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Year 1: Studious Success

Chapter 1: September 2017

First day of school. Rose had been dreaming about this day since before she could remember. All her life she'd dreamed of this. She'd dreamed of going to Hogwarts and roaming the halls and sitting in the classes and sleeping in Gryffindor Tower. She'd grown up hearing the stories, of potions classes gone awry and after-hours duelling practices.

Her parents' time at Hogwarts had been some of the best years of their lives. Sure, a lot of terrible stuff had happened to them. There was the time her mother had been petrified by a basilisk, or the time that death eaters had broken into the school and both her parents had had to help to fight them off. But Hogwarts had been where her parents had met, where they'd fallen in love. Hogwarts was where they'd met Harry and formed friendships that had lasted a lifetime. And Hogwarts was where Rose was going to finally start living her life and have experiences and adventures that would stick with her forever.

But first she had to get away from her parents.

"Now don't forget Rosie, make sure to sit up front in all your classes, it's the best way to stay focused," her mother, Hermione, instructed her.

"Don't listen to her," her father, Ron, insisted. "Sit in the back of the class. Especially in History of Magic. Best place for naps."

"Ron!" Hermione cried, aghast. "Don't encourage our daughter to nap during class! Is that really the example you want to set for her?"

"Oh, come on, we already know she's brilliant," Ron groaned. "You've been over the entire first year curriculum with her already. She needs to have some fun too, or else – "

"Or else what, Ronald?" Hermione demanded, crossing her arms in front of her. "Or else she'll end up like me?"

"No!" Ron cried. "That's not what I was going to say at all! I was going to say or else she'll end up like Percy. You may have been uptight, but you'd break the rules with Harry and me sometimes."

RONALD!" Hermione screamed. "Don't say things like that in front of our children! Rosie dear, your father's just joking. Mummy never broke any rules when she was in school, and neither should you."

Rose rolled her eyes. Her parents were both so overdramatic sometimes.

"Don't worry Mum, Dad," she assured them both. "I'll be just fine."

"Well alright," Hermione agreed reluctantly as she straightened Rose's collar. "You'll write if you need anything?"

"I promise," Rose nodded. "I'll even write if I don't need anything, just to say hello."

"And you've got that extra jumper in the front pocket of your trunk," Hermione reminded her. "In case it gets chilly on the train."

"Right, because it's the middle of winter," Ron rolled his eyes. "Hermione, you know the temperature on the train is controlled magically."

"You never know what might happen," Hermione pointed out. "Remember third year? The train got pretty cold right at the end there."

"Because there were dementors," Ron said exasperatedly. "Are you saying you expect dementors to board the train today? Are there any escaped convicts loose that you're aware of?"

"I'm just saying that – "

"Alright Mum, Dad," Rose interrupted before her parents could really get going. "I'm going to get on the train now, and you can feel free to finish this conversation in the car. I'm sure Hugo would love to listen to you bicker about the likelihood of me meeting my first dementor today."

"Oh, sweetie, I didn't mean – "

"It's fine," Rose stopped her mother before she got carried away again. "Just give me a hug and let me get on the train."

Obeying their daughter's command, Ron and Hermione each took a turn hugging Rose goodbye, and then Hugo leaned in for one as well. Then Ron helped Rose lift her trunk up onto the train, and she waved goodbye, moving out of the way as her cousin Albus joined her in the train corridor.

"You ready for this?" Rose asked Albus as the train started to move and their families slowly started to fade out of sight.

Albus turned to look at his cousin and nodded, his expression firm and confident.

"Absolutely," he said.

Rose had to admit, she was really glad to have her cousin Albus with her for her first day. Sure, some of her older cousins were already at Hogwarts, but it would be nice to go through her first day with someone who was in the same boat as she, someone who was just as nervous and anxious and excited as she was.

"Well come on," Rose declared when neither of them moved for a few moments. "Let's find a compartment." They couldn't just stand around all day, after all.

They made their way towards the back of the train, peeking into each compartment they came across in the hopes that they'd find one with some space for them. Unfortunately, the compartments were all full.

As Rose came to the end of the train car and prepared to go through the door to the next one, she suddenly realized that she was alone. Frowning and turning around, she found that Albus was still halfway down the car, staring into a compartment on the right.

Wondering if she'd missed an empty compartment, Rose walked back over to see, only to find that he was staring into a compartment that already had six other occupants.

"That one's full," Rose informed him, heading back towards the door to the next car. "Come on, let's keep looking."

When Albus didn't follow her, she frowned and walked back over to him. Looking at him more closely, she noticed that his eyes were kind of glazed over. He didn't appear to be paying attention to anything at all.

