1. Girls

Every year on September 1st, the otherwise deserted platform 9 3/4 became chaotic, loud and colourful. There were families over families, accompanying their protégées, and forming large groups with yet more families. Mothers, who were beaming with worrisome pride, checked their children's luggage one last time and under much protest, kissed them on both cheeks many times to provide for the coming months of separation. Fathers, on the other hand, patted their youngsters on the shoulders while making a joke to amuse an old friend, who was in turn calming down his wife.

Returning students soon fled their parents to tightly hug their friends and gush about the past summer. New students were nervously shifting on their feet and were either the first to board the train or avoided the reality of departure for as long as possible. With the colliding luggage carts, screeching owls, cats on an escape mission and conductors animating everyone to board, it was the perfect chaos.

With much effort, Rose Weasley pushed her way through the frenzy. She had escaped her mother at the earliest opportunity, but so far she hadn't found any of her friends. The Weasley-Potter clan was running reliably late - with the exception of Rose's mum, of course. Hermione Granger-Weasley had dragged her, Hugo and her dad out of the house way before time. It did give Rose enough opportunity to find and reserve an empty compartment, even though she wasn't going to be able to spend much time there herself. At least the young nags showed a little bit of respect towards seventh years, albeit little. Most of them moved along as soon as they spotted Rose blocking the door. Some others tried to push their way past her, however, probably to annoy her or to prove their guts.

Out of sheer frustration, she eventually grabbed her head girl badge from her pocket and pinned it to her cloak where it was well visible. From now on those flubber worms were going to crawl before her. Figuratively speaking. With the certainty that the compartment would stay empty, as a result of her power move, Rose left the train again. See there, it had taken but ten minutes for family members in presence to triple.

Rose's parents were now joined by Harry and Ginny Potter and Angelina and George Weasley, two pairs of her aunts and uncles. Aunt Angelina looked relatively happy again. For most of the summer she had been in such a foul mood, that Roxanne had fled to the Burrow more than a few times. The reason for this had been of no surprise to most of the family: Fred Weasley II. had not managed to graduate and was now repeating seventh year. Only Rose's mum had been able to sincerely share Aunt Angelina's shock.

As Rose was nearing the adults, she saw that they were only joined by Lily and Hugo, the fledglings of the family. Where Rose and Albus already had a close bond these two were like peas in a pod. Constantly around each other and like fierce warriors at each other's defence. Unfortunately for Rose, who was often responsible for tidying up their messes, the two of them often put recklessly grand ideas into each others heads. Regarding their masks of innocence darkly, Rose remembered last year when they had set out to map the Dark Forrest. When they'd caught them, Hugo had blamed the visiting cartographer Bartosz Skartowàc's presentation on enthusing him to demystisize the great unknown or some dragon dung like it. The boy was good at talking himself out of any situation. This year Rose was going to be even more responsible for keeping her brother out of trouble than last year, and the thought alone made her head ache. Scowling at the continued absence of her friends, Rose joined her parents and half-heartedly searched the platform for beloved faces.

Further down the platform she saw Lysander Scamander high-five a few other guys. His Slytherin pals, she assumed and squinted. In good Gryffindor manner she couldn't stand the lot of them. Altogether arrogant, sleazy characters. Even after seven years she hadn't been able to decide whether model student Lysander or bad boy Malfoy was the least likeable. Her stomach turned every time she remembered that her cousin Albus was part of their clique.

Rose kept her eyes on the group until they boarded the train. If Lysander was here, Lorcan couldn't be far. Just like Lily and Hugo, the twins had a tendency to gravitate towards each other. Lorcan was a funny chap, and like his best friend Fred, he also had to repeat a year, which certainly wasn't by chance. The two of them were constantly in cahoots. Lorcan was loud, silly and jolly. Lysander on the other hand was a model pupil and at surface level, he was every mother-in-law's dream. Personally, Rose had nothing to say to Lysander. He was a sleazy, hypocritical Slytherin in her eyes, and he had never tried to change that view. Lorcan on the other hand was a dear friend, and where he went, Fred went.

Just as she wanted to head off to look for Lorcan, her Aunt Audrey and her cousin Lucy joined the family. They were greeted by George exclaiming 'Finally, more redheads!' as he patted Lucy's head in recognition. Then he began his ever recurring complaint that the Potter-genes were causing ruin to the Weasley family.

"Us Weasley's aren't such a huge clan for no reason," he declaimed, "we are pursuing the noble cause of saving the endangered redheads. But see here: As soon as a Potter comes along, only three out of twelve children are gingers! That's a success rate of 25%. Before, it was 100%! Harry, what do you have to say to your defence?"

