A/N: So this is the newest of the new - I'm working on a next gen fic, with several (6) POVs: Rose, Albus, James, Hugo, Ginny and Hermione. There're a lot of topics, multiple pairings, many OCs, and all the characters have their own lives and their own stories, which naturally, will collide every once in a while. I'm really excited to share this so please, let me know what you think!
Summary:
Rose thought her future was all set before she had even graduated Hogwarts - but little did she know. She made mistakes, and now she tries to live with them, all the while trying to figure out what to do with her life.
Albus lives a rather normal life between a fake girlfriend, cleaning after his brother's messes and trying to keep his parents together after a traumatic incident.
James is a Quidditch celebrity, and while he lives - mostly - by the book during the season, the off-season is another thing. James will be facing many changes during the following months, including the upcoming Quidditch World Cup where he will represent the English team.
Hugo doesn't see what everyone else around him does: how he is walking down the path into exhaustion while pursuing his career as a Healer. And why should he? He has it figured out.
Hermione has returned to live a Muggle life - mostly. Even if she has a successful career, there are still several issues and things to accomplish before she can sit back and enjoy her life.
Ginny has been through a lot, but she chooses to continue, to move on with her life. Some days, it seems that she can only hope that her husband chooses to do the same thing.
Chapter 1: Rose
Tuesday, 4 November, 2025
"You're taking the piss."
Rose gave Scarlett an unimpressed look, knowing how much she resembled her mother whenever she summoned the expression onto her face.
Scarlett took a large sip from her wineglass. "Okay, go on." Scarlett said, nodding at her before taking another hefty gulp. "Merlin knows I need this."
Rose wasn't sure if her friend meant the wine or the story she was about to tell her. "Scar…" She sighed, looking pointedly at her friend's quickly emptying glass. "You do remember we're both working tomorrow?" Rose asked, even though she was holding a glass of her own between her fingers.
It was their tradition – Tuesday wine-night. It happened on Wednesdays sometimes, too. And sometimes on Thursdays. And Fridays and Saturdays. But never on Sundays – they both visited their families on Sundays – and usually not on Mondays, as Scarlett had her evening classes in St Mungo's ancient remedies department, where she was doing her apprenticeship in magical occupational therapy. Which was something Rose's mother never forgot to bring up – the fact that Rose was on her second year off after Hogwarts and working at a coffee shop of all places, while Scarlett who had graduated a year after Rose, a mere five months ago, had a plan for her future.
Rose knew her mother didn't mean to be mean or harsh, but… She was Hermione Granger, and Rose knew her mother was expecting a lot from her, being her eldest child. Being her child in general.
"Oh, tosh," Scarlett huffed, waving her off. "We both know Higgins doesn't really care," She said with a nonchalant look.
Higgins was their boss, and the one who owned the coffee shop near their flat. It wasn't a hip place – just a regular one, with muggle customers, most of whom came during the morning hours to get their teas and coffees before running to their jobs and schools. The coincidence of Scarlett stumbling into and asking for a job at the exact same coffee shop, where Rose had been working for a year and not seeing any wizards or witches before that – if the herd of her relatives, who always seemed to pop by on the most inconvenient times wearing the most obnoxious and obvious wizarding clothes, wasn't taken into account – was so odd and extraordinary, that they quickly became good friends. Best friends. After a mere two months of really knowing each other, since they had seen each other at Hogwarts but hadn't really talked, they moved in together as roommates to save money.
"Now. Spill." Scarlett said, lifting up a perfectly shaped eyebrow, which was something Rose was very envious of – both the ability to lift just one brow up, as well as the fact that Scarlett's makeup was always perfect.
Rose thought her friend was beautiful with and without makeup: Scarlett's hair was dark blonde, long and silky, always in perfect loose waves that fell over her shoulders, not requiring any spells. She was slender and tall, whereas Rose was short and, well, not pudgy, but she had to watch what she ate, since any extra calories always seemed to miraculously show up to her thighs. Scarlett's eyes were bright green, her nose straight, her skin flawless and when she smiled, it always reached up to her eyes, making them even brighter.
