A/N: Here's Chapter 8 guys! I hope you like it! It was a bit harder for me to write, but a big Disclaimer here that there are lines taken from Deathly Hallows once again. I took it word for word, but it was necessary! This was a bit of a hard chapter for me to write, but it had to be done. Anyways, here we go!
CHAPTER 8
"Here's the spare room Scorpius, you can put your things in there," Hermione led the young blonde boy into the room at the end of the hallway. "It's nothing fancy, but if you want me to spruce it up a little, I can!"
"No Mrs. Weasley, it'll be perfect!" Scorpius gave her a real smile and dragged his small piece of luggage for the holidays inside and laid it on the floor.
"OK dear, you can wait with Rose and Hugo while dinner cooks. Should only be another twenty minutes. See you then!"
Leaving him alone, Hermione crossed the hall into her son's room.
"Hugo, dinner in twenty. At least attempt to put a brush through that jungle of yours. We don't want to attract rodents," giving her son a grin, she moved further down the hall to pass the message to Rose.
"Hello Rose, dear," Hermione smiled at her daughter, her nose already buried in a book, "Dinner will be in twenty minutes, alright?" Rose nodded and Hermione left.
Moments later found Hugo and Scorpius in Rose's room.
"What mischievous deeds will we go about these wondrous holiday times sister?"
Scorpius looked at Rose perplexed. Rose pulled pranks? Since when?
"Oh, I have some ideas," she replied, rubbing her palms together as if concocting a plan as she spoke. "But the question is, who will be our unsuspecting victim?"
"Well you got Molly and Lucy last year…and Alex was my victim, but he's not here…And Victoire and Teddy felt your wrath the year before…Fred and Roxanne would get you back without hesitation. They probably got one lined up already, as they don't know if they are targets or not. So I think we should plan our attack on Dominique and Louis…" Hugo concluded.
"Sounds good to me!" Rose grinned evilly. Scorpius actually felt a shiver go down his spine. Woah!
"Rose, Scorpius, Hugo! Dinner!" They heard Hermione's voice from below.
Scrambling out of their positions around the room, the three raced each other down the stairs, Rose only winning because she tripped the boys up before they could reach the top of the stairs.
Scorpius couldn't believe this side of Rose. It was as if she was a whole different person. He was used to quiet, reserved book-ish Rose. This one was loud, malicious, and quite frankly, hilarious.
Sitting down at the table, he stared at Rose, perplexed. Mr. Weasley seemed to think differently, as he cleared his throat, catching Scorpius' attention. Scorpius turned to Ron, only to cringe ever so slightly at the look he was being given, and the faint heat of a blush rose to his cheeks.
Turning back to the table, he grinned as he saw a wonderful roast chicken and plenty of vegetables appear on the table.
Mouth watering, he slowly filled his plate, as did everyone else. There wasn't a scrap left on a serving plate. This was a Weasley family after all.
Dinner passed quickly, Scorpius gave compliments to Mrs. Weasley on the wonderful dinner she had prepared, and thanked Mr. Weasley for letting him stay here.
"Well Scorpius, you get to listen in on one of our favourite Christmas holiday family traditions tonight. After every dinner, we sit in the living room, play board games, and listen to recordings of Potterwatch from back in the day. Mum'll bawl, even dad will sniffle, while I cream Hugo in Wizard's chess. You can play the winner, if you dare," smiling mischievously, Rose grabbed plates off the table to put in the sink.
Following her with his own dishes, Scorpius asked a question that rested on the tip of his tongue.
"What's Potterwatch?"
"Oh, just the most brilliant radio show ever! You see, when my parents and Uncle Harry were on the run chasing after Voldemort's horcruxes, a bunch of former friends and allies got together and formed a radio show that posted truths and sightings of them, or any deaths that were being covered up. It was run by family friend Lee Jordan, who used to commentate Quidditch matches at Hogwarts, so he was quite funny. And sometimes my Uncles George and Fred would help out, and people like the current Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt – he was a member of the Order of the Phoenix – and Auror and Werewolf Remus Lupin would help too. It was so cool! There was a different password every show and it was on a different frequency every time, so they were never caught. Genius! Pure genius!" Rose grinned.