Provocatively he faced Harry, who smirked and placed an arm around his black haired Lily.

"I think she is beautiful. I guess the best genes get passed on in the end." He winked, but of course he was right. Lily Potter was only fourteen and still, she was putting the rest of the family to shame. Even Victoire and Dominique, who were descendent of a Veela, didn't hold a candle to Lily's natural radiance. Despite her young age, Lily had received a few modeling offers already, quite to her delight, but Harry had declined them all vehemently.

"My daughter will not promote smelly perfumes or provocative Venus Witch clothes with her naked body," he had roared, and received an offended "I wear Venus!" from Dominique.

When a long whistle sounded from the train, Rose suddenly remembered that she had been looking for her friends. With a few kisses, she said goodbye to her parents and scanned the platform one last time. Now that the train was about to depart, the turmoil on the station had become even more hectic. Soon she gave up all hope of finding anyone and returned to the compartment she had reserved.

Three young women were waiting for her there - she should have known. Her cousin Roxanne Weasley was sprawled over two seats with a copy of Teen Witch on her lap. Amy Longbottom was meticulously combing her hair and, like Rose, she was already wearing her uniform. Dominique Weasley, another one of Rose's cousins, didn't have anything to improve about her appearance and jumped up to greet her friend with a hug.

"Hey there, head girl! How lovely to see you! I know we saw each other only two weeks ago, but I missed you so much!" she chirped and landed a couple of kisses on Rose's cheeks.

"I've been searching for you guys everywhere," she complained.

Amy smiled leniently. "We were searching for the reserved compartment, of course."

Rose dropped onto the bench next to Roxanne and took a peak into the Teen Witch. Charming Curves and Hexed Hair - the Autumn Style guide.

"Hexed hair, huh?"

"Yup, it's the new wicked."

"Never," gasped Rose, appalled.

"C'mon, Rosie, it's like you live under a rock when it comes to pop culture," teased Dominique.

"Last time I checked, culture revolved around Stonehenge and the Quintelves Quartett and such stuff, right Amy?"

The Longbottom girl shrugged, put away her brush to reveal and pulled out a nail file. "Don't drag me into this just because I'm a Ravenclaw."

"I never said…" Rose trailed off. "Whatever. Nothing can replace wicked in my mind. Ame's who are you getting so pretty for? Girls, who is she getting so pretty for?"

Briefly distracted, Roxanne looked up from her magazine and regarded Amy filing her nails meticulously. Then she blue a huge pink bubble and flipped the page.

"It's not a who, actually," Dominique helped. "It's a what!"

"I'm gonna be chief editor," beamed Amy.

"No way!" Rose squealed. "That's wicked. Congratulations, Amy."

"Thanks. I'm gonna go around later to introduce myself to the other editors and authors, and we have our picture taken later today, too." She was regarding her nails proudly. Since third grade, Amy had been tirelessly working her way to make it to chief editor of the Hogwarts Owls, the student run school newspaper. There had been more than a few nights that her friends found her in the library where she had sat all night, researching and writing articles. The staff working under her better had a good working ethic this year.

"I ran into a couple of them already on our search for the compartment."

"And crossed paths with Malfoy," Roxanne grumbled.

"Yeah, I saw him, too, with Scamander."

"Guess you'll see him again soon enough," Amy forebode with a glance at the clock.

"Why would I?"

Without a word Rose's three friends pointed at her head girl badge and her jaw dropped. That was the last thing she'd needed.

"Weasley." Scorpius let the name melt on his tongue and tasted the animosity. "In that case the party's about over."

They had taken over the head student compartment. His whole clique was spread over the seats comfortably; butter beer in hand, ties loose, and even Lysander hadn't buttoned up his shirt all the way yet. By the time he was leaving the compartment, he was going to look like he had been moulded by Merlin himself.

"Go figure, you guys had to start the year with beer," Lysander admonished the others before taking a gulp from his own.

"What can I say? I was feeling social and distributed the pumpkin juice among the first years," Earl Rockwood apologised.

"That sounds nothing short of a euphemism," Lysander mused. In Earl's vocabulary, 'distribute' meant that he had most likely spilled it over the kids' heads. Earl was a massive guy with low laying eyebrows and an edged jaw. Even as a first year he had looked daunting to those who didn't know him and with time, he had all but grown into the bad boy that he looked like.

Across his lap lay the legs of Lindsey Flint. Next to Earl she seemed more harmless than she actually was. The butter beer flowed down her throat like water, and none of the boys were true competition for her in terms of actual alcohol tolerance.

"D'you think she'll be on time?" Scorpius returned to the previous conversation.

