| Rose |
"Accents are really hot," a voice said from behind the twins.
"And we don't get very many at Hogwarts," said another.
They both turned, Grace giving up on her trunk, to see the newcomers. There were four of them, three red-headed and another with bushy, brown hair. It seemed like the two closest to Rose and Grace were the ones that spoke, mostly because the voices were male and these two were of the male specimen, but also because they seemed the most interested.
"Uh, hi?" Rose said, never having been a particularly good people person.
"Hi there," Grace smiled, looking them up and down, making it very obvious she was checking them out. Rose rolled her eyes. Grace had a switch inside her that was almost always turned on; if any male was around she had to flirt.
The two boys –men maybe? –looked exactly the same. Attractive being their main attribute. The other red-headed girl was obviously their sister, also very pretty as was the brown haired girl. What do they put in the water over here that made everyone so attractive?
"Need any help with that, love?" asked one of the twins, nodding to Grace's trunk.
Grace bit her lip, nodding. "I need help with a little more than that," she mumbled and smirked a bit.
"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," the other said. Rose elbowed Grace in the ribs and sighed. She dealt with this way too often.
"Oh, you really wouldn't mind? Thank you so much, that's so sweet of you! It seemed to have gotten heavier than when I took it off." Grace smiled brilliantly at the two, biting her thumb nail in a cute manner. The red-headed twins got the trunk back onto the trolley in seconds, then just stared at Rose and Grace. Grace basked in the attention; Rose drowned in it.
The ginger girl coughed and elbowed her brothers. "Right, we should probably introduce ourselves. I'm George, this here is Fred –"
"The devilishly more attractive twin!" Fred interjected.
"Ya, ya, sure you are, that's –"
"I'm very much capable of introducing myself, thank you. Hi, I'm Ginny," the red-headed girl smiled in a mostly friendly way. The girls smiled back and waved.
"And I'm Hermione Granger." The last girl stuck her hand out for the twins to shake, which they did, a little awkwardly. People their age didn't really shake each other's hands when they first met back at home. Apparently people in England were much more sophisticated.
"Well I'm Grace, and that's Rose, in case you didn't hear our dad mention that earlier."
"We did actually, though we were still too busy laughing over seeing Mad-Eye at your mercy," Fred said. Rose was looking off to the side, not wanting to be a part of the conversation. It took her a while to realise he was talking to her. "His face was brilliant." The twins started laughing again, Ginny chuckling a little and even Hermione cracked a smile. Rose blushed and looked down.
"How did you learn how to do that?" asked Ginny .
"Oh," Rose said in a small voice, clearing her throat a little. "Our mum forced us into karate because she wanted us to learn how to defend ourselves the No-Maj way. I panicked a little when that guy touched me and reacted on instinct." She shrugged a little sheepishly and continued staring at the asphalt.
"Rose gets a little paranoid at times and feels like most things are a threat. One time when we were younger we were playing hide and seek, and it was my turn to seek. She was hiding in a bush and didn't realize I found her, so when I grabbed her she was so scared that she singed off the ends of my hair by accident. I smelled like burned hair for a week."
As the others laughed, Rose shrank more into herself and felt like her face would never go back to its normal colour. Sensing her discomfort, Grace took away the attention.
"So how old are you guys?" She mostly directed the question at the boys, but Hermione was the one who answered.
"Well I'm fifteen and in fifth year, Ginny is fourteen and in fourth year and the twins are seventeen and in their last year at Hogwarts. We're all in Gryffindor too."
"Oh right, there are four houses right? Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, that's the one our dad was in, Slytherin and something else," Grace said, crossing her arms under her boobs to push them together a little more. The boys tried not to stare.
"Jigglypuff?" Rose volunteered, then immediately regretted it when the four Gryffindors laughed.
"It's Hufflepuff," Ginny snickered.
The twins shared a look. "What the fuck," they both paused and looked at each other again, "is a Hufflepuff."
The others laughed again, a bit uproariously. Rose and Grace looked back at them, completely serious. When they finally calmed down, George said, "Trust me, we've been asking ourselves that same question for years."
"Oh hey, we should probably head back, the whole reason we came over here was to fetch you two," Fred told them. "Not that talking to you wasn't a priority as well. It most definitely was." The twins winked at Grace who smirked right back.
Rose rolled her eyes and started steering her trolley, and if she 'accidentally' trod over one of the twins feet with the wheel, well, woops? She shrugged off Grace's glare, before Grace started a conversation with Fred and George on the way over to their parents.
"So how old are you two?" Hermione asked, filling the awkward silence between the three girls. Rose was used to those kinds of silences; she normally caused them.