Rose didn't think of herself as unattractive – she rather liked the fact that she was short, that she had freckles, and that her eyes were the exact same brown colour as her mother's. What she was somewhat resentful of was the fact that she had to spell her own thick, bushy, ginger hair into submission every single morning, whereas her friend had naturally perfect hair. Rose wasn't bothered that she and her friend were very, very different in their appearance, as they were very much the same on the inside.
Rose let out a long sigh. "Fine," She grumbled. "So, as I said – before you rudely interrupted –" and Scarlett gave her a humbling nod, "– we had barely said hello, and then… his tongue was already in my throat!"
Scarlett snorted loudly, but then gave an innocent look at her friend, urging her to continue.
"I mean, he practically lunged at me! It was quite… unexpected. And unwelcome," Rose said with a grimace, recollecting the previous night, when she had gone on a date.
Rose thought her date had been…a slight miscalculation on her part. Miscalculations and unexpected occurrences – Rose reckoned the words could easily sum up what she had been experiencing after getting into online dating nearly two months ago. Usually it started brilliantly – she felt that she'd formed a connection to someone before agreeing to meet them. But then when the date came, and if the man bothered to show up – and yes, she had twice travelled half across the island only to be stood up; times she had been very grateful that she was able to apparate back home – something always happened…
Once Rose had had dinner with a shy young man, only a year or so older than her, and he hadn't said a word the whole evening. After that, Rose had declined dinners. It had been too discomforting to sit in silence and trying not listen the sounds of them chewing down their meals. Once her date had arrived already properly soused. He'd gone sick on Rose's new shoes.
It had taken a good dozen scouring charms to get them cleaned up.
Scarlett was laughing quietly. "How long did you stay?" She asked, a sly smirk on her face.
Rose lifted her brows up. "What do you think?" She countered, but when she saw her friend opening her mouth to say something cheeky, she quickly continued, "I left approximately twenty seconds after he released my mouth," she said primly, and shuddered inwardly. It had been awkward and very unromantic. She had made an excuse to slip into the bathroom of the bar they had met in, and had disapparated.
"The usual bathroom-escape then?" Scarlett asked knowingly.
Rose gave her an agreeing grunt. Scarlett knew too much of Rose's dating life.
There was a silence. Rose leaned her head against the backrest of their small sofa, feeling defeated. "I'm never going on a date again."
"Aw, cheer up, Rose," Scarlett said lightly. "Next time is different."
Rose turned her head slightly towards her friend, who knew exactly what Rose was thinking as she grimaced, and summoned the wine bottle.
"There's not going to be a next time…" Rose said, feeling exhausted. She couldn't even summon the energy to blame her friend for getting her into this situation, as it had been Scarlett's idea that Rose created a profile on one of the online dating sites.
Scarlett examined the bottle. There was only a splash left in there. "I've heard that before," She muttered under her breath and glanced at Rose's glass, which was half empty, and then shrugged before proceeding to pour the rest of their white wine into her own glass.
Rose narrowed her eyes at her friend.
"What?" Scarlett shrugged innocently. "I have a better functioning liver."
Rose turned to watch her friend properly. "How was your evening?" They hadn't really seen each other after work the day before – Rose was working from Monday to Friday in the coffee shop, but Scarlett worked only part time, as she had her apprenticeship at St Mungo's on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to Monday nights.
Scarlett groaned. "I swear it's the most boring thing I've ever done – counteractive charms – I mean, it would be great and all, if they'd actually teach us, but no. Jefferson doesn't think I can do more than read a book and answer his questions," she grumbled, tossing down her drink in one, big gulp.
Rose gave her a sympathetic look, having heard enough of Scarlett's supervisor – Healer Jefferson – to make the assumption that he was a big prat.
"Shame we don't have more," Scarlett muttered, before she placed her empty glass on the side table.