Scorpius smiled back. It sounded like he was in for a fun night.
Moving to the living room, Hermione placed some odd contraption in the middle of the room that looked like an inside out radio system.
"Arthur got his hands on it, I'm afraid. But it still plays, and that's all that matters," Hermione explained, flicking her wand at the system.
A voice began to fill the room then, deep with a strong accent.
'We apologise for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which was due to a number of house-calls in our area by those charming Death Eaters. But we have now found ourselves another secure location and I am please to tell you that two of our regular contributors have joined me here this evening. Evening Boys!'
Rose laughed. There was the unmistakable voice of a young Lee Jordan.
"Oh Ron honey, this was the first night you got the password right! And the same night that…that…" Hermione's eyes welled up and tears began to spill over as she stared blankly at Scorpius.
"Mum? Mum what's wrong? Do you want me to put on a different recording? I'm sure I can find the one with Nana on it!" Rose was confused. Did something bad happen to someone she knew that night?
"Hermione, I think it's time you went to bed dear. Rose, you can keep listening, I'm bringing your mother to bed." Helping his wife stand, Hermione cuddled into Ron as he brought her upstairs.
"What just happened?" Hugo asked, just as confused as the Rose and Scorpius were.
Out of respect for her mother, she turned off the recording, just as she heard, 'For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill with a single glance from his eyes. That's a Basilisk listeners. One simple test: check whether the thing that's glaring at you has got legs. If it has, it's safe to look into its eyes, although if it really is You-Know-Who, that's still likely to be the last thing you ever do.'
The three couldn't help but laugh at this. Rose smiled at the thought of her Uncle Fred. He was the only relative she had never met, as he was murdered in the Battle. This began to bring tears to her eyes.
"That was our Uncle Fred," Hugo explained, as Rose was at a loss for words, "We never got to meet him. He was Uncle George's twin, but he was murdered in the Battle of Hogwarts."
"Oh," was all Scorpius could say. Just then Ron returned downstairs.
Noticing they had turned off the radio, and just sitting, he entered the living room, sitting back in his chair.
"Hermione has asked me to tell you the story of what happened the night that broadcast went out. She said that maybe you will 'Finally understand why our families hate each other so much…' and blah blah blah." Ron shook his head.
"I remember that night very clearly. In fact, I will never forget it. That night marked the first time we had ever been in the Malfoy Manor."
Rose looked at Scorpius, who seemed just as confused as she did.
"Now, Hermione has asked you guys not to think twice on this. She doesn't want it to cause a rift in your friendship, it has nothing to do with you guys – " Ron said through gritted teeth. "Yes, I was forced to say that…" he muttered.
"Anyways; we had just finished listening to that broadcast. Sadly we heard about the deaths of several people we knew, including Teddy's grandfather Ted Tonks. Unfortunately, your git of an Uncle, Harry, decided, 'Hey, why not? Let's use You-Know-Who's name, even though it has a taboo on it and Ron has warned me several times not to say it!' Well ultimately this lead to our capture by some Snatchers. Hermione, thankfully, did some wonderful wand-work to change Harry's appearance, so the Snatchers couldn't tell if it was him or not.
"We tried fake names too. I attempted Stanley Shunpike. What a dolt I was, forgetting he was Imperiused to help the Death Eaters. So I had to tell them I was Barney Weasley. Harry used his muggle family's names to get away with looking funny, Vernon Dudley I think he used. And Hermione, thankfully, remembered a useful name, Penelope Clearwater. Your Uncle Percy used to date her in his last year at Hogwarts.
