Chapter One

Hogwarts

September 1, 2017

As the Hogwarts Express flew along the rails above a Scottish forest, Victoire Weasley sighed deeply, her elbow resting on the small windowsill and her thumb absentmindedly brushing against her lips. If she hadn't been heading back to Hogwarts as a seventh year, she didn't know if she would have boarded. Each and every friend she had made had graduated in the spring, and after finally telling Teddy Lupin that she loved him mere seconds before boarding the train, she found herself traveling away from far more things than she was traveling towards. A sound jolted her from her thoughts and her elbow slipped from the windowsill, hitting the wall hard.

"Bloody HELL Rose," Victoire rubbed her smarting elbow, "could you be any less ladylike?"

Rose Weasley had swung open the compartment's door with a bang, thinking it was empty. She sat down anyway. "My mum says there's no certain way to act like a lady. Manners aren't sex-specific."

Victoire huffed and leaned back against the cushioned bench, taking a second before she turned again to her cousin. "Why've you just now come in? Where have you been?"

Rose blew her hair out of her face and kicked her legs around a bit, feeling much more like a child than she had anticipated she would on her first train ride to Hogwarts. "I was sitting with the boys but they're rude and tiresome, and Lucy and Anne wouldn't let me join them. So I went looking for an empty compartment but there were none, apparently. I didn't see you in here."

Victoire watched as her younger cousin hastily explained herself. She looked flustered, which was something Victoire often felt but never looked, thanks to the part of her that was Veela. Tall, blonde, and graceful, Victoire and her siblings often looked slightly out of place around their cousins, but only because of their aesthetics. They had all practically been raised together, aunts and uncles acting as extra mums and dads if the real ones were away or even just in the next room. The Weasley-Potter clan was large but smotheringly close, and Victoire often wanted to murder the members of her family, but there were the occasional moments when she was reminded of how comforting they were to have around. For instance, now, when Victoire was feeling incredibly lonely, even her eleven-year-old Rosie made her feel a few measures better.

After a while of silence, Victoire looked back up to Rose, who had her nose firmly settled into a new edition of Hogwarts, A History. "Are you nervous, Rosie?"

Rose, who had clearly not been too engrossed, replied immediately. "No."

Victiore smiled and sat up straight, unwrapping a pumpkin pasty she had bought off the trolley earlier in the day. "Not at all? I was very nervous on my first ride to Hogwarts. Kept having dizzy spells. Ran into Teddy in the hallway and was sick all over his shoes." Victoire smiled.

Rose peered out over her book. "And he still snogs you?"

"Rose!" Victoire threw the pasty wrapping at the redhead, laughing. "Yes, he still snogs me" she replied quietly.

Rose put her book down and moved down the bench until she was directly in front of Victoire, who handed her the last few bites of the pasty. "Have you snogged many boys?"

Victoire narrowed her eyes a bit as she dusted any crumbs off her hands. "Why do you ask?"

Rose talked with her mouth full. "Earlier when James was re-enacting how you were snogging with Teddy, Fred said that you have snogged almost every boy at Hogwarts."

Victiore was about to respond with a rather nasty opinion of Fred when the compartment door slid open again. In the doorway were two additional Weasleys, Lucy and Roxanne.

"Anne! We were just discussing your revolting brother."

"I'm certainly not claiming him, the git just stole my last ten sickles. The rest of my money is back in my trunk, do either of you have any? We want to buy something off the trolley before we get to the station."

Rose emptied her pockets of a few knuts and handed them to Anne.

"Thanks, love." Anne and Lucy retreated from the compartment and slid the door closed.

"You don't have to be so nice to them, Rosie, especially when they're often mean to you." Victoire said as she pulled her school robes out of her carry-on bag. "They're hardly a year older, they've got no reason to be so pretentious."

Rose shrugged, taking her robes out as well. "Lucy's nice. I just want them to think I'm interesting. I think they're interesting."

"They're as interesting as a pile of doorknobs, Rosie." Victoire grabbed Rose's long black hat and fit it firmly onto her head. "Don't worry, we really only wear these on more formal occasions."

James Potter was happy to be starting his third year at Hogwarts. He had come to love nothing more than the great castle stocked with potential victims (his fellow students) and life-defining challenges (evading professors.) In fact, during summers he most often found himself dreaming up ways to better himself during his time at the fine institution. Conveniently, his mother had grown tired of repairing the structural damage he and his cousin Louis had repetitively caused to the third floor of the modest Potter estate and had relinquished the rarely-used guest house to them, baring fires, explosives, and anything illegal.

After reaching the Hogsmead station, James left the train in search of an empty carriage to take up to the castle. His father had told him of the thestrals that pulled the carriages ever since he was a baby, as part of the fairy-tale that was Hogwarts. None of his friends seemed to believe him, even when he was obviously petting them (though he couldn't see them himself.)