Rose let out a disapproving voice, before putting her own half-filled glass on the coffee table in front of the sofa, next to Scarlett's feet. She glanced around them. Their small flat looked… remarkably untidier than it had been on Saturday, the last time she had properly sat down and looked around.
"Did you clean the flat?" She asked from Scarlett, who had stood up and summoned her coat from the hall, before taking a step towards the balcony, supposedly going for a smoke, "Scar…?" Rose asked pointedly.
Scarlett's shoulders hunched a little, and she sighed, turning back to look at Rose, a sheepish look on her face. Now was the time Rose wanted to raise a single eyebrow at her friend. Last week had been Scarlett's turn to clean up the place.
Scarlett lifted her hands up in surrender. "Fine!" She grumbled, and turned back towards the balcony. "I'll handle it tomorrow after work!"
Rose pursed her lips as her friend closed the door to the balcony behind her. Her eyes moved over the room, and stopped at the kitchen table that was filled with piles of parchment, paper, glasses, and miscellaneous items. Letting out a sigh, Rose stood up. It would take less than thirty minutes to get everything sorted up: the kitchen table, the mountain of dishes stacked on the kitchen counter, the floors, the two bathrooms – one of which was a small en-suite in Rose's bedroom – and the narrow hallway. Her own room was always spotless, quite the opposite than Scarlett's, which resembled much of something that was a result of an explosion. After a week living together, Rose had told Scarlett that their weekly house cleaning routine did not extend into their bedrooms, as Rose would've preferred taking a mild curse over having to step into Scarlett's room.
Their flat wasn't large, but the layout provided more space with the open-plan kitchen and sitting room, as did the white walls and light wooden floors. And they had their own rooms, so neither of them had to sleep in the sitting room – which was helpful as their schedules didn't always match. On top of things, their flat was in a good location in Bermondsey, in a muggle area, near the Southwark Park, and close to many pubs, cafes, a leisure centre and a cinema, where they'd been a handful of times to see movies. They didn't have a fireplace, so floo-travelling was out of the question, but they could always Apparate – and Rose preferred Apparition over floo-travel anyway.
She started with the kitchen, and after five minutes, Scarlett joined her, elbowing Rose to stop and let her do what she was supposed to do.
"You're too kind, you know that, right?" Scarlett asked with a wry look as Rose shrugged and went to take care of the bathroom, waving her hand in dismissal.
Five minutes later, there was a knock against the kitchen window.
"Is that your brother's?" Scarlett quipped, and as Rose came back to the kitchen, she saw the familiar brown-white tawny owl – India – which was in fact Hugo's owl.
"Oh, yes, let her in," Rose said, and Scarlett opened the window. The owl flew straight to sit on Rose's outstretched arm. "Hey, girl," Rose murmured, taking the letter from the owl's beak. "Do we have any treats?" She asked from Scarlett, and opened the letter at the same time, her eyes skimming over the text.
She hadn't seen Hugo in over a month, more due to his tight schedule than hers. Hugo too was training in St Mungo's to become a Healer, but he was studying full days from Monday to Friday, and assisting in the Accidental spells and Emergencies department several nights a week. He had graduated from Hogwarts five months ago, like Scarlett – they had even been in the same house – and already he was working himself into exhaustion. Rose was glad that he was at least still living at home with their mum, and not on his own. She wasn't sure if he would remember to eat or sleep otherwise.
Her mouth curved slightly as she read her brother's rather detailed description of an incident in the Burrow the previous week, where he had gone to visit their grandparents without letting them know beforehand that he was coming. She rolled her eyes at Hugo's complaints regarding his eyes that were now apparently scarred for life. But then, as she read on, all the amusement she was feeling vanished with a blink of an eye, and was replaced by disinclination.
"…Bloody hell," She groaned quietly.
Scarlett's head whipped back to Rose's direction. "What? What?" She asked, taking a couple of quick steps towards her friend, trying to peer at the parchment.
