A/N: Just realised that this story as been unreadable since i published it, never knew 'clear formatting' was a thing hehe. Anyway, if you like it tell me what you think. I have a literal word document just filled with characters and storylines for this one, so hopefully I will be able to write some more of those soon.
Skins S1E1
at Hogwarts
Rose
It was 3 months since she had taken a breath of the crisp northern air which surrounded the castle ahead. It had been 3 months since she had worried herself with school schedules and tiresome homework. It had been 3 months since she had spent a full day away from her ever-growing, too loud, loving family and been confined t compartment filled with her friends.
She approached the carriages pulled as by magic slowly. She had been told there were animals dragging them, but they those people must have lied since she never so any beings. She was in no rush to reach them. All her friends had been and had promptly, almost ran out of the compartment they had sat in to grab one of the first carriages. She was in no rush. She wanted to saviour the small trek to the carriages that in turn would lead her to the magnificent castle. She loved the quietness of it all, even though she was surrounded by students and classmates she had known for years. Five years to be exact. Perhaps that was one of the reasons for her slow decent towards the transportation. She had always been a bit sentimental, almost nostalgic in her presence and seeing as this would be her second to last trip from the Hogwarts Express it felt right to take it slow.
Her calm demeanour was not normal. This particular young woman was known to have inherited the short temperament of her father and the roaring rage of her mother. She was the perfect mix between the two. Her long flowing tangled mess of hair similar to that of her mother's, except for the vibrant colour of fire that was the same as most of the family on her father's side. Her eyes were crystal blue and her nose was long like her father, but she was petite. That long nose, though long was small. And her body, though standing tall, was short, like that of her mother.
As she closed the carriage door behind her the calmness faded. The compartment of the carriage was mostly empty, except for one figure. She could smell him before she saw him, the nasty smell of extensive use of 'manly-cologne'. This young man, soon to be seventeen, was the last person she wanted to see. In the three months she had been gone there had only been one part of the big boarding school that she did not miss. That one thing, because she almost could not call him human, more like a pest, was him. The one person she did not want to see, she was currently stuck with for at least 5 minutes as the carriage abruptly started before she could escape.
"Fancy seeing you here," she sighed angrily as he spoke. She was hoping he wouldn't. she leaned slightly back into the comfortable seat, crossed her arms over her chest, turned her body towards the window, and tried to enjoy the view. She had learned years ago that ignoring him was the best. However, her short temper usually made silence short and a conflict, inevitable.
"Oh, I had nearly forgotten, you grew up in a pig pen and have no manners. I will have to simplify myself. F-a-n-c-y s-e-e-i-n-g YOU h-e-r-e," a smirk was plastered on his face as he repeated himself, speaking slightly more forcefully and much much slower. She knew he lived only to agitate her.
"Shove off Malfoy, can't you see I DON'T want you to ruin my first day back," she finally replied after about a minute or so.
"I thought I was making it rather fun," his smirk still gleaming from his eyes.
"Fun, ah. Over my dead body," Her eyes narrowing and lips clasping as she moved closer to him.
"Careful what you wish for Weasel." Their faces only inches apart as they stared each other dead in the eyes.
"I hope you die, and hopefully that wish turns out true." She whipped around quickly as the carriage came to a stop hoping her hair slapped Malfoy right in the face, then she preceded to pull open the door with much force and stomp out from the carriage towards the entrance of the castle. The walls of the front façade stood at least ten meters tall. Large windows surrounded the big brown stone wall in perfect synchrony. A huge dark double oak door was atop a massive five steps of stairs. Huge stone carvings of statues and ornaments adorned the corners of the wall and the top of the door. She looked at the magnificent building for a second. When looking at the top she could see some of the castle's towers. She was able to spot the top of the Ravenclaw tower from her position.
The oak doors opened up to a grand entrance hall with multiple staircases leading up to the upper floors. Straight head was a dark area. One she knew was the big courtyard with old stone statues and benches that was a great halfway point for all the different parts of the castle. To the right, just past the east wing stairs was the entrance to the great hall, where she was currently heading. The hall was, as normal, decorated with all the different house colours and banners hanging over their respective tables. At the very front of the room was the teachers table which stood horizontally atop a small platform with the huge eagle podium for the headmaster to speak from. The Gryffindor table was at the far right next to the Hufflepuff table which, together with the Ravenclaw table, had access to the midrow of the room. Next to the Ravenclaws where the Slytherins. Their stupid green and silver taking up too much space if you asked her. The best option for the school was to deny access to such beasts as a Slytherin. They were all like how she had imagined: mean, rude and without any sense of humour. She blocked a small part of the entrance as she searched for her friends. She spotted them at the middle of the Gryffindor table. In fact, her family and friends almost took up the entirety of the Gryffindor table, leaving only the necessary space for the newcomers that would shortly be joining them.