"The Weasley? Bet not. She's probably got something to gossip about with her Barbies, and besides, I'm sure she's not in the mood for you, Scorp." Lindsey took another gulp of butter beer, and Lysander sneered at her.

"The Barbies. You're just sour because you're no competition for Blondie and because you don't have any girl friends." That hit her right in the sore spot. Lindsey whipped back her platinum blond hair and squinted at Lysander through charcoal lined eyes.

"Do you really think I could stand the non-stop jabbering about men and clothes and vain drama?"

Offended, Earl pointed at the lady in the room. "Yeah right, but we have to suffer for it when you aren't sure what to wear or when you want to take vengeance on a poor sucker that crossed you!"

Before she could reply, the door flew open dramatically and another three boys entered the room. Leading them was a handsome Slytherin with a daring expression, who the clique referred to as their puppy - except for himself.

The new arrivals drew Lindsey's attention away from Earl. "Damn, Albus! Did you have to bring the love birds? This place is gonna burst with testosterone."

"All thanks to you, Linda," countered Fred Weasley and was rewarded by a laugh from Lorcan.

"I hate it when you bring these tools," muttered Lindsey and turned her head away in time for Fred to mockingly imitate her.

"Well, Weasley, what a surprise that you're taking the gracious lap of honour just as my brother does, too," Lysander greeted him tauntingly.

"Not like that could ever happen to you, of course," responded Fred, unbothered. "I'm just so surprised that you're not head boy. Wasn't that the sum of your life's aspirations?"

"Better than fruitlessly chasing after every girl in school."

"Which you do anyways," Lorcan jabbed at his twin brother.

Now Scorpius joined the conversation, too. "Only half, I heard you take the rest, Lorcan."

Leisurely Lorcan got himself comfortable in one of the seats and crossed his arms behind his head. "Don't worry, no one's trying to compete with you, Malfoy. At least with us Scamanders the girls think we're loyal, and we only have to do half the work."

Scorpius shook his head sadly. "You've gotta be quite dumb not to be able to tell you two apart."

"Um, excuse you, but I don't see anyone going around insulting your love interests' level of intelligence," retorted Lorcan.

While the others laughed, Lindsey rolled her eyes bitterly. "Oh, what a load of bull dung. Is Albus really the only decent one among you?"

This caused the boys to laugh even harder.

"I do hope you're counting yourself in, Linda."

She arched her eyebrows at the Weasley boy. "Sweet of you to give me that much credit, Fredrick, but I'm not half as excessive as you lot. You don't always have to score to play."

"Since, I'm the only one on any sort of moral high ground here, I think we should just move on from the topic," Albus tried, as always, to mediate between the two fronts of his friend groups, but Fred was gaining too much pleasure from his toxic back and forth with Lindsey.

"Hear, hear," he cried, "what a philosophical lesson from our she-wolf. I can be quite the gentleman I'll have you know." Lorcan grinned supportively, but Lindsey snorted and opened another butter beer, after handing Earl her empty bottle. Darkly, he took it from her and placed it into his bag.

"Alright then, tell us about your first, if you even remember," Lindsey challenged after she had gotten comfortable again.

As if she had deeply offended him, Fred clasped his chest. "Who do you take me for? Don't throw me in with these Slytherin womanisers. Her name was Angelica." Suddenly, everyone grew quiet with amused anticipation. Only Lorcan leaned back with a smile of superiority as he knew the story already.

"Go on," said Lindsey. "If you're going to hang about you might as well make for some entertainment."

"Oh, common, I don't think we've reached that level of intimacy," Fred began to joke, but Lindsey wasn't having it.

"Go on," she demanded.

"Blast-ended Screwts. I'm only doing this for you Albus, because you're such a harmony addict. Well," he took a slightly uncomfortable look around the room, "she was suddenly there."

"What do you mean, suddenly? D'she fall off a broom or something?" Earl interrupted skeptically.

"No, you troll, she moved in next door."

"Didn't think you had next door neighbours," commented Scorpius who had heard all about the Weasley's lodgings from his father.

"Not the Burrow, my dad's house in Diagon Alley. A couple doors down they put a new shop, and she was their daughter. And now if you're gonna make me spill my deepest, darkest secrets, shut your mouths and listen."

"Ok, continue," Lindsey pushed.

"So, I was there sometimes during the week, because my mum didn't wanna carry all our stuff through the fireplace all the time, obviously. So me, a young, spirited lad often killed some time wandering through the shops, and I had to check out the new one. Finally a bit of variety, you know."

"Wasn't it a clock shop?" Lorcan confirmed, trying to remember the details.

"Yeah, clocks, watches, that kinda stuff. My parents got me my watch for my 17th there, kinda awkward, but it's not like they knew."