"We're fifteen, like you. I guess that makes us fifth year." Rose shyly smiled, mostly because Hermione was actually trying and that deserved a smile.
"Do you know what house you want to be in?" Ginny asked this time.
"Well, I don't really know what each of the houses represent, but I guess I hope I'm in Ravenclaw because that was my dad's house." She smiled fully this time. Rose was a total daddy's girl, and would be ecstatic if she were in the same house as her father. "Of course, I better be in the same place as Grace or I'll probably die."
That thought had just occurred to her. What if she and her sister were separated? Worry clouded her mind as they reached the adults. They were all laughing at something Arthur had said. Bubblegum lady and the dog were nowhere to be seen. She couldn't be bothered to participate in anything and chewed on her bottom lip instead. Grace and Rose were quite different, but they were so similar at the same time. How do they even pick which house you go into anyway?
"Well, they place this all knowing hat on your head and it looks into your mind and sees which house would be best suited for you," their dad said.
"Did I say that out loud?" Rose asked, looking around at all the people looking at her.
"Yes," her mum said, smiling at her daughter and squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.
Rose grimaced. Then another thought occurred to her. "Dad, why didn't you tell us any of this before? Also, why in the world did you not think to inform us how to get to the platform?" she narrowed her eyes at her father who simply shrugged.
"I wanted to see your reaction when you found out we had to go through a wall, and apparently it wasn't one to be missed," he laughed and glanced at Arthur who looked like he was trying not to. Mad-Eye growled. Rose glared and felt her shoulders come up. She had forgotten he was there.
"I have a question for you, Miss Rose," Mad-Eye stated. His one eye was staring straight at her while the other kept whizzing. Looking at it made Rose feel sick.
"What," Rose said bluntly through gritted teeth, glaring at him. Just because her parents were there didn't mean she didn't feel any less hostile towards him.
"Rose!" her mum chastised for her rude behaviour.
Rose's body tensed and she was thoroughly annoyed with her mum for making her be polite to this guy. "I mean, yes, whatever can I do for you kind sir?" she batted her eyelashes in faux innocence. Mad-Eye did not appreciate it.
"I was just wondering how, exactly, you knew where the entrance was if your father never told you." He said it as though he were interrogating some sort of criminal and was trying to trick them into an answer. Rose did not appreciate that.
"It's quite simple really. In fact, it has to do with two people in your group," She smiled sweetly. "See, when you think people are about to crash to their death, you kind of pay attention. Especially when those two just suddenly disappear without any loud crash. Or screaming. Or blood. Just poof!" Rose made a gesture with her hands. "Gone." She was talking slowly, as though to a child. "And considering they went through the wall between platforms nine and ten –and the platform is nine and three-quarters, I figured I'd investigate. Of course, you know the rest, don't you dear Mad-Eye?" Rose's smile was as sweet and fake as Splenda sugar.
The two had a stare off for a while. She heard one of the twins say something about how she's not as shy as she comes off to be, to which Grace replied they didn't know the half of it.
"Well," Stuart said, breaking the tension, "we should all probably head to the train. It should be taking off soon and you really don't want to miss it because I am most definitely not driving you all the way to Scotland." His hand was pressed firmly on Rose's shoulder, guiding her towards the barrier. Grace flirted some more with the twins, Ginny and Hermione were talking and her mum was laughing with Arthur. Mad-Eye glared at Rose in contempt. Rose waved.
"You really shouldn't egg him on Rose. He could do some damage." They walked together, him pushing her trolley. He was looking calmly straight ahead towards the barrier, but his tone betrayed his worry.
"So can I," Rose pointed out. Stuart nodded his head in agreement, though that was what worried him the most.
She suddenly noticed how tired her dad looked. The bags under his eyes were massive, and his hair –what was left of it anyway –was even greyer. Looking at him, you wouldn't be able to tell he was handsome as a young man, with a full head of dark hair, shocking bright hazel eyes and a mischievous smile. His good sense of humour and great people skills were probably what attracted most people to him. He could go somewhere for twenty minutes and come back with at least five people's life stories. People just seemed to like him.
Rose stopped walking. She pulled her dad back by the hand and stared at him. "Are you getting enough sleep daddy? You look exhausted."
He smiled and patted her arm. "I'm fine, I just didn't sleep very well last night. Too busy worrying about you two going off to a new school." His English accent was very noticeable lately, most likely due to being back in his home country. Rose opened her mouth to reassure him but he held up his hand. "I know you'll be fine but it is a father's job to worry." Rose hugged him for a long time, long enough that the others had caught up with them. They pulled back and continued on their way to the platform.
