Rose had put off doing her summer homework in fear of not being able to go back to Hogwarts, and was now paying the price. She spent days like this, on her bed, covered in papers and books, ink and quill. She would have much rather helped Hugo, would rather be giving him the advice that he was constantly coming in here room to ask. She could remember last year when she had been that eager for information. But she couldn't spare any time. She had a small pile of unanswered letters on her desk, things like, "See ya in three days!" or "Are you gonna bring a pet this year?" or "Tell Hugo not to worry."

Rose had her trunk packed and uniform hung on her closet door. she was going to Hogwarts with six pairs of robes this year. Her parents had insisted on getting her new ones, but considering she had grown only two inches if at all over the summer, and her last year robes had been a little long, she saw no reason to dispose of them.

She loved her parents, always had, but this year, she was a little eager to get away from them. She was so determined to have a perfectly safe year to prove to her parents that she would be fine and that trouble didn't follow Max. Also, she wouldn't be disappointed to not have to catch their sideways glances, wary looks, stifled conversations that she knew had been about her, and when she was on the Hogwarts express to get to school, she wouldn't be worried about them changing their minds.

Rose laid in bed that night but no matter what she did, she couldn't get to sleep. She had finished her homework finally and was feeling a little guilty about how she had treated Hugo. She had assured him that as soon as she finished her homework, that she would answer any questions that he might have had. But it was now too late, she hadn't kept to her word; actually… was it too late? Rose sat up from bed and navigated her way out of her room through the moonlight. Hugo was just across the hall and if he was still awake… at 2:36am, she would stay true to her word.

Rose pushed the door open to find that all the lights were out and the room was quiet. She sighed, knowing that she had missed out on something that she would never have the opportunity to do again. As she turned to close the door, a hand grabbed her around the wrist and she was pulled back into the dark room. A small light appeared at the tip of Hugo's wand and grew brighter to illuminate a worried face.

"Hugo!" Rose whispered. "You can't use magic outside of school!"

"I'm not!" he reasoned, closing the door behind them. "It knows when I want light and illuminates on its own." He placed the wand on his dresser drawer as it shone bright enough to easily illuminate the whole room. "I'm telling you, Rosie, there's something strange about that wand."

"I just came in to answer your questions." She said feeling rude. "A little late?"

"A lot late." Said Hugo. "But better late than never, sit." She and he took a seat on his bed. "When should I change into my robes?" he asked. "I mean, before I'm on the train or after?"

"Before is better." She answered. "Someone will come to your compartment and remind you if you're not already changed, but it's best not to have to miss meaningful conversation. Al put changing into his robes off last year and had to get dressed as all the students were pouring from their compartment and he almost missed the boats."

Hugo was thinking. "Alright, turn around."

She did this without asking why. Hugo often did or had others do odd things without explanation and Rose had become used to it.

"What about the train? Where do the cool kids sit?"

"You don't know until you get there." She replied, staring at Hugo's poster of the Winston Woodpeckers Quidditch team flying around. "I ended up sitting with Scorpius by obligation. If it wouldn't have been rude, I would've found a seat elsewhere and made the worst decision of my life. But if you feel uncomfortable, you can always sit with me and Al."

"Thanks, but if I want to make friends, I should probably put myself out there and not cling to my sister."

Rose tried not to be offended by this.

"You can turn around now." Hugo was wearing his full first year Hogwarts uniform.

"Why are you wearing that now?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I probably won't get to sleep tonight anyway."

Rose almost regretted ever coming in there. His questions kept going on and on, about the most simple, self-explanatory things too. She had to keep reminding herself that she had done the exact same thing to her parents and to James last year when she was starting at Hogwarts. For three hours longer he talked until she ended up falling asleep on his bed and was awaken the next morning by an incredible bomb blast that ended up being Hugo's wand.

"Hugo!" she shouted.

"I didn't do it!" he cried running over to his wand and picking it up. The moment his hand touched the leathery black wood, it stopped spitting sparks and lay still in his hand.