"Harry was genius though. Used a bit of information we had…er…obtained in second year to prove he was a Slytherin. See, he knew where the Common Room was, and what it looked like. I won't tell you how – that's another story…
"And he bluffed an entire story about his father working in the Ministry that they fell for. Sadly though, when searching the tent, they found not only the Sword of Gryffindor we had used to destroy Horcruxes, but also a newspaper article featuring Hermione. Realizing they'd caught a companion of Harry, they checked us over again. I was safe, as I was believed to be home with Spattergroit still. But Harry's scar was slightly visible on his forehead…and then they found his glasses…
"Well they realized they had Harry Potter and his little friends. So the idiot Werewolf Greyback, who was with the Snatchers, thought it would be best to bring us to the Death Eater Headquarters at the Manor. There were two other prisoners as well. Our friend, Dean Thomas, who was captured for being muggle-born, and a goblin named Griphook, who refused to join sides.
"Your father, Scorpius, was home for Easter, so your grandmother thought he would be able to recognize us and prove who we were. I don't know whether your father was being an idiot, or not, but he refused to admit he was Harry. Now Hermione and I he recognized, but he only kept saying "Maybe them, could be them…' and so on.
Scorpius smiled, somewhat proud that his father hadn't been the one to give them up.
"Then the idiot Lestrange…no offence to you Scorpius, really. But she was the most vile woman I've ever met. Worse than Aunt Muriel…"
Rose couldn't help but chuckle. He'd heard the stories of Aunt Muriel, so she knew it had to be bad.
"Well she…she cut Hermione from the rest of us and – and – "
"It's OK dad…" Rose comforted her father.
"Well she sent the rest of us to the cellar. Where, low and behold, we ran into your Auntie Luna Lovegood – who had been captured for her father's writings in The Quibbler about Harry and what was really going on, and Mr. Ollivander."
"The wandmaker?" asked Hugo.
"The very same. Anyways, we were all brought down there, and Bellatrix…that cruel woman…began torturing your mother Rose, insisting on information about the Sword of Gryffindor. See You-Know-Who had trusted her with it in her Gringotts' vault. She feared it had been stolen, as well as the Horcrux that resided in there as well. Thankfully Professor Snape had actually given Bellatrix a fake sword, so she didn't know we had the real one. She tried to coax the goblin to tell her if it was real or not, but Griphook lied for us. We could hear Hermione screaming the whole time. Bellatrix was torturing her. I thought she was going to die…
"But then, bless Harry for his naivety. He had slipped several important things to him into a mokeskin pouch – "
Rose beamed, fingering her own pouch that happened to be in her pocket at the time.
" – and one of those things was a broken piece of a communication mirror. Merlin knows how, but Aberforth Dumbledore had a connecting mirror, and he seen we were in peril. The genius man sent Dobby the house elf in to rescue us. See wizards never account for house elf magic, so even though the cellar was wizard magic proof, house elves could do magic freely.
"So Dobby apparated in, and disapparated with Luna, Dean and Ollivander to Shell Cottage. Bill and Fleur were definitely not expecting that one. The idiots upstairs – once again Scorpius, no offence – heard the crack from disapparition, and sent the Wormtail bloke in – it's funny how he used to be my pet rat. Once again, another story – and myself and Harry tackled him. The bloody git tried to kill Harry, but in some bizarre form of magic, the fact that he owed Harry his life, forced his magic hand thing to strangle him to death. I can't really explain what happened. It was confusing…
"Anyways, we rushed upstairs, only in time to find Bellatrix calling You-Know-Who with her Dark Mark. She also told Greyback he could have Hermione. That's when I lost it. According to Harry I did some brilliant disarming spell on Bellatrix, and Harry knocked out your grandfather Scorpius with her wand. But next thing we knew, Bellatrix had a knife to Hermione's throat. Bloody cheater…
"Draco took our wands we had acquired. But suddenly, before anyone could do anything, the chandelier just dropped. And it fell right on top of Bellatrix, Hermione and the goblin. Bellatrix moved of course, but glass flew everywhere. Bet your dad still has scars from the glass – " Ron winked at Scorpius, "Suddenly Harry had three wands from no where and knocked Greyback out. Dobby came from no where, then. Turns out he had dropped the chandelier. He disarmed Narcissa, and we got the hell out of there.
