner, she did not say yes. It was pretty obvious to the entirety of the school community that Andre was interested in Rose and Rose would definitely use that to her advantage, especially if the fate of the Gryffindor welcome party rested on her shoulders.
However, this plan relied solely on the belief that Rose's affection meant more to Andre than his rivalry with James. On one hand he had the opportunity to score more points with Rose and on the other hand he had the opportunity to ruin the Gryffindor welcome party for his rival.
"What if I don't want to use my feminine beauty to get whatever I want off Andre?" Rose asked crossing her arms and turning to James with a brow raised.
"How much do I need to give you for your cooperation then, Rosie?" James huffed.
"How about the marauders map and we'll call it square"
James' face paled but he needed to ace this party, anyway he would find some way to get it back from Rosie, surely.