Normally the first day back brought out a great deal of happiness in her, but after the encounter with Malfoy she felt completely drained. "Hi," she slumped into the space between Gene and Saira dropping her head. To her friends this was a true indication that she was feeling down, and most times Malfoy was the reason why. "What did he do this time," Gene asked, rather annoyed that their first dinner would have to be taken up by a discussion regarding a guy none of them liked. Like always, she sat up and turned her full attention to Genevieve wanting to spare no detail of the event that had happened mere minutes before. "… Can you even believe that guy. I tried ignoring him, but he still wouldn't leave me alone. Seriously, can't he just bugger off? Can't he see that I don't want to talk to that git as much he doesn't want to talk to me. He lives only to mock me". Saira perked up at her friend's last remark. "Maybe that's it though Rosie. He likes talking to you," Saira had been blabbing about the fact that Malfoy was only talking to Rose to get her attention. If you want to be friends with someone you don't torment them. "Saira your stupid theory doesn't work. He likes to irritate me more like it. That fits rather well, not actually talking to me. And I don't want him to talk to me". Her cousin Al appeared in the seat in front of the girls asking Genevieve in a hushed voice if it was another discussion about Malfoy to which she nodded slightly with an annoyed look on her face. Just as Rose was going into another anecdote that her friends had heard a thousand times before the headmaster of the school, professor Flitwick rose to the podium.
"Old and new. I welcome all of you to Hogwarts. We will now begin the sorting." As always it was a long process, sorting all of those kids. Following the war the population of the wizarding world had grown immensely, parents no longer afraid to put a child into the world as it was no longer filled with war and terror. All in all there were 50 new student, none of which Rose had any connection to, so she and her friends hadn't really paid attention. "So where were you Al… before Flitwick began the feast. You left with the others in the first carriages." She asked once the welcome feast had begun. "Oh- eh… nowhere," he simply shrugged. Though Rose knew he was a horrible liar, she would only have to squeeze it out of him later.
She spent the dinner catching up with all of her Gryffindor friends. Saira had been appointed Gryffindor Quidditch captain, so she, Saira, James, Fred and Al had a lengthy discussion on the best uses of the beater bat. Fred, her cousin and beater on the team, had argued that he could easily score more points than Al and Lily if Saira would allow the beaters to attempt to score during the matches. Rose had argued that if a player has to do more than one job it could ruin the dynamic and the likeliness of victory no matter how many points her cousin would be able to score. Some of the more gossipy conversation that went around the table were just as interesting. Gene, which was the unofficial-official gossip mill of the Gryffindor house confirmed and denied multiply of the rumours that had been circling the school since late June. According to her, Derek Santiago and Ru Shi Williams had been found by Filch in a broom closet at the end of last year and had both received 5 weeks' worth of detentions. One of the more shocking pieces of information that Rose received was that Thomas, Gene's brother, and Alicia from Ravenclaw had gotten back together during the summer. Supposedly they had run into each other at the Quidditch World cup where Alicia's mother was working and had finally gotten over their silly fight from last April. The three girls had been rather annoyed with Thomas Finnigan since then.
By the end of the dinner Rose had forgotten all about Malfoy and his stupid face and was ready, at half past nine, to guide the new first years to the Gryffindor tower. As she crossed the entrance hall one of her oldest friends, and the daughter of the herbology professor, Alice Longbottom, stopped Rose in her tracks. "Rosie tell the other Gryffindors that Ravenclaw is holding the start of term party tomorrow. Be there by 8 o'clock." Before she left she whispered to Rose that she needed to use the coin if someone couldn't get into the common room. Rose thought the Ravenclaw common room was the easiest to get in to though, seeing as she only needed to think, which she had always been good at. Guiding the first years took twice as long because a Jimmy Joans and George Harring kept running away from the group to "explore". Rose had to keep telling them that she could, and would, take points from them if they kept behaving like that and then the entire house would be mad at the boys for loosing point on their first day there. She had a feeling that the professors at the school might have to deal with a new set of Fred and James once the two troublemakers graduated this year. And as she had to keep track of the two boys she lead the group of first years onto a staircase that took them to the fifth floor.