"But not before Bellatrix had at least killed something. She flicked her knife in our direction. We hadn't realized what had happened until we got to the Cottage. Dobby was dead. Hit with the knife – " there were tears in Ron's eyes now. "We were all so distraught, Harry ended up burying the house elf in the yard."
"Oh, that's what that rock is all about – " pondered Hugo.
"Yes. Harry did that himself."
Rose looked at Scorpius tentatively. "Please tell me your grandparents don't live in that house still…"
"No. Grandpa's in Azkaban. And Grandma lives with her sister Andromeda. You know, Teddy's Grandmother? Yeah they made up after the war. Grandma had never hated Aunt Andy, just harboured a want to follow Bellatrix. So it was easy for them to make up."
"Good. I wouldn't know what to do if you ever invited me to visit them…"
Scorpius laughed then, a true, from the gut laugh.
"No, I suppose you wouldn't Rose."
Ron watched his daughter with a watchful eye, and a harder gaze set on Scorpius. He didn't mind that they were friends. But if it ever became more…well he'd better make sure there was a bed reserved in St. Mungo's for him someday. Perhaps next to Lockhart's room, they could be loony together.
"Well I'm off to bed, as should you. We're making our way to the Burrow tomorrow before lunch by Floo, so you need to get up somewhat early. Good night," Ron stood then, giving his two children a hug, and giving Scorpius a well-rounded handshake, and then headed upstairs to bed.
"You don't – well, you're not put off by what happened between our families, are you Rose?" Scorpius asked tentatively. He wouldn't know what to do if Rose hated him. He'd probably lose his mind.
"No. I'm not. The past is the past, we can't prevent that now. All we can do is learn from their mistakes, and put it behind us. Besides, it's not like your parents or grandparents did any of the torturing. The only one not remorseful is your grandfather, and he's safely locked away," she smiled and hugged her best friend.
"Ick, the love fest is making me sick, good night odd ones," Hugo scrunched his face up before heading upstairs as well.
"Haha, we scared away Hugo. Rose: 1, Hugo: 0!" she grinned.
"So…what's this about you pranking? Since when does perfect bookworm Miss Know-It-All Weasley, perform such unlawful acts such as a prank? And why has she never told me about it?"
"Since forever. You can blame my Uncle George. He's the one's that convinced me to start because 'The quiet ones are the ones you need to look out for.' And I never told you, because it was for Weasley Christmas' only. You had to be invited into our super secret club to know." A smirk worthy of Draco Malfoy spread across her face.
It took every ounce of will power he had not to snog her senseless.
"Well, good night Scorpius," she said, before making her way upstairs and disappearing. Scorpius sat in a daze, wondering if she knew what she did to him. It was bloody mental!
Finally waking up from his drool-fest, he made his way silently upstairs.
Secretively, Ron smiled, glad to hear three separate pairs of footsteps make their way upstairs.
…
"Gooooood morning Scorpius!" came the annoying voice of Rose jumping on the end of his bed.
"Grr…" he tried to growl venomously, but he only sounded like a puppy to Rose.
"Aww is Scorpius sleepy? Well too bad, breakfast time!" she called in a sing-song voice. Scorpius wanted to throw his pillow at her.
So he did.
Simultaneously knocking her off the bed where she landed on the floor with an 'Oof!' Scorpius laughed, while she glared at him from the floor.
Crawling out of bed, he moved to his duffle on the floor, searching for some clean clothes.
Rose finally composed herself and stood from the floor, only to be frozen from the sight of Scorpius in just his boxers. Sure she had seen him in swimming trunks, or without a shirt on. But boxers were a little more intimate, and this made Rose blush fiercely.