"What time is it?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"Four pass nine." He answered. "Mom's making muffins."

"Have you been downstairs?" she asked.

"No." he answered, fiddling nervously with his wand.

"Then how do you know mom's making muffins?"

Hugo shoved the tip of his wand under her nose, which scared her, knowing that it could explode at any minute. It was letting off an aroma like freshly baked muffins.

"What?" she said taking it from his hands to examine it. The moment Hugo released it, it began buzzing and became hot, she threw it back at him. "Hugo, just bring it back to Ollivander's." she advised, eyeing it nervously.

"No." he replied sternly. "Mr. Ollivander said that it takes a powerful wizard to control it, I'm going to be that powerful wizard."

"The last owner also returned it." She argued.

"He was weak." Hugo said. "I'm going down for breakfast."

Rose stretched and headed toward her room, cursing Hugo's lumpy mattress. She was dressed in her uniform before she realized what she was doing and looked in the mirror to sigh happily. She loved the feeling of the familiar fabric against her skin. She tied her tie just as tight as she always did, maybe it was to show her classiness, but she was nearly the only person in school who tied it that way if at all. Rose took her trunk full of her clothes, broom, potion ingredients, new and old books, one of the reasons it was so much heavier than before, and drug it downstairs. She saw her dad from the living room window chasing a gnome around as its little potato like head bobbles up from the grass. Her mom was buttering herself a biscuit and Hugo was fussing with his wand, his hair stuck up from where it looked the wand had blasted.

"She wasn't making muffins." Said Hugo as Rose entered the room. "So this thing's just puffing the smells of food I'm craving!"

Rose smiled and sat at the table to get some orange juice, she really wasn't that hungry. She looked around the house and was trying to remember if she had forgotten anything. Remembering, she ran upstairs to retrieve her hand mirror. There were two of these intricately made hand mirrors, one was hers, one was Al's. They had a magical ability to be two-way so that she and her cousin could communicate back and forth though being in separate places; they worked like a muggle video call. The two cousins had used them all last semester to communicate from the Gryffindor and Slytherin common room, most often to try'n riddle out Max's impossible healing powers; they knew now that it was a secret potion concealed in him by his abusive mother.

"Rosie!" she heard her dad call from outside. "Go on and bring your trunk out so I can get it into the car. Tell Hugo to do the same!"

Rose obeyed and pulled her trunk out into the driveway and waved politely to the muggle neighbors who had no idea that they lived in a magical community. Ron waited until the muggle woman moved away from the window to use his wand to hoist her and Hugo's trunks into the car. Rose wasn't pleased about taking the car to the train station, King's Cross, Ron wasn't a very good driver. He had improved over the summer though not getting as much practice as he probably needed. Hugo (who was interested in all things muggle) had been so fascinated with the car engine, that he had ripped out the innards sometime in the beginning of August to see how it worked. The car was busted until Grandad Weasley could stop by and put it back together, explaining exactly how, to Hugo.

They were running late because Hugo's wand had exploded and singed a bit of his hair off and Hermione had refused to let him leave without growing it back. Hugo climbed into the backseat with Rose and buckled up as she never did. He pulled from his pocket a sack type hat and slipped it over his wavy hair.

"Hugo, what it that?" she asked looking at it disapprovingly.

"It's a beanie." He replied obviously.

"It's a sack." She corrected.

"It's a hat, Rose." He said holding himself up. "All the muggle kids are wearing them."

"Hugo," she tried patently and choosing her words carefully. "You can't wear that on the train."

"Why not?"

"Because muggle kids wear them."

"So what?"

"Not everyone has abandoned believes of blood purity. You walk onto the train with that thing on your head, you'll be a joke. You'll be an easy target for bullying."

"I'm not taking it off." He crossed his arms stubbornly.

"Hugo!" she pleaded.

"They won't pick on you just because I'm your weird brother." He said, not looking at her. "So don't worry."

"Hugo!" she said in shock. "That's not what I'm going on about."