The common room was just as she remembered. The small corridor following the portrait of the fat lady had tiny photographs of famous Gryffindors. One of Rose's biggest dreams was to one day be on the wall of pride, as the Gryffindors called it. almost her entire family was there, her father, mother and uncle had even bigger pictures than most of the others. As the room opened up to the big lounge she saw that the time for Quidditch tryouts had already been hung up by Saira. She hadn't yet finish touring the tower to the first years, but in the corner of the room, next to the biggest fireplace and sofa-set she saw some of her friends. It didn't take more than ten minutes, and walking up 7 flights of stairs before Rose was finally able to sit down next to Roxy and Dom. "The Ravens are hosting tomorrow, be there at eight. I guess… pass it on. Alice didn't tell me much." She expressed as she took her seat. It had been costumery for one of the houses to host the start of term party. As of now it didn't seem as if the teachers knew about the party. James was always transportation manager and used the map to transfer people safely without being detected by any of the teachers. "Yeah we know, James hasn't shut up about it. Anyway Rosie, we got to go, big day tomorrow," her cousin Roxy lifted herself off of the ground. Rose was bewildered by her remark. "It's only a quarter past ten, and you guys never go early to sleep, no matter if it's school the next day." As she was talking she knew exactly why they were leaving. "You're planning a prank. Please don't get caught on the first day back guys, it's embarrassing and you don't want to miss the party tomorrow because of a stupid detention." James smirked at her and ruffled her hair. She shot him a dirty look. "Rosie, we're pros. Don't worry. Just don't get into trouble yourself." She wanted to laugh out loud. Sure Rose had rows and some minor duels with Malfoy, but she was always proper in the presence of a teacher. She would never let herself be caught red handed, especially not on the first day back. "Yeah yeah, just go already," she called out to them. Rose was left with the rest of the sixth years and her best friends. She moved to the now empty armchair, next to the sofa where Al, Gene and Shaun sat. "Where's Saira," she asked, rather perplexed as to why her friend wasn't spending the first evening back with them. Genevieve shrugged. "She said she needed to go over her new Quidditch schedule and manoeuvres. Then I think she wanted to sleep" "Well that's piss," she sulked. The three of them always had some of their best nights talking on the first day back. Why was Saira backing out this year?
When she went to bed that night, not much later then 11 pm she was feeling rather unsatisfied. Of course the day had not been as she had expected. She always had high expectations regarding both herself and others, and this was the first time she had been disappointed. She imagined her sixth year to be a good one. Filled with fun. Her friends seemed distant. She felt left behind in a way. Was something going on? She would have to talk to the lot of them. It was 1 pm when she wasn't able to sleep. She lay there staring at the four posters and the red canopy that surrounded her. It was too warm, which was unusual since they were in Scotland. She felt… trapped. As the hours ticked by she let out a tired sigh and stood up from her bed. Slowly and quietly she listed herself towards the closest window. The moon was almost full. Though they lived in a quite rural place it was hard to see most of the stars from the window. The lanterns surrounding the castle lighting up just enough to make it bright outside. Rose loved exploring the night sky. She loved learning about the different stories behind them. That's why she was going to be an astrologer.
Rose Weasley didn't know how long she stared out at the night sky. Though, she was certain she was hallucinating. A flying figure had suddenly appeared in the night sky. Rose was mesmerized by the shadow floating with the stars. Why was someone outside flying now? Who was it? From the distance of the castle to the quidditch pitch it was impossible to tell. As she stared out the window Rose felt herself growing more tired until she leant back against the windowsill wall.
She was woken by Jane who wanted to get a hold of a t-shirt that Rose had fell asleep on. Jane wasn't really the most talkative person. At times Rose even forgot she lived with them. She always left early, which meant that it was probably around 6:30 in the morning. Rose knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again so she lightly whispered to Jane to wait for her to get ready. The two of them didn't really talk much on the way down to breakfast. Jane had travelled the Italian countryside during the summer with her mother and father. Rose felt like that was the most information she had gotten out of the girl since 4th year. "You ready to start classes today," she asked as they entered the Great Hall. Though she wasn't really sure if Jane heard her cause the minute they were inside she trotted off to the Hufflepuff table to sit with her friends. Rose stared out at the four tables, it was mostly empty. With smalls steps she walked over to the Gryffindor table at the far right of the hall. As she sank down in her seat she grabbed a piece of steaming hot toast. "Don't have any friends Weasley?" Rose could see a blob of platinum blonde hair in the corner of her eye as he sat down next to her. "Don't you have anything better to do than bug me Malfoy?" she asked taking a bite of her buttered toast. "Au Contraire Weasley, I've got nothing to do," he took the toast out of her hand and bit of a huge chunk of it. "So in conclusion, you are the friendless one," she smirked grabbing another piece of toast and leaving the bench, she could study in the library until class.