"Well, are you going to let me dress?" Scorpius suddenly brought Rose from her reverie.
"Oh yes, um, sorry," and with that she scrambled from the room towards her own to change.
Scorpius just laughed before changing out his boxers for fresh ones, slipping on a dark pair of slim denim jeans, and a simple green t-shirt. He thought he looked presentable enough. Finally he ran a hand through his hair, and he was ready.
Rose climbed into her bedroom, and closed the door behind her, letting out a huge breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Well that had been…awkward.
Heading to her closet, she pulled out a pair of light blue denim jeans and topped it off with a navy blue shirt that flowed past her hips and rested on her shoulder with spaghetti straps. Perfect. Throwing a black outer camisole over it, she charmed her hair with her wand to be more manageable, and plaited it simply.
Finally ready to face her family, she bounded out of her bedroom, completely forgetting about the incident with Scorpius this morning. Sitting at the table, she beamed brightly at her family.
"Good morning!" she said to everyone, Ron smiled at his overly energetic daughter, but Hermione's face never faltered, until Scorpius walked in that is.
"Good morning Scorpius. I hope you had a good sleep?"
"Yes quite. The bed is much comfier then mine at home," something was silently passed between the two to never speak of the stories told last night.
"That's good to hear! Anyways, my husband has basically forced me to make breakfast for you all, so there is toast, tea, bacon and plenty of sausages. Help yourselves!" Hermione turned back to washing the dishes while the rest of them sat at the table and began to eat.
"So, we'll be heading to my mum's in just over an hour. We're only going for four days, so you don't need much, just a rucksack will do. And don't forget your presents, we'll be spending Christmas day there as well. We'll return on the twenty-sixth," Ron said to the children.
Rose smiled. She had a lot of presents to take this year, as everyone was joining them for once. But she also had to make sure she got in some time to help Victoire plan her wedding. The details were almost perfect. Victoire's bridesmaids consisting of Rose being Maid of Honor, Dominique, Lily, Alice, and Molly, and Clara was the Flower Girl. Teddy had Harry for his Best Man, as he wouldn't have it any other way, and the groomsmen were James, Fred, Frank, and his best mate, Matthew Towler, and Thomas as a ring bearer.
The wedding would, of course, be held in a tent at the Burrow. Rose had arranged for a wizard from the Ministry to preside over the marriage. She had a live band lined up, and invites were due to be sent out over the following summer holidays holidays, she just had to review the guest list with them.
As well, everyone was going shopping in June for their attire. Rose was thinking beautiful green or blue dresses for the girls, so it wouldn't clash with any of the Weasley's hair, and the boys would wear tuxes with matching ties.
However, as they were about to leave for the Burrow, Rose tucked away her plans and ideas, and jogged up to her room to get ready.
She ensured she had her favourite green dress for Christmas day. No red allowed for her, her hair was red enough in its auburn state. She packed some jeans, a skirt, and a few more tops, obviously more than four days worth, but sometimes she liked to change her mind on her outfit. Rose also made sure she had everything else she needed, including a few books and some basic necessities. Finally she was packed, and she made her way to the fireplace to meet the others.
Everyone else was already there, so once she arrived, her father grabbed some of the powder from the container beside the fireplace, and off he went to the Burrow. Everyone followed in the emerald flames and moments later found the five of them standing in the living room of the Burrow. Scorpius was in awe of how cozy the room they stood in was. There were knick-knacks and hand-made things everywhere. He actually felt, at home.
Mrs. Weasley came bustling in then, hugging first her son, followed by Hermione, then Rose and Hugo. Finally she stopped in front of him. "And who is this?" she asked.
"I'm Scorpius Malfoy m'am, I'm visiting with Rose for the holidays," he gave her the brightest smile he could.
"Oh yes, my son did tell me you would be here. Well, welcome then!" she said, before pulling him into a hug as well. At first he was surprised, but when she let go, he felt a great deal warmer.