"It's Albus's birthday," Rose said, and glanced up at Scarlett with a grimace on her face. "There's a party."
Scarlett's eyes widened slightly. Rose knew exactly how excited her friend was, and knew how she was desperately trying to cover it up with nonchalance. "Oh?" Scarlett asked indifferently.
Rose smirked. "'Oh'?" She repeated, giving her friend a knowing look, before looking back at the letter. "He's expecting an answer…" She said, reluctantly, as Scarlett fed India a couple of treats from the pouch they kept in the kitchen drawer.
"So?" Scarlett asked, arching one of her perfect brows again.
Rose huffed. India was pressing its claws more tightly against Rose's arm. "So, I don't exactly want to go," She said and pursed her lips. Trust bloody Hugo to twist her arm like that, she thought, as she read Hugo's carefully selected words at the end of the letter. Rose showed her friend the letter.
The room was echoing with Scarlett's screams of delight a second later. "He's asking if I'm coming as well!" Scarlett screamed, nearly shaking with enthusiasm. "Oh, Rose, we have to go! He's there! We simply have to!" Scarlett sang, twirling around once, the letter tight against her chest.
Rose gave her friend the most unimpressed look she could summon.
"Oh, Rose! He'll be there, you know he'll –"
"Circe's sake, stop singing Scar!" Rose said irritably, and snatched the letter back when her friend made another spin in the middle of their kitchen.
Yes, Rose's friend had the most annoying crush ever, and it didn't seem to go away. The only wizard – the only other person Scarlett ever talked about, was –
"James is there!"
Rose sighed, summoned her self-inking quill from the coffee table and placed the parchment on the counter. She scribbled a quick 'Fine we'll be there. I hope your eyes are sore.' under Hugo's words, as India hopped onto the table. She rolled up the letter before giving it back to the owl.
"Bite him," Rose whispered to the owl, which merely blinked, before shooting off from the open window into the darkness.
Rose felt the start of a headache forming in the back of her head. Albus's birthday. Which meant that James and his annoying lackeys, and not to mention the maddening bimbos who seemed to appear everywhere he went were going to be present.
See, James was a Chaser for the Montrose Magpies, and was quite brilliant – something Rose acknowledged begrudgingly. James had been picked out straight from school, and while he had been an excellent Chaser and Captain for his house team at Hogwarts, he had become even better during the nearly three and a half years he had been playing professionally, helping his team to win the league every year since he had joined them. And on top of that the following year James would be playing Chaser for the English National Team at the Quidditch World Cup.
Obviously, some of James's fame stemmed from who his parents were, but he was a handsome young man, and a natural on a broom. Rose wasn't jealous that James was famous, or that he was an excellent player. No, Rose was jealous that James knew what he wanted, ever since they had been young kids. And James had everything he ever wished for, whereas Rose, well, she was trying to figure it out – what exactly it was that she wanted to do with her life.
Rose also knew her other cousins would be attending Albus's party, which was another reason to the pile of not wanting to go. The last time she had spent a night out with Dominique and Roxanne, all that her cousins had been talking about was how their careers had been moving upwards, when either of them would be expecting a raise, and going on and on about some dull sounding old Ministry gammons. Rose was certain that she would once again receive the looks of pity and some backhanded comments how they supposedly envied Rose for doing what she wanted, and not caring if she wasn't successful in life.
And besides James and his irritating fan club, and Rose's irritating cousins, since it was Albus's birthday, there was no doubt that Scorpius would be there as well, since he and Albus were inseparable – they never were anything but. And Scorpius was one of the main reasons Rose didn't want to go. The reason she really, really dreaded to go.
"So, we're going?" Scarlett asked, her voice high-pitched, a huge grin on her face.
Rose couldn't stop the short laughter bubbling out of her, after seeing her friend's expression. She had it bad for Rose's cousin. Too bad James would never even look at her direction, Rose thought wearily. If James was ever seen with a woman – which only ever happened when he was three sheets to the wind drunk – it was always one of those imbecile blondes who didn't seem to have any cells left in their brain. He also never went out with the same woman more than once. While Scarlett might've fit the picture on the outside, she was way too sharp and witty on the inside for James.