Rose had situated herself at the end of the library, close to the restricted section. It had been dubbed 'Her table' over the years. She was rather fond of it and though she would never tell any teachers she had scribbled her initials onto the underside of the table. In her defence, she had created a charm – almost like a repellent charm which prevented people from wanting to sit at her table. "Rose are you actually in the library on our first day back, before class!" Gene came wandering into the library 10 minutes before their first class. "I had to get away from Malfoy! I went down to breakfast with Jane and he was annoying me," she didn't look up from her parchment were she was writing a rather detailed summary of Hogwarts, a History. "Come on Rosie, you don't wanna be late for your first class," Gene grabbed the parchment from under her nose then took her hand to guide Rose away from the cosy and nice library.
Professor Patil-Esley was running late. It was their first class of the year, a double potions. The dungeon classroom was too cold for Rose and she kept shivering while waiting for the teacher to arrive. Saira, who was sitting next to her kept asking her questions about where she had been, but Rose wasn't paying attention. She surveyed the room. The potions room was tattered by the harsh conditions of the cold. She could she spider-webs in the corners of the ceilings and dust atop the shelves lining the room.
"So sorry I'm late everyone," Padma Patil-Esley came running into the room. As she placed her bags on the floor beside her she looked out at the class. "Great to see that so many of you have decided to continue with NEWTS Potions," she turned to the blackboard and flicked her wand, magically writing a set of instructions. "Today I wanted to pull a trick from my old Professor's book and show you the three powerful potions that we will be studying over the next two years." She walked over to the locked teacher's cabinet at the left side of the room and levitated three big caldrons out of it. Rose knew exactly what potions they were, her mother had told her the story of her first NEWTS potion class multiple times. Before their professor could finished asking what potions the three were Rose already had her arm in the air.
"Yes, Miss Weasley," Patil-Esley motioned for Rose to speak. "The clear shiny potion is Veritaserum, a truth potion that will force the drinker to tell the truth. The second, the grimy, thick potion is Polyjuice potion, which can be used to transform oneself into another with the help of a sample of DNA. And the last potion is Amortentia, the strongest love potion there is. Its characteristics is that it smells different for everyone, it smells of whatever they are attracted to," Rose could feel the entire class looking at her. "Well thank you Miss Weasley, I would have liked for the rest of the class to get a chance to answer, but as you explained them all – 20 points to Gryffindor. Now, I would like for all of you to come forward and inspect these different potions a bit closer, we will be brewing them at some point during your NEWTs. When you are finished with that I will assign your seats for the year." The 20 students rose from their chairs and formed a 'line' to view the potions – a huddle might be the better word for it. Though Rose sat on the first row she got pushed to the very end of the queue, but after a minute of two she was finally able to take a closer look. She was moving from the poly-juice potion when she abruptly stopped. She was standing in front of the Amortentia. When she had been queuing up she had noticed this was where most of her classmates had stood for the longest period of time. She could smell the attic of the Burrow where she would go read during the summer vacations. An air of flowers brushed over her which she recognized as the meadow close to her house. The last smell was harder to place. It was so… normal, yet impossible to remember where she had the connection from. In a way it was generic and smelt quite like a cologne with just a hint of something else – a scent. She didn't dwell on it as Professor Patil-Esley asked them all to go back to their seats so she could rearrange them.
"Hello partner," Scorpius Malfoy sat down in the empty seat left by Saira as she was partnered up with Gavin Brocklehurst from Hufflepuff. Rose simply huffed and ignored the boy to the best of her ability. "We will be brewing the elixir to induce Euphoria so please gather all of the necessary ingredients that I have added on the board. "let's get this over with Malfoy. And just so you know, I need to do well so you better stay away from me and I will ignore you, got it." her presence was almost scary, at least that was what she was going for, but judging by Malfoy's face he seemed as if he was about to erupt into laughter. Even though Rose's threat hadn't really worked out Malfoy wasn't annoying Rose. Rose was stirring counter-clockwise, the last step to complete the potion when Malfoy bumped into her elbow causing her to change the direction of the stir, only for a second, but Rose knew that would be enough for the entire potion to be ruined. She didn't have enough time to start again. Essentially she was doomed. Slowly, she turned towards Malfoy and before she spoke it seemed as if he was actually trying to apologize, that was when she erupted. "YOU DELIBERATELY SABOTAGED ME!" she screamed at him as she felt her ear and face turn more red by the second. "YOU COULDN'T HANDLE ME BEING BETTER THAN YOU SO YOU RUINED MY POTION! YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE TOSSER," "Miss Weasley that is enough". The professor cast a silencing spell on Rose rendering her unable to continue her rant. At that moment her ruined potion decided to topple over the edge of the cauldron running over the table and Rose's feet. "detention. Tonight Miss Weasley," Rose tried protesting through her pain of the hot potion on her legs. "No get to the infirmary, and I want you back her right after dinner. Class dismissed". Rose quickly picked up her bag, not even casting a look at any of the other students before she rushed off to the infirmary.