After passing through the barrier the proper way, ("Ron and Harry should know better by now, especially now-a-days!") in small groups and indiscreetly, everyone parted ways. The Weasleys and Mad-Eye made their way to Bubblegum Lady and the dog, who stood with two male figures Rose knew well, but Rose stopped Arthur before he could pass and gave a timid apology.
Arthur looked confused. "What are you sorry for?"
Rose was looking anywhere except for him, thinking of the awful way she first treated him. "Well, I was very rude to you when you first came up, Mr. Weasley, and snapped at you. So uh, I just wanted to say sorry." Her face was bright red (again) and she played with her ring finger nervously.
Mr. Weasley raised his eyebrows in disbelief before giving a little chuckle. "Rose, don't even worry about it. If the positions were reversed, I would have done exactly the same thing. You didn't know who I was, and I very well could have been a threat. We all have to be very wary, especially now." His eyes, which were at first amused turned serious. Rose glanced at them once before looking away, and gave a small "Ok". He clapped her on the shoulder, and headed off to see the rest of his family.
She stared after him. Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione and the two guys were all huddled together. She wondered what they were talking about so secretively, but got her answer when she noticed the periodic glances they were all giving her. Rose huffed and turned her back to them, making her way to her own family. She could feel their stares on her back. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, hoping for some kind of shield. She could just imagine what they were saying about her. "She's so strange." "A freak." "She's got some anger issues on her, that one does."
Rose always wished she were one of those people who didn't care what others thought.
"Thank god you're finally here, mum's driving me crazy," Grace whispered and pulled Rose to her side. She thought Grace might be being a little bit dramatic; she had only been gone for a minute or two, but after five minutes of nagging, she too thought she might be going mad. Their mum was talking non-stop, reminding them to take their pills and to write to them every day and to eat properly and so on and so forth.
"–make sure to do your homework too, we don't want you two to fall behind. Though, we don't know yet if the curriculum is different from your other school but either way you have to work hard and I expect good marks or there will be punishment in the form of no baked goods, and Grace you cannot go boy crazy, you have your studies you need to focus on and Rose, I know you've been struggling with your anger but please try not to get into too many fights, we don't want a repeat of last time, so Grace I expect you to watch out for –"
Rose flinched and was glad when her sister cut her off. "Mum, we've got it. We understand what we have to do, you've literally gone over the same thing since the day Dad got the job."
"Right, right, sorry I know, I just get worried about you two, in a new country with new people and a new school –"
The train's high pitched warning whistle drowned out the rest of their mum's worried speech that the twins could probably have recited by heart. Their dad –whose absence Rose had not noticed before due to their mum's incessant talk –appeared suddenly, luggage-less.
"That would be your cue. I suppose your mother has gone over everything that's needed to be said –and more?"
"Most definitely," Grace muttered.
"Hey! Excuse me for caring about the well-being of my children. I just want what's best for you two, and everything is just so new; new country, new school –"
"New people, yes, yes we know, we did actually just go over that fact about two minutes ago," Grace said.
Rose pulled her mum into a side-hug. "Relax mother, Grace and I will be perfectly alright. We'll look out for each other, and there won't be anything to worry about! We're really good at that, aren't we Grace? Grace?"
Grace looked disbelievingly at her. Ok, so maybe Rose didn't have a perfect track record, but for the sake of reassurance couldn't Grace have gone along with it for one second? Rose nudged her sister. "Right! Ya, definitely, we'll be totally fine together, looking out for each other and all that cool stuff. Nothing to worry about." Grace plastered on a smile and blinded their mother with it.
"That was convincing."
"I try."
The train whistled again, the platform quickly clearing of teenagers. There was yelling everywhere as parents called quick goodbyes and handed them things they had forgotten. Doors to the train were being yanked open and closed relentlessly. Everyone was frantic, except the family of four.
"You really need to get going now if you don't want to miss the train. And the compartments fill up really quickly. Of course, then you could meet new people and maybe make friends. I remember in my first year when I got on the train I was so tiny and ducked into the first compartment I could find and there were these two people in there already and they were really going at –" he stopped talking abruptly. The three females stared at him until their mum smacked him over the head, lightly of course.
Their dad cleared his throat awkwardly. "Anyway, I think you'll find good friends in the Weasleys. They'll help you two adjust. Arthur has already helped me with the new job. That family is very kind..." he trailed off and looked towards the red-heads, caught up in his thoughts.
Their mum pulled the two in for a very tight hug. "I love you both so much. Please be careful this year. Please." The hazel of her mum's eyes bore into Rose's urgently. She shrank away from them. Message received.
"Love you too," she mumbled, hugging her dad quickly and rushing up the steps to the train.