Molly Weasley began to bustle about, listing out room arrangements. Thankfully after the war, Bill insisted they add more to the house, so it was much larger than before, but it was still cramped with everyone in it.
The adults would squeeze into rooms together, as would the kids. One room consisted of Arthur and Molly, they took the smallest room. In Charlie's old room were Charlie himself, Percy, Bill, and George. In Percy's old room were Ron, Harry, Neville, and Rolf. In George's old room were Fleur, Audrey, and Angelina. In Ginny's old room were Ginny, Hermione, Hannah and her little Clara, and Luna. In Bill's old room were Teddy, Frank, James and Fred. In Ron's old room were Albus, Hugo, and Scorpius. And in the newest room attachments found a room with Louis, Lorcan, Lysander and Thomas; another room with Victoire, Molly, Alice and Roxanne; a third found Rose, Lily, Dominique and Lucy. It was very cramped, but they made it work with simple expansion charms and lots of cots.
After bringing their bags upstairs, they returned downstairs to find more than half of their family had arrived. All that were left were Neville, Hannah and their kids, and George, Angelina and their kids.
Just as Rose thought this, the Longbottoms began appearing in the fireplace, followed quickly by George and his lot.
Once everyone was settled, they retreated into the expanded living room for various activities. Some headed off into the village for last minute shopping, Luna took Rolf and the twins to visit her father in the village who still lived in his crazy house with all the strange plants. This made the house a little more breathable.
Rose decided she needed fresh air, however, so she grabbed her fleece jacket and a matching scarf, hat and mittens set and headed outside alone.
She loved her family, but sometimes she needed her quiet. Plus she needed time to think up her great prank of the year.
It was hard to think of something that hadn't been done before, but Rose thought she had a pretty decent plan. Rose knew that the thing those part-veelas cared about most was their looks. Dominique took an hour to take a shower, so that's when Rose would complete her prank on her. Louis, however, wasn't as long, but she could still complete a prank on him in time.
Twirling her wand in her hand, she grinned, thinking it best to do her prank the next day would be best, as they wouldn't dream of getting revenge on Christmas, and the next day they were leaving. She had a high chance of getting away with it!
Albus and Scorpius stared out the window as Rose just sat idly in the light snow on the ground, not even moving, just staring at nothing. She was thinking, that much was clear. And Scorpius had a feeling it had something to do with her pranks.
"Thank Merlin I'm Rose's closest cousin and friend, she refuses to prank me. You should be safe, too."
"Yeah, she and Hugo said something about Dominique and Louis." Scorpius said, nodding in Hugo's direction. Fleur had taken her children last minute shopping, so they could freely talk about the prank.
"Oh this should be good then. They are obsessed with grooming themselves, that's where she will focus." Albus smirked. "She'll only do something simple, but to Dominique and Louis it will be devastating."
Laughing, the two boys grabbed their coats and decided to join Rose outside.
"Don't think too hard Rose, you'll hurt yourself," Albus teased as they approached her.
"Ha ha, very funny Albus," she laughed sarcastically. "No I found the perfect little pranks to play on blonde and blonder."
Scorpius laughed. "What does that make myself, Victoire and the twins?" he asked.
"Well you're just Scorpius, Victoire is Blondie, and the twins are blondest one and two…" Rose rattled off nonsensically.
"You are strange Rose," Albus said, laughing.
By the time dinner rolled around, everyone had returned, and the night passed in fun games, and stories of old. George told Scorpius of the time the Ex-Auror Mad-Eye Moody, who had been their Defence Professor at the time, had turned Draco into a bouncing white ferret for insulting Harry, and how it had never actually been Moody at all, but Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. the entire time using Polyjuice Potion. Scorpius couldn't help but laugh at the idea of his father bouncing around like a ferret. No wonder he had such a fear of small creatures! Scorpius was definitely going to use this information as leverage.
It wasn't long before they were all heading to bed.
...
Albus, Scorpius and Hugo awoke the next morning to screams from down the hall, and very annoyed yells.
