Rose sat down with Star at the Gryffindor table. There they joined their friends who had started eating without them. Both Albus and Scorpius looked like they were about to fall asleep face first into their food, if they weren't asleep already. Who knew? Maybe they were sleeping with their eyes opened. Looking at them, Rose wouldn't have been surprised. Then there was Rachel and Vince, deep in conversation.

Rose looked at the food and put some oatmeal into her bowl. It was the good, cinnamon kind and Rose was kind of excited to eat it. What could she say? She had her dad's appetite. Rose took a bite and it was delicious. How did the house elves at Hogwarts do that?

"You should try the apple turnovers," suggested Star. "They are delicious."

"Okay!" agreed Rose. She tried one and went to heaven. Okay, not quite but the house elves really did make everything perfection.

"The pancakes are good too!" chimed in Rachel before turning back to her conversation with Vince. Rose happily ate some of everything near her. Everything, the whole day seemed perfect. Rose heard giggling behind her. She turned her head to find some Slytherin first years looking at her while whispering and laughing.

They're probably looking at Scorpius, Rose decided. After all, he is sitting with "the enemies." Rose thought she heard them say her name but they were probably just naming who he was sitting with. The whispering Slytherins flew out of her mind after that because the owls had arrived.

Rose strained her eyes and tried to see if the barn owl she had sent with her note last night had arrived. She couldn't tell, there were too many barn owls to be sure. She wondered if her parents wrote back right away and if the barn owl was that fast. Before too long, the owl landed in front of Rose and started eating some of her bacon.

"Hey, that's my bacon!" Rose watched the meat disappear into the owl rather resentfully. Shrugging, she just piled more onto her plate. "Thank you for bringing my letter!" she thanked the owl. "You can have some more bacon but only because you did such a great job, okay?"

Rose opened the envelope. Before reading her letter, she looked around at everyone else. Albus and Scorpius also had letters from their family and Rose was amazed they could read through their half closed eyes. Star was reading the Daily Prophet while Rachel and Vince continued to talk. Rose knew that Rachel probably didn't have a letter because her dad could see her any time anyways. As for Vince, Rose wasn't nosy enough to ask how come he had no letter. Maybe he had one the day before?

Dear Rose,

I'm glad you're having such a great time at Hogwarts! I'm proud of you getting into Ravenclaw, the hat actually thought of putting me there too! It's great that you already love it there so much. I'm so proud of you Rosie! Of course my wonderful and intelligent daughter is top of her class! I miss you and love you! Don't worry, I wasn't good at flying either. I'm glad that you're making friends and I don't mind who, as long as they're nice. Write back soon, we miss you here!

Love you,

Mum.

P.S. Don't listen to your father.

Dear Rose,

Ravenclaw isn't too bad. As long as you didn't get Slytherin. Speaking of Slytherin, you made friends with Draco Malfoy's son? I brought you up better than that! I can't believe it. Maybe Malfoy is a bit less bigheaded if he's admitting that he was wrong and we were right but still. As for your flying lesson, flying isn't that bad. There's nothing to be scared of. If ever you fall off, the flying coach will just cast a spell to cushion your fall. There's really nothing to be afraid of! Write back soon, we miss you here, Rosie Posey!

Always the #1 man in your life,

Dad.

Dear Rose,

Yum! The cookies were so good! Tell the house elves thank you for me! It's actually really boring without you here… Being an only child really is poopy. It's so boring and I try to invite friends over but still. They can't come over every day. So most of the time, I have nothing to do and no one to bother. So boring! I can't wait to go to Hogwarts! I'm so bored out of my mind here! Forget all the times I said how annoying you were and how I wish you didn't exist, okay? Mommy and Daddy bought me a real, proper racing broom! They felt bad that I was all alone with nothing to do all the time. It isn't one of those really nice ones but I love it! By the way, I see Mommy and Daddy both forgot to mention that Crookshanks isn't dead yet.

In misery,

Hugo.

Rose smiled and shook her head. That was her little brother. Well, and her parents too. She checked the time and hurriedly wolfed down the last of her food. Time to go to class, Rose told herself in a singsong voice.

The day passed uneventful until the class after lunch. Herbology, Rose checked her schedule. Great, I'll get to see Uncle Neville! Hey, Rachel is in this class too!