"Merlin's beard, he's still gonna be talking by the time we arrive," sighed Lysander.

"Fine. I saw her move some boxes and that was it. I was done. Thought about her all the time, went past the shop more often than necessary, until she finally noticed me. She smiled at me, which I remember was like the best day of the summer to me -"

"Until you scored."

"Yeah, obviously. And one day I took the courage to talk to her, and she was shy at first, but then it took like no effort to get her to my room."

"Girls," commented Albus, like he knew. "So hypocritical."

"Nah, not all of 'em. It's always no trouble with me," murmured Earl with his low voice and emptied his bottle.

"As if," whispered Fred to Lorcan. "I'd feel about as comfortable with this guy as I would with a vampire."

"Really, Earl, no trouble?" teased Lindsey, without having heard Fred's comment.

"Yeah, really," said Earl while squinting at Fred darkly.

"So, spill! I must say, Weasley still knew all the details, if the story is true," she added, also with a glance at Fred, "but he could be an exception."

"Like I said, all chick's dig these topics." However, none of the other guys came to his aid. It was Earl against Lindsey, and Merlin knew no one could win with her. It was real trouble being best friends with a hard ass like her. "Well, damn, it's a bit embarrassing if I tell you the truth. But I guess it's not that big of a deal nowadays." He glanced at Scorpius. "And besides, my mum's a half-blood, and she wants to honour her roots or some shit like that."

"Don't worry, we won't tell," assured Lorcan, but Earl's eyes skeptically rested on Fred.

"Dude, I just revealed the juicy deeds of my past," he defended himself. "I know, you're this big bad boy that no one likes - trust, I have no intention of destroying that image."

Earl ignored the insult. "Fine, whatever. It was when I went to the movies, and the flick was just started. Don't ask which one, I have no clue. It was dark, but there was this girl next to me. I was a pretty big boy, so even without trying I was all up in her space." He greeted the others' amused grins with a dark expression. "She seemed nice."

"Nice?" Lysander laughed. "Don't you mean she was hot or had nice -"

"Ah ah," interrupted Lindsey. "Not so disrespectful, mister. Besides, I wanna hear this."

"I'm doing this only cos of the beer," grumbled Earl. "After the movie I apologised and invited her over. Yes, Scorp, save the comment," he growled at his friend just as he was opening his mouth. "Nothing happened the first time, but we saw each other again. You know, that's how it goes with me. Clean and easy."

"Like I said, girls," repeated Albus. "They all want the one thing."

"Toad turds! The ones that sleep with Earl only want sex. Or they think they do, because they're too afraid to say no to this massive bloke." With an expertly expression, Lindsey drank from her beer.

"Yeah, I bet. 'Clean and easy', sounds like a murder," snorted Fred, and with a growl Earl made to push Lindsey's legs off and to get up, but she held a hand in front of his chest and stared him dead in the eyes. Everyone else in the compartment had tensed up, too, ready to intervene in case of an escalation. However, Earl relaxed back into the seat after a few moments.

Bad move bringing them here, Al, thought Scorpius, as he, too, allowed himself to let his guard down.

"Well that escalated quickly."

"Shut up, Scamander."

"Which one?" they asked simultaneously.

"Both!" she hissed. "Anyways, where do you find them still? Haven't you gone through the whole school soon?"

"Are you nuts?" Albus coughed. "They just say that, but do you know how many girls there are on this school?"

"And besides, the sky's the limit. I see girls in cafés."

"On the Champs-Elysées, the Niagara Falls - girls are everywhere," Scorpius offered like he had just revealed an ancient wisdom.

"Niagara Falls? As if!" snorted Fred.

"No joke, his parents spoon feed this dude," Lorcan explained and earned a kick against the shin from Scorpius.

"Put a sock in it!" snapped Lindsey. "You're like rabbits. It's all an act anyway, I never see you guys around any girls you're not related to." Her eyes rested mainly on Albus and Fred as she said that.

"Girls define my existence. Without them I would be nothing! I would be lost!" declaimed Fred. "If they pass by me, my heart cracks. But if a girl stops to see, life's joy is back."

"How poetic," Lindsey sneered.

"You would get to know my poetic side, if you shared my bed side," Lorcan offered with a wink.

"No, thanks."

"Probably better," grinned Fred. "She'd twist your neck while you're still at it." With a sigh Lindsey lifted her legs off of Earl.

"Al, I'm kicking your friends out now. After a while they get annoying." She had already stood up to turn her words into reality when the door swung open again.

"Don't bother. I'm kicking you all out."

In the doorway stood Rose Weasley.