"You're embarrassed by me, always have been, because I like muggles. We don't even look that much alike, if you're lucky, they won't even know we're related."

Rose didn't say anything for a moment. First, she was shocked that he felt this way, she had no idea. Second, they look extremely alike, except he had more of his mom's features.

"I'm not embarrassed by you." She said finally. "I just don't want you to be bullied. And there will be people that will bully you for wearing that."

"Since when have I cared what other people think?" he said quietly.

She knew he was right and with a quick glance up at the silent front seats, she was sure that her parents had listened to the whole thing. The two siblings were silent the rest of the way to the train station. Neither of them were angry with the other, perhaps they were lost in their own thoughts. They car arrived, they Ron had hoisted their trunks onto trolleys and rolled them into the station. This half of King's Cross was the muggle half. There were men and women on their way to work. Parents wrestling with children, and teenagers with wires in their ears, banging their heads stupidly.

"Excuse me?" said a middle aged man with a small beard and a ball cap. "Only I've seen seven others dressed as you are heading in the same direction just this morning. Where are you lot going?"

Ron and Hermione were dressed in muggle clothes, but Hugo and Rose were wearing their Hogwarts ones.

"We're raising awareness for chickenpox." Said Ron hurriedly.

"Chickenpox?" asked the man, confused.

"Chickenpox?" repeated Hermione, looking at her husband.

"Yes, we're heading to the hospital to tend to those who have been infected by such a terrible disease." He continued. Rose wished he wouldn't.

"Chickenpox don't send people to the hospital." Said the man.

"Severe cases." Ron muttered quickly and took off toward platform 9 ¾.

"Chickenpox?" Hermione repeated again humored. "Next time, let me do the talking."

"You always get to do the talking." He replied.

"This is why."

The family was facing the familiar brick barrier between platform nine and platform ten. Rose and her mom ran at the divider first, running through it rather than colliding to the ground. Before them, were crowds of people in mixed muggles clothes and wizard robes. Children her age were chasing each other around, older students were comparing height difference over the summer and many familiar faces grinned at her as they walked pass. A whoosh was audible from behind her, and Hugo and Ron came through the divider onto platform 9 ¾ with the women. Hugo's face went white and this became one of the few times Rose had actually seem him frightened. Last year when he had accompanied Rose to the train, he was confidant and strode all across the platform as if he owned it. Now, he hung close to his parents as they made their way through the crowd. Rose couldn't blame him; she had been terrified too.

Unexpectedly, something grabbed her from behind by the waist and lifted her off her feet. She screamed playfully and when set down, turned to see her cousin Teddy. Teddy was her step cousin really, not being biologically related. He was tall and had bright teal hair most of the time, though he could change it at will being a metamorphmagus like Max. He had graduated from school for two years now but still came to see his little cousins off. Rose was surprised he had found time off work, he was employed at a magical menagerie outside of London. A place where magical animals are held and displayed until proper homes or environments were found for them. Teddy loved animals, his real ambition was to apprentice under Rose's Uncle, Charlie, tending to dragons in Romania. Teddy's Grandma, Tonks, was very displeased with this idea. He was the only close relative she had left alive, her husband, daughter, and son in-law had been murdered in the second wizarding war, so it was no wonder she didn't want him to go far, especially to go do something as dangerous as dragon tending.

Teddy was grinning at her and after putting her down, used her head as an arm rest. "You excited?" he asked.

"Of course I am." She replied, pushing his arm off. "I'm going home." Teddy raised his eyebrows. "You know what I mean! There's home, then there's Hogwarts home."

"How's the little one?"

"Hugo's more frightened than I've ever seen him." She replied mournfully, gesturing to where he was chatting with Lucy, another one of their cousins.

"He looks fine." Said Teddy.

"Fine?" asked Rose in surprise. "He's shaking with fear, poor kid."

"Are you sure it's not you whose afraid?" he asked with a sly sideways glance at her.

"Why would I be scared?" she asked.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're afraid he'll embarrass you with his crazy antics, the way he dresses, his interests." Rose opened her mouth to protest, but Teddy interrupted. "Or maybe you're afraid he'll be a better wizard than you are a witch." Rose closed her mouth. "That's it, isn't it?"