Climbing aboard a carriage with Louis, Fred, and Frank Longbottom, James listened for the soft snorts and shifting hooves from the thestrals. He always thought that he heard them, but he didn't know if it wasn't wishful thinking. James never wished that someone would die so he could see the thestrals, but he sometimes thought that if someone had to die, it would be nice if they went ahead and kicked the bucket in front of him, just so he could find out what the creatures really looked like.

Louis elbowed James as he sat down. "What're you so quiet for, hm? Thinkin 'bout your mum already?"

James rolled his eyes at his friend. "Thinking about your mum is more like it."

Fred gave his cousin a thumbs up and a grin for the comment from across the carriage before going back to a private conversation with Frank.

"Gross! She's your aunt, you know."

"Yeah but she's half Veela, it'd be insulting to her beauty to not think about it."

Louis shook his head in dismay. "What do you suppose Fred and Frank are up to?" he asked James as he retrieved an opened bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from his knapsack and spilling a few on the floor.

James shrugged and reached down to the floor for a green bean that had fallen from the bag. "Ten knuts for you to eat it." The bet was an unlucky one, but common. James was sure to lose those ten knuts, but Louis was also sure to experience a highly unpleasant taste in his mouth from now until after the Sorting, which was a good hour away. Louis took the bean (and the knuts) and popped it into his mouth.

"I swear on Dumbledore's pearly grave this is piss flavored." Louis held his hand to his stomach like he was going to be sick.

Before James could even laugh, Fred moved to sit between them and popped James on the knee with a piece of parchment.

"D'you want to know what I found?"

"Was it your virginity?"

Fred hung his head in disappointment. "I swear, every time I forget you two are only thirteen you open your mouths and remind me."

James blushed a little, but the comment didn't truly sting. "What did you find?"

Fred sat back and opened the parchment across all three of their laps. He took out his wand and tapped the middle. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Slowly a message and an image etched its way onto the paper.

"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present the Marauder's Map." James looked up at his older cousin. "What the bloody hell is a Marauder's Map?"

Fred nodded towards the map. "It's a map. Of Hogwarts."

"Of Hogwarts."

"Of Hogwarts, that tracks the whereabouts of every inhabitant and shows us the entrance to every single secret passageway."

James's eyes widened. "Hogwarts has secret passageways?"

"Surely you've found at least one? What kind of prankster are you, not having found at least the one under the whomping willow? The one under the witch's hump? Seriously, James, I'm ashamed." Fred shook his head as he deactivated the map (Mischief Managed), folded the map and stuck it back into his pocket, preparing for the carriage's halt at the castle doors.

James hopped out of the carriage behind Frank and hurried to catch up with Fred. "Where'd you find the map?"

Fred scratched his neck. "I nicked it."

"From where?"

"I was looking in Uncle Harry's office for a quill, and this was sitting in a drawer."

"You nicked it from Dad?"

"Seems like he has a few more secrets he's keeping from us!"

James's eyes furrowed in confusion, but he stopped asking questions and went on into the Great Hall, even forgetting to wave at Uncle Neville as he passed by.

It was a long while before the first-years filed into the hall, even more of them than usual soaking wet from falling into the lake. Hagrid looked annoyed as he lead them up to the front of the room before sitting down and throwing back the glass of mead waiting for him.

James and his friends didn't pay much attention to the sorting until they began to reach the last half of the alphabet, where the P's and W's were.

Neville Longbottom, who was the Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts and their Herbology Professor as well as their adopted Uncle, was calling out the names.

"Potter, Albus"

James looked up from the Gryffindor table (as did the rest of the Weasley-Potter family) and craned his neck to get a good view of his little brother, who was looking quite green in the face as he approached the stool. Albus shut his eyes the second the sorting hat touched his head. A few seconds later, the results were out.

"RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaw table cheered, and the Weasley-Potters did too, after a few moments of adjustment. James watched his brother trot over to the table, looking terrified. Dominique Weasley, their only other family member to not be in Gryffindor, moved over to let James sit down beside her. She ruffled his hair, being uncharacteristically, if only momentarily, affectionate. James sighed and then laughed, leaning over to Louis to whisper as "Roberts, Terry" was called.

"I told Al there was nothing to worry about. There was no way he had the guts to be a Slytherin."

Louis chuckled, but nodded towards the group of first-years still standing. "Look, Rose is up next in line."

James looked up in time to see "Scourgum, Robin" hop off of the stool and walk over to the cheering Hufflepuffs.

"Weasley, Rose"

Rose calmly took her seat on the sorting stool and took a deep breath as the sorting hat was placed on her head. Seconds passed, and then minutes, and James was starting to get nervous for his cousin.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The hall froze. A short but incredibly awkward silence lingered in the hall, which to Rose felt like hours. James looked around at the friends and family members closest to him as the Slytherins began to cheer. Every Weasley and Potter sat with an open mouth, bodies stretching to get the best view of Rose as she slowly made her way to the wrong table.