First Year
I kissed my parents and brother goodbye at Platform 9 ¾, to Hugo's obvious dismay
'Rose! Quit being such a girl.' I just laughed and ruffled his hair. I was going to Hogwarts!!
I looked around to find Al, but he was in a serious discussion with Uncle Harry, so I got on without him. Then doors started slamming all along the train. Al jumped in and Aunt Ginny shut the door behind him.
We leaned out the windows to wave goodbye. Oddly enough, lots of other people on the platform and the train were looking at our parents, too.
'Why are they all staring?' demanded Al, looking at the curious students.
'Don't let it worry you,' said Dad. 'It's me. I'm extremely famous.' We all laughed, even Al, whose anxiety seemed to be gone. He looked so excited, and I couldn't keep the grin off of my own face.
The train began to move and I felt my heart leap as we waved goodbye. Our parents walked along beside the train as it picked up speed, and we kept waving until the train turned the corner and we lost sight of them.
I settled back into my seat, grinning from ear to ear. Hogwarts!!
Victoire, James, Dominique and Indy (Charlie's daughter, same year as James, but more on her in another story) all came to see us at some point, to offer advice (or, in James' case, to try and scare us. It didn't work.) Indy taught us how to fix broken things with magic (which she said had come in handy during her first year, but warned that it had disastrous results when used on bones)(In my sixth year, she made the amendment that the disastrous results extended to broken hearts as well.) The ride took just the perfect amount of time, not so long that we got bored, but not so short that you didn't have the time to really enjoy it.
Not very long after we disembarked, I was standing in front of the entire school, waiting to be sorted. Since I was DEAD LAST, I had a lot of time to worry about which house I would be in. I knew what I wanted; Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. I actually thought it would be worse to be in Hufflepuff than Slytherin.
It seemed to take years. I watched as Al was Sorted into Gryffindor (Yay Al!) and a billion other people being Sorted into the four houses. I looked around the room as they were. At the Gryffindor table, I saw Victoire smack James on the back of the head, then smile and wave at me. At the Ravenclaw table, Indy held up her crossed fingers.
Finally, I was the last person there. I walked up to the front with my head held high. I knew that, whatever house I was put in, I'd do my best and make my family proud. I sat down on the stool and the Sorting Hat muttered in my ear for a minute, then shouted 'Ravenclaw!'
I felt myself grin as I walked towards the Ravenclaw table. Indy gestured to an empty seat beside her, halfway down the table, and I went to join her. But when I was almost there, I stumbled over something and went sprawling. I turned to see a pale first year with white-blond hair and his foot stuck out in the aisle, laughing his head off. My face was burning and I felt like I was about to cry, I was so embarrassed.
Indy came to my rescue. She picked me up and dusted me off, then leaned down so her face was on a level with the boy's. 'If you ever touch my cousin again, ever, I will hunt you down and kill you so hard you'll die to death.' The pale boy was at a loss for words. 'Got it?' he nodded, and she stood and walked away, taking me by the arm and bringing me along with her.
About a week later I ran into him again, this time he had poured water all over Al. I ran over and dragged away the sopping Al, who looked like he was going to either hit Malfoy or cry, and I wasn't sure which. Malfoy was still standing there laughing, and one of his friends slapped him a high five. I left Al standing there and ran back to Malfoy, absolutely furious.
'You are a pig. You're vile and evil and cruel, and absolutely loathsome!' I lowered my voice. 'And if you touch my cousin again, I'll…, I'll…I'll…' I searched for a punishment horrible enough for him.
'Stutter at me?' he smirked.
'No. I'll drop you in a pit of poisonous snakes. Then you'll be with your own kind.' And I turned on my heel and stalked back to Al, seething with anger.
And so it went. Each of us became determined to outdo the other in every way. We both snuck out at times to practice flying and worked ridiculously hard in all of our classes to try and be better. I enlisted the help of Indy, who was in her second year at the time. She thought I was crazy, but she helped me with Transfiguration, which I found insanely difficult. Damn Malfoy, he was excellent at it.
One day in March, a day when the crocuses are beginning to bloom and spring seemed to have come overnight, we were all outside enjoying the good weather. Al and I were wandering in a lazy circle around the lake, when Malfoy stepped out from a copse of trees.
'Malfoy,' I said curtly.
'Weasley, Potter,' he replied, his voice icy, but when we tried to walk past him, he blocked the path.
'Move,' I said, not looking at him.
'Manners, Weasley,' he said, smirking.
I looked him in the face. 'Move before I hex you into jelly.' My voice was calm and level, but my hands were shaking.
'You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, Weasley.' He sounded amused.
'Actually, you don't.' I said, knowing this for a fact.
'I don't know about that.'
'I'll bet you…' I reached into the pocket of my robes and pulled out some money. 'Three galleons, six sickles and eleven knuts.'
'Fine. I'll meet you in the courtyard in an hour.' He looked extremely confident.
'See you then.' I brushed past him, towing the slightly stunned Albus along with me.
When we were out of sight of Malfoy, Al seemed to recover. 'What in the world came over you?'
'I knew I was right. Easy money. And it got rid of him, didn't it?' I was extremely nonchalant.
'Yeah, for now. I have homework to do, and you have honey and vinegar to get a hold of. Lets go.'
An hour later, I met Malfoy in the courtyard.
'Malfoy.'
'Weasley.'
We stood facing one another, hands on our wands, in case the other tried to pull something. I smiled a little as I thought of Muggle westerns. He gestured to a spot under a tree in the middle of the courtyard, and I took it, crossing my legs. He sat across from me, leaving lots of room.