Rose waved a hand in front of Albus' face to snap him out of whatever daydream he was in. "Earth to Albus," she called out, trying to get his attention. "Are we going to stand here all-day staring, or are we going to keep looking for a place to sit?"

Albus shook his head and slowly turned to look at Rose, his eyes coming back into focus as he realized that his cousin was standing right in front of him.

"What was that?" he asked, a dazed expression on his face.

Rose rolled her eyes and repeated herself.

"I want to sit with her," Albus declared, pointing to a girl inside the compartment he'd been staring into. She was blond, and admittedly quite cute, but apart from that Rose didn't recognize her.

"Well you can't," Rose said. "Because her compartment is full."

"She's beautiful," Albus said with a little sigh.

Rose rolled her eyes. Why did boys have to be so weird? Why couldn't Albus just focus on the fact that it was their first day of school? Why did he have to suddenly be going all moon-eyed over some stranger?

"Wonderful," Rose said sarcastically. "Let's keep moving."

She grabbed Albus by the hand, not trusting him to follow her otherwise, and led him down the train until they found an empty compartment to sit in.

"Rose?" Albus said as they settled in.

"Yes, Albus?" Rose responded with trepidation.

"I think I'm in love," Albus confessed.

Rose almost groaned. "No. No way. You're not in love, you haven't even met the girl yet. You're infatuated."

Albus shook his head and Rose pressed on.

"Albus, please focus. It's our first day, we're on our way to Hogwarts. Tomorrow we start classes. Potions and herbology and transfiguration and all the rest. We have to be focused. We have to be ready. We can't let ourselves be sidetracked right now. This is not a good time for distractions. You can let yourself be distracted later on in the year, but right now, let's start off on the right foot."

Rose paused, in case Albus had something to say, but he wasn't listening. He was staring out the window, probably daydreaming about the blonde girl he'd suddenly become so obsessed with. Rose didn't know what it was about her that had him so captivated. Maybe she was part Veela or something like her Aunt Fleur. Or maybe Albus was just an idiot.

Whatever it was, it looked like Rose was on her own. So, with a sigh of acceptance, Rose pulled one of her textbooks out of her trunk and curled up to do a bit of revising.

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Rose had hoped that Albus would come to his senses before they arrived at Hogwarts, but she was sorely disappointed. As soon as they got off the train, he started searching for the girl and insisting that he was going to go and talk to her. Thankfully Rose was able to dissuade him, and they made it up to the castle without incident.

Hogwarts castle was just as Rose's parents had described it, but it had a certain quality about it that couldn't be communicated with words. Rose chalked it up to magic.

They entered the Great Hall and lined up in front of the sorting hat, just as she'd been told they would. While the sorting hat sang its song, Rose scanned the high table, trying to identify the various professors. She knew Neville – Professor Longbottom that is – and his wife, Professor Abbott-Longbottom, of course. And she'd met Professor Tonks on a couple of occasions because of Teddy. And of course, she knew Hagrid. The rest though were all strangers, though she looked forward to getting to know them all.

When Rose's turn to be sorted finally came, she walked up to the stool with confidence, taking her seat and allowing the hat to be carefully dropped onto her head and over her eyes.

"Another Weasley?" the hat practically groaned at her. "Every year there seems to be more and more of you. When are you going to leave me in peace?"

Well I'm sorry for inconveniencing you, Rose thought, a little offended that the hat didn't seem to want to sort her.

"Oh no, it's not that I don't want to sort you," the hat insisted. "Just that you all end up in the same place. There's really no mystery left to it anymore."

Then put me somewhere else, Rose dared the hat. I'm extremely smart, maybe I belong in Ravenclaw.

"I appreciate the offer," the hat said. "But I have to be true to myself, and in order to do that, I have to sort you based on what I find in your head. And as usual… you were born a natural GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat was lifted from Rose's head and Rose's gaze was automatically redirected towards the Gryffindor Table, where Albus, her cousins, and all the rest of the house were all clapping boisterously. Though Rose wouldn't have minded being sorted into Ravenclaw, she knew the hat would never have gone for it. Her mother hadn't even made the cut for Ravenclaw, and Rose had a lot more of her father in her than she often admitted. With a pleased smile, Rose joined her new housemates to watch the last few students in their year get sorted before the welcoming feast.

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First day of classes. Rose was even more excited for this than yesterday. Yesterday had been about arriving at school and getting oriented, but now she was officially settled and her life at Hogwarts was about to begin.

Though Rose was exceptionally annoyed that Albus was still obsessing over the girl – Hayley Sullivan, they'd learned was her name – she wasn't going to let it slow her down. She had one goal in mind, and she was going to pull Albus along with her whether he liked it or not. And her goal was simple: to have the best Hogwarts experience ever, and to excel while doing it.