Rose spotted long, tangled light brown hair. It was covering a yellow and black scarf with a yellow sweatshirt. It could be only one person, Rachel. Rose ran to catch up yelling, "Rachel! Wait up!" Rachel turned around and grinned.

"Hey Rose! I love autumn…" They both looked around. The air did have that autumn vibe to it, that little, sort of fresh chill. "I wonder how weird it'll be with my dad teaching me…"

Rose laughed, "At least you know the teacher will like you?"

"Well, I hope he likes me, I'm his daughter!" Rachel exclaimed with a chuckle. The two walked in companionable silence. The silence wasn't because they had nothing to talk about, in fact, they had so many things to share. The two enjoyed the nature and comfort of the grounds though and just savoured the moment. "You know Rose, I really like Hogwarts."

"I do too," Rose agreed. The two friends shared a happy look and entered the herbology greenhouse 1. They chose side by side seats and Star, as well as some of Rachel's Hufflepuff friends, joined them.

"For those who don't know me, I'm Professor Longbottom, head of Gryffindor house," Uncle Neville started. "Many people, and many of you, think that Herbology is a useless subject. That is false. Herbology can be such a useful subject, if you pay attention and use your knowledge wisely. Did you know that plants were used as weapons in the battle of Hogwarts? Aurors need to ace Herbology and does anyone know about the Triwizard Tournament we had here at Hogwarts one year back in your parents' time? Well, there are challenges the three, well, there were four, champions must compete in. Harry Potter himself had to use Herbology in one of the challenges. Herbology, being so underestimated, surprises an opponent and can gain you the upper hand. They may have made the mistake of underestimating it but you shouldn't. In my second year at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets, if anyone knows about it, was opened. Students were petrified by a terrible monster and the only reason we got them back was because of what? Herbology." Uncle Neville paused and let his students absorb the information. Rose was amused to see that many students sat up straighter and seemed much more interested in Herbology than they were merely moments ago.

" We're going to start pretty basic. Today's class, we're going to be planting pods for the Moonflower. Can anyone describe a moonflower to me?"

Rose and Star's hands both shot into the air. They looked at each other and each raised an eyebrow while they both tried to make their hand reach a little taller than the other's. Professor Longbottom looked amused and even like he was stifling laughter. He gave an apologetic shrug to Rose and called on Star.

"Well, as most plants, it has a long green stem. Then it splits into usually around 7 pieces and on the end of each of them, there's a glassy looking orb. The orb changes colors according to moods. The bottom orbs represent its mood and the higher or middle orbs represent the mood of the people around it."

"Excellent! Ten points to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of moon necklaces?" Longbottom paused as he saw some hands come up. "Well, the idea of those came from Moonflowers. Muggle ones don't work though, of course. You're each going to plant your own Moonflower and throughout this term, we'll care for it and watch its growth. Begin!" He waved his wand and instructions appeared on the little blackboard in front.

Rose worked to dig the stubborn and frozen dirt out, as the Moonflower preferred the dirt frozen but quickly defrosting. The greenhouse was quite humid. Rose felt like she would be swimming in sweat by the end of the class, if she wasn't already. She carefully put the seeds in at the exactly right angle. Rachel seemed to be whizzing through the class. She was well ahead of everyone else. Star, on the other side of Rose, seemed to be doing much of the same as Rose. She was gritting her teeth and working hard, but exact.

Rose finally covered the dirt with holy water and plopped back into her chair. Who knew planting could be such hard work? One thing Rose really didn't like about Herbology was that you couldn't see how you did right away. You couldn't tell what you did wrong and what to change. You had to wait forever. What could Rose say? She was an impatient person.

On Rose's right, Rachel was long done and reading a book on, who could've guessed, plants. Rose! Rose chided herself, Don't be bitter and annoying because she's better than you at Herboloogy! You aren't the best. I wish you, well, I mean me, didn't have such a huge ego. To Rose's other side, Star sprinkled the last drops of her holy water cautiously then sunk into her chair also. She was all dirty, covered in dirt and some sweat. Rose was sure she looked the exact same way.