Of course the three knew what had happened, Rose had acted upon her pranks.
Exiting their room, they smiled when they saw two fuming blondes heading down the hall.
Louis was covered in a white powder, and his mouth was hanging open like he couldn't close it.
Dominique however, held several bras in her hand that were oddly misshapen, and her face was as bright as an orange.
"What happened?" asked Al, trying not to laugh.
"Rose happened," Dominique growled venomously. "She froze all of my bras with an un-meltable freezing charm from Teddy, and replaced my foundation with a much darker shade. And she covered his towel in talcum powder, and replaced his toothpaste with some odd stuff that's made his whole mouth numb. He can't even talk!"
"Well you should have watched out, you guys were so obviously next on the pranking list…" Rose said, coming up the stairs, a grin on her face. "It wasn't as good as last year's, but I'm just as satisfied."
Dominique simply glared at Rose, while Louis attempted to keep his mouth closed. They both turned then and headed to find their parents to see if they could reverse the work that had been done on them.
The others who had gathered in the hallway laughed and patted Rose on the back as they headed back to their rooms to dress for the day. It was Christmas Eve after all.
Rose pulled on the black skirt she had brought. It was simple, straight with a little bit of ruffle on the end, and she topped it off with a low cut purple coloured simple t-shirt. Rose tamed her wild hair with her wand, and put it in a high ponytail. Leaving the confides of her room, she made her way downstairs to enjoy the family time they would have once again.
…
"Rose! Rose wake up! It's Christmas!" Lily was jumping on the end of Rose's bed in her striped pyjamas.
"I'm up! I'm up!" Rose laughed and rolled out from under the covers. Dominique, thankfully, had gotten over the prank she had pulled on her. The four girls rushed downstairs, only to realize they were the first awake. The girls quickly ran back upstairs and woke the rest of the family room by room.
Soon everyone sat around the enormous tree in the living room.
Presents were passed around, and well wishes were given, and soon it was nearly time for lunch. It would only be small, as there would be a large turkey supper to look forward to.
Scorpius wished his family celebrated like this. His parents didn't enjoy traditions and such. They simply gave each other their gifts, then sat and ate as a family.
By the time it was evening, sleep hung over them all, and they went to bed.
…
Giving Al a hug, Rose stepped into the fire and returned home, followed closely by the rest of her family and Scorpius.
"Well that was fun!" said Hugo. "Too bad we go back to school in six days."
"Well we could make do with the time we have. Ever been to see a movie Scorpius?"
Scorpius looked at Rose. "What's a movie?"
"Well you know how we have moving pictures? Well it's the muggle version. Except it tells a story and the people speak, too. It's pretty cool, and the theatre is only down the street."
"Sounds like fun," Scorpius grinned, and together the three set off for six days of fun activities.
...
On the second of January they stood at King's Cross once again to head back to Hogwarts. Hugo ran off to find his friends, while Rose secured a compartment for herself, Scorpius and Albus.
First thing Rose did was pull out one of her newest books and began to read as she waited for her two best friends. The book was in Latin, so she was struggling to read it, so she had her wand in hand to translate any words she didn't know.
Soon Scorpius and Albus had sat across from her and had engaged in a fierce game of Exploding Snap. Not before long, Scorpius had beat Albus three times already, and darkness was closing upon the train. Rose was growing tired, and her eyes were drooping. Thank goodness it was a Saturday, she could sleep the whole day tomorrow.
And that's exactly what Rose planned to do. She'd get to the castle, eat dinner and go straight to bed.
A/N: Hope you liked this chapter :) It's going to be a bit slower for the next few updates. I have Chapter 9 written, but hardly anything for Chapter 10, so I'm not posting 9 until 10 is done...See I had up to Chapter 8 written in total, but now I've fallen behind. So I need to get ahead of myself again! Anyways, the next few chapters are jam-packed with fourth year and the summer following, so be prepared! Woo! Review!