History of Magic was their first class. Rose had wanted to sit up front like her mother had encouraged her to do, but Albus insisted on sitting next to Hayley. Rose indulged him, mostly hoping that once he met her, he'd realize she was a human being and not as perfect as he'd made her out to be in his head.

Unfortunately, even after meeting her, Albus was still just as enamoured.

Her father had been right about one thing. Listening to Professor Binns' lecture was about as dull as watching paint dry. Thankfully Rose had already read their textbook ahead of time and was familiar with the material, so if she drifted off a few times through the class, she was able to pick up her professor's train of thought pretty quickly.

Their second class of the day was defence against the dark arts. To Rose' surprise, there were no desks in the room when they entered, which left her at a loss as to where to position herself for optimal learning. The entire class ended up standing in a large clump until Professor Derlid had them spread out around the room.

He explained that he took a more practical approach to his subject, and that the theory would be covered in homework. They spend the lesson learning proper duelling stances and wand grips, among other things.

After lunch, they had herbology, where they were given a tour of the various greenhouses and shown where all the various tools and other supplies were kept. And for their final class of the day, they went down to the dungeons for potions, where they were again shown where everything was kept, and then given a set of lab rules to memorize.

When the day was done, Rose was in high spirits. Her classes had been interesting, for the most part. So far she liked all her professors, though admittedly she'd already known two of them since Neville and Hannah were friends with her parents. She also felt good about her classmates. She'd met her dormmates briefly the night before, and they'd all seemed nice. And the rest of the students in their year seemed pretty good too. Even Scorpius Malfoy had seemed alright throughout their classes, despite her father's warnings against him.

As they packed their things up at the end of potions, one of Rose's dormmates, Nicole, came by and invited her and Albus to join the rest of the first year Gryffindors in the common room for a game of exploding snap.

"Thanks Nicole," Rose smiled, excited at the prospect of bonding with her housemates.

Nicole headed off with another of their dormmates, Penny, leaving Rose and Albus to follow after them.

"Come on Albus, let's go," Rose insisted.

Albus shook his head. "I think I'll go to the inter-house lounge," he declared. "Maybe I'll run into Hayley there."

"Oh no," Rose shook her head. "You're coming with me. I'm not going to let you waste away and squander your chance to have a normal Hogwarts experience. Besides, she'll be in Slytherin today with her own housemates."

"Then I'll hang around in the dungeons," Albus insisted. "Rose, I have to know her. I have to befriend her. I have to make her fall in love with me."

Rose sighed and decided to try a new tactic. "Well you're not going to accomplish that by stalking her," she insisted. "She's not going to want to be friends with the creepy Gryffindor that lurks in the dungeons. But if you pretend to be normal, make friends in your own house, and then try to be friends with her, then maybe she'll be interested."

Albus considered that for a moment and then agreed. "Alright," he allowed. "I guess. But you can't keep me from her forever. One of these days you'll have to let me talk to her."

"You talked to her today," Rose pointed out.

"You know what I mean," Albus insisted.

Rose nodded. "I'm just looking out for you," she said. "I don't want you to get hurt because you rushed into things."

Thankfully, Albus seemed to understand and accept all this, and he followed Rose up to the seventh floor to get to know the rest of the Gryffindor first years.

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"Hey Rose, you coming to breakfast?" Nicole asked. It was the beginning of their third week at Hogwarts and Rose was waiting for Albus in the common room.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute," Rose nodded. "You go on without me."

Nicole nodded, and she and Penny exited through the portrait hole, leaving Rose alone to wait for her cousin.

Rose was annoyed. For whatever reason, Albus still hadn't given up his crazy obsession with Hayley Sullivan, and despite her best efforts, he still hadn't made any real friends in Gryffindor, apart from herself. And in an effort to keep him from making a fool of himself in front of the Slytherin girl, Rose spent all her time looking out for Albus instead of making friends of her own.

Her dormmates were really nice. There were Nicole and Penny, who constantly tried to include Rose in conversations and invite her places with them. Then there were Stephanie and Kendall, who were always offering for Rose to sit with them in class and study with them in the library.

Unfortunately, Rose had to keep declining every time they asked her to join, because Albus was a big giant idiot. She should just leave him to the wolves. She should just let him follow Hayley around like a puppy the way he clearly wanted to and let him sink. But Merlin help her, Rose loved her cousin and couldn't let him do that to himself. He was stuck in this school for seven years, and she wasn't about to let him spend seven years as the fool who thought he'd fallen in love on the first day.

So, Rose would wait. She'd wait until Albus got over himself before she started trying to make friends. She'd let him come to his senses, and then, hopefully, if she hadn't missed her chance, she'd make some friends of her own and start her epic Hogwarts adventure.

There was still time, Rose told herself, as she continued to wait for Albus to come down. There was plenty of time.