The Rose Weasley Chronicles II: A Strange Sequel

by blue.but.harmless

Part II (Year 2) of the story that starts with "An Unusual Beginning." You may be confused if you didn't read the first one first, but I leave that entirely up to you. Join the next generation of Potters, Weasleys, and, yes, even Malfoys, at Hogwarts - twenty years later. Canon-compliant (with the original books only), multi-chapter fic with believable characters and a real plot!

2. Part I Summary

Summary of The Rose Weasley Chronicles I: An Unusual Beginning

Ok, listen. This is a sequel. My recommendation is that you go back and read The Rose Weasley Chronicles I: An Unusual Beginning before reading this book, but I recognize that not everyone has that kind of patience, and I understand where you're coming from. In case you just want to dive in here with Book 2, I've written a summary of Book 1 so that you can at least get a sense of the setup before starting. This is obviously full of spoilers. Seriously. Everything below is spoilers for Book 1, so if you're planning to read it and you like surprises, DO NOT READ THIS.

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SPOILERS BELOW

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YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

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This whole thing started because I wrote a oneshot about Scorpius Malfoy being a meek child and Draco getting in a snit about it. So that's where this starts. Scorpius is quiet and kind and meek as a child, and Draco has no idea how to handle that. His wife Astoria, on the other hand, is very close to their son, and guides him so that he continues to be fundamentally kind – but also snarky, sarcastic, and quick-witted – as he grows up. At eleven, they send him to Hogwarts.

Then I wrote a follow-up chapter about Rose. Rose Weasley has her mother's brains, her father's temper, and more cousins than she can count. Her best friend in the world is her cousin, Al Potter.

And then I sort of just kept writing. So here's an outline of what might be important for you to know if you're heading straight into Book 2 without reading Book 1:

In my headcanon (and in this fic), Rose, Al, and the rest of the Potter-Weasley clan kids have grown up hearing about the war in the wizarding world that preceded their birth, but their parents have left out certain . . . key details in an effort to let the children grow up as normally as possible. The whole Harry-Potter-being-the-Chosen-One is one of those "details." Each Weasley-Potter child is told the full version of the family history once they've reached Hogwarts, in a tradition involving faux-kidnapping and the Room of Requirement that's become known as the Feast of the Annunciation. This is where they learn everything – including details of the story about the war against Voldemort, including the Horcruxes, the Hallows, and the prophecy that started it all.

Rose and Al wind up sharing a compartment (of course) with Scorpius Malfoy on the Hogwarts Express. This goes approximately as well as you might imagine. Later, Scorpius is Sorted into Gryffindor with Rose and Al, which comes as a great shock to him (and everyone else). Scorpius's best friend from childhood, Azalea Selwyn (daughter of Pansy Selwyn, nee Parkinson), disappointed that Scorpius won't be joining her in Slytherin, handles this particularly poorly throughout the entire year. Eventually, Rose, Al, and Scorpius become friends, despite Rose's initial misgivings.

Al joins the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Beater, where he gets along shockingly well with his brother James, the other Beater. There's definitely a joke to be made somewhere here about nepotism, but really, I wanted Al to have a thing to be excited about and Rose to have an excuse (not being on the team) to wander around the castle on her own sometimes.

Rose and Al learn that their parents have received mysterious letters that seem to concern them. There is no information on where these letters came from, or who sent them, but as the year goes on, more notes start showing up for Rose and Al – now at Hogwarts. In their dormitories. There are a lot of theories about who is responsible for these letters, but nothing concrete. The course of their investigation brings them at one point into the Forbidden Forest, where they find a permanently-burning log in a clearing and have a run-in with some sort of disembodied voice that seems to have a pretty big problem with Al (note: this is purposefully not fully resolved in this book, but it's chapter 10 if anyone is interested in this scene particularly). At Christmas, they tell their parents about what's been happening, and Ron gives Rose the Deluminator, telling her to keep it on her person at all times. Just in case.

At Easter, the Potters' house is unexpectedly subject to a search by Muggle police, which shouldn't have been possible in the first place given the protection charms around it. Fortunately, James, Al, Lily, and Rose are on hand to help hide all the magical items in the house – mostly by Flooing them to Rose's parents, although Rose knocks a few books and a sleek, silvery tablecloth into her bag without thinking much of it.

Back at school, Rose and Al receive one last set of letters, which list a time (the following day) and a place (the Shrieking Shack). Through some miscommunications and misunderstandings, Rose, Al, and Scorpius have become convinced that the writer of these letters has managed to get their hands on the Resurrection Stone for some obviously nefarious reason (possibly to raise an army of Inferi), and that this is what's going to happen at the Shrieking Shack. Because they are eleven, impulsive, and, in the end, their parents' children, they take it upon themselves to go save the day.

Except when they get there, rather than a mad wizard with the Stone, what they find is a mad Muggle with a gun. Peter Marduin, struggling with a psychotic break induced by trauma as well as a failed Obliviation, has deluded himself into thinking that he can resurrect his own tragically deceased children by sacrificing Al and Rose (and, by proxy, Scorpius, because he's there). Through a combination of wit, luck, and a surprisingly useful Deluminator, Al, Rose, and Scorpius escape, bringing the Shrieking Shack down almost on their heads and killing Peter Marduin in the process.

In the aftermath, we find out that Marduin had escaped from a Muggle psychiatric hospital years prior, having been committed due to the psychosis that resulted after his family was killed by Death Eaters during the Second Wizarding War. Obviously he was Obliviated at the time. Obviously it didn't stick. No one knows how he broke out, and no one had seen him since. No one knows how he was getting in and out of the castle, or even how he knew about Hogwarts in the first place. Without Rose, Al, and Scorpius taking it upon themselves to "save the day," none of them would have been in substantial danger from Marduin, aside from the danger of receiving a few very strange letters. Rose, having grown up hearing all about her mother's brains, is devastated to have messed up so badly, and swears off future adventures, even though there are still questions left unanswered.

After all of the cuts and scrapes are healed and Rose and Al have been thoroughly chastised by their parents for leaving Hogwarts grounds and putting themselves in danger when they were explicitly warned not to, Herbology professor Neville Longbottom delivers what is unequivocally one of my favorite lines I've ever written, so I'm adding it to this summary: "I'm not an Auror, but I did kill a pretty big snake with a sword once, and I like to think I'm pretty good with a wand. Next time, please come to me before you do anything stupid."

Eventually, of course, Rose is convinced by Al and Scorpius that the correct response to getting something wrong is not to bury her head in the sand forever, and they begin talking about Marduin's co-conspirators, and just how a Muggle managed to get into Hogwarts. Their top suspects are Melisenda Wilkes, a fellow first-year Gryffindor who has it out for Rose and Al in particular, and Caligula Callister, the Transfiguration professor and current head of Slytherin House.

Thus endeth Book 1. And now, onto Book 2!