"Yeah. Saturday. Eight pm. The Gun," Rose grunted, while Scarlett cheered. "You're really annoying me, you know that, right?" She said with a tight voice, pressing two fingers against her temple.
Scarlett blew a raspberry, "Grinch." She muttered lightly, before resuming to take care of the mountains of dishes with the help of her wand.
Rose scoffed, pinched her friend's arm, and escaped back to the bathroom before Scarlett was able to do more than shriek a very cross swear word at her.
Later that night when Rose was lying in her bed under the covers her room dark and her wand on her nightstand ready to wake her up in the morning, her thoughts went back to the upcoming party the following weekend.
Scorpius would probably be there with his perfectly trimmed hair, in his perfectly sleek outfit that reeked of money, and… and a beautiful, model-like woman hanging onto his arm. It had been like that every time she had seen him after school or heard about him from Lily.
It had been Rose who had broken it up with Scorpius, and had insisted that dating would be a hindrance to them both after they graduated and moved to pursue their careers. Scorpius had been very… stoic and indifferent about it, as if he had been expecting it to happen. He hadn't spoken to her afterwards, even though Rose had made him promise that they'd stay friends.
They hadn't.
Scorpius had quickly moved on to the next girlfriend, only a week after their breakup, and only a month before the school had ended. The only problem had been, that the girlfriend in question had been Rose's friend, Brittany. Which had been somewhat a blow under Rose's belt.
Brittany was the most stunning girl in their school, probably the most stunning girl Rose had ever met: with her white-gold shining hair, with her beautiful periwinkle blue eyes and perfect body. Brittany was also funny, lovely, and there wasn't a person she didn't get along with. She had been adored by many, many boys during their years in Hogwarts, and she had dated many of them, always needing to be with someone. However, Rose would have never thought that she would take on a relationship over their friendship. But she did, and at that point, Rose didn't know which hurt her more – Brittany betraying her, breaking up their friendship and crushing all the trust and fondness that had built between them for years, or Scorpius who actually started a relationship with one of Rose's closest friends.
Needless to say, Rose had been crushed by the events – filled by hurt and anger and…regret. Because she had started to regret her decision. She had wanted Scorpius back. She had regretted it every time she saw the two of them together, laughing in the corridors, kissing in the courtyard, looking so happy, so…in love. Rose had wanted that – she had realised that Scorpius had been what she wanted, not a career, not excelling in her studies after Hogwarts. She had managed to catch Scorpius alone one night, only days before their graduation.
He had outright turned her down. He had told her – rather cruelly, in Rose's opinion – that she should've held onto him when she had the chance, and that she ought to remember that the next time she strung someone along for over a year. Then Scorpius had merely turned his back to her and marched away.
Their first meeting after school had been… excruciating. To Rose. No, certainly not to Scorpius.
It had been one of James's parties with his Quidditch mates, in a small two-storey house James had just bought for himself with the gold he'd got from his renewed contract at the end of the previous summer, over a year ago. And everyone had gone there; Rose, Hugo, Lily, Albus, Dominique, Fred, Roxanne, Lucy and Molly, along with many of James's friends, and of course: Scorpius and his new girlfriend.
Rose had heard from Lily over the summer, that Scorpius's and Brittany's relationship had not been a long-lasting one – they had broken up less than a month after graduation, and by the end of the summer, Scorpius had been seen with many different girls. By that time Rose hadn't been speaking to either of them, and had kept her distance even to Albus who rarely was seen without Scorpius. Rose had occasionally seen Lily, until she had returned back to school when September arrived. Rose had been hesitant to go to the party, knowing that Scorpius would be there – she didn't want to see him, or to let him see how she hadn't figured out what to do after graduation, even though she had graduated with top marks, and had had great plans regarding her life after Hogwarts.