Her detention was quite straight-forward – she had to clean up the mess she had made. She didn't feel ashamed for what she had said, in retrospective it might have been a bit too harsh, but Malfoy was the kind of guy that deserved it for some kind of reason anyway. Even if he didn't ruin her potion he was still a dickhead and a tosser so she didn't feel bad about calling him any of those names. "You may go Miss Weasley," her professor returned two hours into her detention. Rose sped out of the dungeons heading straight for the Ravenclaw common room. She stood before the stone statue, as she had multiple times before. "What costs nothing but is worth everything, weighs nothing but lasts a lifetime, that one person can't own but two can share?" the statue spoke. "Love," she answered quickly. In her opinion the Ravenclaws had to up their security, it was too easy for anyone to get in. The party was extremely crowded with large groups of people in all the different areas of the common room. Rose was also convinced that they had expanded the room for the occasion, though she had no clue how seeing as Hogwarts, a history, never mentioned it being possible.
"Rosie! You're here!" Rose almost fell over as Genevieve strangled her in a hug.
"…and you're drunk," she replied.
"Of course I am. And soon you will be as well," the girl shoved a glass of what looked like Butterbeer (the alcoholic kind) in front of Rose's face. "Ugh, you know I don't drink Genevieve," she looked disgusted as she pushed the glass away. "Come on Rosie, it's only a shot." James appeared beside her with a small glass of Firewhiskey.
"And seeing as you have had probably 'the worst day ever' you definitively need it," Evie added. She looked longingly at the drink in James' hand. Maybe her cousin and friend were right (something she would never say to them directly), but she needed to let loose a little. "Ah, fuck it why not," She quickly grabbed the drink, and it was gone faster than you could say 'Quidditch'.
The 'it's only a shot' quickly turned into, 'It's only six shots'. At the end of the night Rose was completely wasted, much like all the other teens at the party. She was certain she would not remember anything from this evening, hopefully she would forget the entire day by tomorrow morning. She was walking towards the back of the common room when something grabbed her attention. "…Absolutely pathetic. Can't believe that girl actually started crying. 'Boo-hoo look at me I'm a quidditch captain, my life is so hard.' Get over yourself like seriously no one cares about you stupid life". Rose marched over to the three girls who were obviously talking about Saira. "Why do you have a problem with Saira". "I don't have a problem, I'm saying she does. A normal human being wouldn't cry if they got to be a quidditch captain, it's weird". Rose stood face to face with the girl "Say that one more time Zabini and I will…" "It – is – weird, and she has fucking brain-damage" the black-haired girl rolled her eyes. Rose pushed Samantha Zabini right in the face before escaping the scene before she slid down to the floor under the pegboard near the opening of the common room. "What a commotion you've made," Rose raised her head to see none other than Scorpius Malfoy.
"Don't know what you're talking about," she sulked.
"Oh I think you do," he gestured to where she had just punched Samantha Zabini, who was surrounded by the rest of the Slytherins, almost falling in the process. That confirmed Rose's theory, yep he was drunk (though she was as well). Before she could ask him to go away he had settled himself next to her, a little bit too close for her liking. "Why do you think you are sitting here, prick," she glared.
"To talk to you of course," Said Malfoy as if it was a completely justifiable reason. Rose snorted. "Yeah, like you actually want to talk to me," she joked.
"I always do, Rose," he said seriously. Rose turned to face him and from the look of it he was actually genuine.
"I'm sorry for the things I said in potions," he simply shock his head smiling at her.
"Nah, you're right, I am a tosser." She laughed and before she knew it she had snuggled up against him. She was looking up at his face. That straight and prominent jaw-line. The almost-bleached hair. His grey eyes. He was looking at her as well. It felt as if he was staring into her very soul, it sounded cliché, but she felt as if he apricated her in that moment. Before she knew it they were in the middle of an extremely sloppy and drunk make-out session. The only person sober enough, and observant enough to see and remember the two of them was Rose's smirking cousin Albus Potter.