'We'll keep a tally for fifteen minutes. No counting the same fly twice, ones that die in the honey/vinegar count. No cheating.' Malfoy looked shocked.
'Me? Cheat? You think that of me? I'm hurt, Weasley.' I wanted to punch him in the face, but I refrained, and ignored him.
'On the count of three, take the top off of your jar. One, two, three.' We both twisted off the tops of our jars.
Let me tell you, it is not as interesting as it sounds. It was an extremely slow competition, which consisted of sitting stock-still under a tree in the courtyard, not speaking or moving, barely breathing, as not to scare any flies that might come. We got lots of funny looks, and James came along to laugh at me, until Dom shooed him away. (Thank God for that girl.)
Slowly but surely, flies came. A couple alighted in Malfoy's honey, but more came to hover over my vinegar. (I've never gotten why flies spend so much time hovering over potential food. Why don't they just land? They don't live long, they might as well spend the time well. It's kind of a metaphor for humans and love, if you think about it.) Trying to count all the flies was hard, since they moved too much. It had been twelve minutes, and my vinegar was swarming. The flies buzzed at my head, and the vinegar fumes stung my eyes.
At fourteen minutes, Malfoy stuck his hand under my nose. It contained the promised Three galleons, six sickles and eleven knuts. I looked at him.
'Fine, you win. The vinegar attracted more flies. Don't rub it in.' he looked a little embarrassed.
'Fine, I won't, if you leave Al and I alone. We've never done anything to you, stay away from us.' I stood up and stalked away, but inside, I was elated at my victory.
Second Year
The second weekend back to school was Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts. I'd been practicing all summer, and I thought I was ready. When I saw all the other Keepers lined up at tryouts, I faltered a bit. It was an important job, one mistake could lose us the game, and the others trying out were all way older and bigger than me.
Keepers were tried last, and my nerves mounted as I sat in the stands with the other hopefuls, most of them in sixth and seventh year.
Indy made Seeker, and I agreed with the decision; she's brilliant, just like her dad.
Chasers were Carmody Evans, a third year, Rowan Alfort, a fourth year and Chase Rawlings, a second year and the brother of the Captain. Beaters were Christina Warbeck, a sixth year and Alex Rawlings, a seventh year, who was also team Captain.
Finally it was time for Keepers. Rawlings called us up alphabetically by last name. It was one of those times when I wish I was Al, just not to have to deal with this. I had to sit through torture while everyone else was tried. I could feel my blood pressure rising under the stress. My heart was pounding and my hands shook. When I was finally called, I could barely stand; my knees had turned to jelly.
But when I kicked off, my anxiety was left on the ground. I flew up high for a second, then turned and rocketed back down, taking my place in front of the goalposts. I tuned out the jeering of Slytherins watching, who had their tryouts in half an hour, and the cheers of Al and Indy, who were in the stands cheering me on. The sky and the ground and the people and the noise melted away until there were two things left; me and the Quaffle.
Four times it came at me and four times I caught it safely between my palms. I got ready for the last shot, knowing that if I caught this one, I'd make it. I took a deep breath and balanced myself, the broomstick equivalent to spreading your toes. I saw the Quaffle leave Rowan's hands, spiraling off to my right. I dove forwards, too fast; I nearly shot past it. As it was, I caught it between my hands and my side, and the speed of it nearly knocked me off of my broom. But I had it! I was Keeper! I did a victory lap of the stadium, elated. Now I could prove myself. Now they'd know how good I really was.
In June, we had our final match, Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. (James was absolutely furious, but he'd been slacking at Quidditch practices, so serves him right.)
Seventh Year
First day of seventh year, I was caught off guard by Malfoy holding the door for me. After that, I avoided him.
It was a fairly average beginning to a year, with a few small changes; I was Head Girl now, and Al was Head Boy. It was nice to have another Head who I actually liked, which is a change from what apparently usually happens. (FanFic writers of this, you know who you are.) It was weird not having Indy there; usually we were like best friends, and now she was off travelling in a Muggle van with her boyfriend who I like heaps. Sometimes, I'd get a picture of them with their blue VW Kombi, standing on a cliff with the bluest of blue New Zealand ocean's behind them, or of them by a campfire at night, laughing or dancing while some other hippie played guitar. They looked happy, and I was glad, but it was weird. It was sort of like, now she's an adult, and I'm left here to do kid stuff.
But I adjusted. I played Quidditch, and hung out with friends. Louis and I grew closer, since we'd both been really close to Indy, and we missed her. I did spend a lot of time by myself, though.
Al was seeing a girl for all of September and October, a real bimbo. Lou and I nearly threw a party when he ended that one. Sha dated a guy, too, a really nice one from her year named Thomas something, for a while, but broke it off in December, something about him being too normal (??). Around that time, Lily got together with her friend Asher, and Al got crazy happy for some reason. I needled him about it, but he just shrugged and went back to his studies. He spent a lot of time off studying in December, come to think of it. Hm.
Christmas at the Burrow was, as always, insane. Sha seemed distracted, but I put it down to her adjusting to having a father-figure around again, for the first time since she was five.
On New Years, Sha, Lily, and Al stayed out later than everyone else, Sha and Lily later than Al. Sha slammed into the sitting room of her house just as Luna announced that she was pregnant. I heard her 'Fucking brilliant,' and raised my eyebrows at her retreating back. I'm still wondering exactly what that was about.