Her fears had been quite unnecessary. Scorpius had merely nodded at her and looked away, like she was some distant acquaintance – or a friend of one of his friends. Someone, he vaguely knew of.
And perhaps she was exactly that.
Scorpius had also had a new blonde, quite beautiful girl glued to his side, giggling loudly to anything he let out from his mouth, gazing at him with such affection that Rose wanted to gag.
Which she did, three hours later, after engaging into a drinking game with one of James's friends.
Nick.
Nick was always challenging everyone to the most moronic things. In a normal situation Rose would have probably turned her nose up to him, but after seeing Scorpius and – whatever her name was – it had stung. Also knowing that everyone knew that Rose was a failure and that she worked in a coffee shop instead of pursuing her career like James, Fred, Molly, Scorpius, Dominique, Roxanne and Albus had done the moment they had graduated, Rose had decided to make an idiotic decision, and for once, she was very much aware that nothing good would follow from it, but she had decided to do it anyway.
Rose had only vague images from the latter part of the night. But she was fairly certain that at some point she had been in James's bedroom with Nick, snogging him like their lives depended on it. They had been interrupted, and then…Rose had been sick.
It wasn't the greatest moment of her life, certainly not. She recalled Albus getting somewhat narky at her as he had brought her home after she had successfully emptied her stomach onto James's rug. It hadn't been until two months after the party, when Albus had finally started to talk to her again without a certain tightness in his voice.
After the party, Rose had continued her life as it was, and had kept in touch with most of her cousins – at least the ones in whose company she didn't feel like a complete disappointment. Well, perhaps James had been the exception, but she knew that there were very few people who didn't feel a bit inadequate in James's company. And James had other features that made up for it – like the way he always made Rose smile, even after relentlessly teasing her.
But of course, her cousins had their own lives and their own relationships, jobs and even families, as Molly informed later that spring – six months ago – that she was expecting. And John, Molly's boyfriend, had asked her to marry him. Rose was happy for them, she really was. However, there had been a small, a miniscule, empty spot in her chest, yelling at her that she didn't have any of those things, and she might never get them. Rose had eventually decided to disregard the voice and remain happy for Molly, since she had always been kind and encouraging with Rose. The decision hadn't been difficult especially since Molly had asked Rose to be the godmother to their son, who was expected to be born in the beginning of December. Which was less than a month away.
Molly had also very carefully once asked Rose, if she still wanted to study something. Rose hadn't known how to answer to her cousin.
Because Rose had wanted to study in a muggle university, like her mother had done after her Hogwarts years – but it hadn't gone as she had planned. Rose had botched up her exams by overthinking, by stressing over everything, and, to her utter dismay: by pining over Scorpius. Rose had spent the summer after her graduation mostly lying in a bed in a cottage her mother had bought after divorcing Rose's father. Staying at her mother's place had been the obvious choice, since Rose didn't have a place to study, and she didn't have a job. Staying with her father was out of the question: he lived in Manchester, which was too long a distance to Apparate without ease. He also lived a bit of a hectic life with his wife Lavender and Rose's half-sister Jasmine, who had been a little over a year and a half then.
Rose's parents had naturally encouraged her to try to apply again to the university, and to consider if there was something else she wanted to do. But somehow, Rose had found herself stuck in place, not really knowing what she wanted to do with her life. She knew she wanted to do something: she wanted to live on her own, and not to ask for money from her mother. So, she had taken a job at a coffee shop a month after her graduation, and two months later she had finally rented her first flat. Which had been a horrible rat hole with one room that served as the sitting room, bedroom and the kitchen. There was a small bathroom which all her guests refused to use, since it was somewhat difficult to move in the narrow space. Rose had been grateful that she was a small witch.
Moving into the flat she shared with Scarlett now had certainly been an upgrade.
With a sigh, Rose forced herself to empty her mind and go to sleep. It was already late, and she had an early shift the next day. There was still time to stress over the upcoming party.