"Okay! Everyone, time up! Come here to wash off your hands and face. Before you do though, please gently place your pots on this shelf here. Gently, gently. Walk slowly!" Rose covered her mouth with her hand so her Professor wouldn't see her laughing. He looked absolutely horrified as a Hufflepuff boy tripped and nearly smashed his pot but saved it at the last minute. Rose placed her own pot with her name engraved into it on the shelf. She hoped her plant turned out fine. Imagine if she did all that work to have done a simple error and messed it all up?

Rose went to clean herself up and was immensely glad when there was cold water. In fact, Rose didn't think she'd ever been this happy to see freezing water. Except maybe that time when she got that second degree burn but anyways. At least now she knew never to threaten to flush Hugo's toy cars down the toilet again…

Rose shook her head to clear her thoughts. She was getting carried away. She grabbed her belongings and started to head towards the door. Had they been dismissed? She couldn't remember…

"Rose," called Uncle Neville. He looked worried. "Can I have a word with you?" Rose turned around and walked to Uncle Neville. Rachel, always having been a curious one, walked to her father also. "Well, Rachie, I guess you better hear this too.

"Rose, you know that your father and mother both played an immense role in the downfall of Voldemort, right?" Rose nodded. "Rachie, even I did cut off the head of Voldemort's snake. There are some people here whose parents were great supporters of Voldemort. Take Scorpius and his father. Unlike Scorpius though, some of them had family thrown into Azkaban and a lot of terrible consequences when Voldemort died. Some are still bitter.

"First of all, you can't listen to what people might say about you two. Albus also. Especially Albus. Anyways, you girls should also be careful. I'm not saying anything bad will happen to either of you but some nasty seventh years might hex you," Neville warned. "Just keep your chins up and don't take what they might say to heart."

"Yeah, yeah," Rachel shrugged. "Of course. We know better than to listen to them."

"You too, Rose?" Uncle Longbottom inquired anxiously.

"Yeah! I'm good," Rose tried to keep a light-hearted tone. Is that what the Slytherin girls were talking about this morning? Were they talking about her? Rose didn't want enemies and she didn't want to have to worry about them. If anyone triedto hex her… They'd be sorry.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Rose was just trying to concentrate on her class as much as possible but her mind wandered to Uncle Neville's warning. Each time, Rose pushed her thoughts away. It just wouldn't do to do badly in school. Rose was relieved to get out of class and into the Great Hall for dinner.

"Mashed potatoes!" Star exclaimed and almost flew to the table. Star almost liked her food as much as Rose and her father. Rose sat down besides her friend and dug in. Soon, the two were surrounded by the rest of the crew. Albus and Scorpius discussed quidditch and which positions they'd like to play. Star and Sam listened in, both trying to figure out how exactly quidditch was played. Rachel and Vince were talking between themselves yet again. Laira, on the other hand, was showing off her more anti-social side and drawing on the table.

"You okay?" Scorpius mouthed to Rose. Rose just smiled and shot him a thumbs up. Albus started explaining to Star and Sam the game of quidditch and Scorpius leaned across the table to speak to Rose. "You seem preoccupied."

"I am," Rose told him about Uncle Neville's warning. She finished, "I don't want to be hexed."

"Hey, don't worry!" Scorpius playfully pushed her shoulder. "If they hex you, I'll hex them right back! You gotta get back up. Then kick them in the shins."

"Nice," Rose chuckled. "Good idea. I will keep that in mind."

"I'm full of great ideas," buffed Scorpius jokingly.

Rose rolled her eyes and asked, "Got any other words of wisdom for me?"

"Yes," Scorpius joked in a sincere tone. "It starts without questioning the answers."

Tap. Rose felt her shoulder get tapped and then tapped again. She turned around to a Slytherin girl. She looked like some kind of eleven year old beauty queen. Okay, maybe not but she looked good. Rose subconsciously touched her own frizzy, dry hair.

"Wh-who, erm, are you?" Rose stuttered out.

"I'm Lyra. That's not the point though," Lyra looked at Rose accusingly. "Is it true you said you didn't want to fly because you weren't some trollish, dirty, caveman Slytherin? I understand that some people are a little prejudiced against other houses but this is going a little far with the house hate, isn't it?"

"I didn't say that…" Rose protested to Lyra's sceptical expression. "Who would have said tha-"

Rose looked at the Slytherin table to find a bunch of first years speaking amongst themselves and glancing back at her. Then her eyes found Libby, glaring at Rose with hostile eyes and what Rose's father would have called a Malfoy smirk.