"I'm not competing." She said coldly. "It's just… I've been the smart one and he's been the-"

"Popular one?" Teddy suggested. "Look, you'll both shine, you already do, and he always does. Just be happy for each other. You can't be better at everything; Hugo needs his shot too." He rubbed her frizzy hair out of its braid and left into the crowd, giving her something to think about. Was he right about any of that? Could one of those possible be the reasons she was so uneasy about him going to Hogwarts with her? She hoped not. Any of those reasons made her sound and feel like a bad, envious sister.

She saw her cousin Victoire, who had just graduated last year, meet with Teddy and run off somewhere laughing. Suddenly, darkness surrounded her and she felt hands cover her eyes.

"Guess who?" came her cousin Fred's voice, but those weren't his hands over her face.

"Ortho." She said pulling away and turning around.

"How'd you know?" Ortho exclaimed. "It was Freddie talking."

"Your hands smell like liquorish, always have." She replied smartly.

Ortho smelled his hands then shrugged. Ortho was a member of Fred's flock (gang) along with Cian Garner (the prefect), Fritz Nutter (the short muggle born), Ortho Truette (the strong articulate one), Roxanne Weasley (The deputy headmistress of the posse), and Fred Weasley (the named leader). This was the teacher's least favorite group, separate, they were good students, together, they wreaked havoc. Rose didn't linger very long, she liked them all, but was eager to find her own group of friends before the train whistle blew, announcing eleven o'clock and the departure of the train.

Every now and then, she would glance back to find Hugo and make sure he was alright. The longer he lingered on the platform, the more confidant he seemed to become. Wandering into the heart of the crowd alone, was a bad idea. She found herself stuck in the middle of a lively crowd, bustling around with trunks and cages, children and trolleys. She was being bumped about and shoved, by accident probably. Rose almost called out in frustration when a stiff hand gripped hers, and the bodiless arm pulled her toward its person. Her face split into a grin when she saw that it was Max. She didn't have to lean in far to hug him, they were right up against each other and being hustled from all sides. Rose stayed close, gripping her friend's arm as he shoved through the crowd just as violently as those around him. He soon broke from the last minute stragglers hurrying to get onto the train and hit Rose in the arm lightly.

"What are you doing wandering into a stampede like that?" he asked breathlessly.

"I was looking for you and Scorpius." She replied.

"Why would you think I'd be stupid enough to venture into that?" he asked.

"Scorpius might've." She replied.

"Might have." Hermione corrected, making her way beside her daughter. "You best get on the train." She said hugging Rose.

Al was beside Hermione and was hugged before running onto the train with a slap on the back for Max. Rose felt uncomfortable as her father hugged her as well; both parents had ignored Max.

"Listen Rosie." Ron said pulling her close by the hands. He glanced up at Max before continuing, and Max backed off quickly. Ron looked back at Rose. "I want you to stay out of trouble, alright? No dangerous acts of bravery like last year?"

"It'll be hard." She said. "I am my father's daughter."

Ron smiled proudly, then cleared his throat when seeing the look Hermione was giving him. "Just, promise me, okay?"

"I promise I won't go looking for trouble." She said slowly. "But… I'll bet that's what you told your mom before each school year too."

Ron didn't say anything. She pecked him on the cheek and took off toward where Max was standing.

"Have a good term, Rosie!" called Hermione, then she looked over at Max, knowing it would impolite to ignore him. "You too, Everard." She said stiffly.

Max smiled disappointedly and looked at his feet. Rose looked from her parents to Max, then linked arms with her friend before heading toward the train. She knew that it probably looked like a rebellious move to link arms with him in front of her parents, and in some ways it was. She wanted them to see clearly that she didn't think that any of what happened was his fault and that they will remain friends. She thought that of all people, they would understand that, her Uncle Harry repeatedly almost getting them killed, but over the summer, it seemed they didn't.