Rose Christina Weasley was impatient for her first Defense Against the Dark Arts class to end. Professor Quickchaser was a young woman- tan, fit, red-haired- but her voice contained the same lifeless, droning quality as Prosser Binn, the ghost who taught the most boring class of all, History of Magic. Professor Quickchaser was fortunate that hexes, jinks, creatures, and curses were more interesting than countless goblin wars and pointless conventions, otherwise, like Binns, she'd be talking to the tops of their heads.

It wasn't that Rose thought Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn't a good class, even if they had a zombie of a teacher; she just had some rather pressing concerns to see to at dinner and the longer she remained in that classroom, the more she anxious she felt.

At last Professor Quickchaser spared the class another minute of her lecture, which was as dry as Rose was restless. As the other students packed up their parchment and quills, Rose ran out the room so quickly she blew everyone's belongings straight out of their hands.

"Where's the fire?" her classmate and friend Beatrice Bellemount, or Bee as she preferred to be called since Beatrice was the kind of name a seventy five year nanny had, shouted at her. Bee was a beautiful, heavyset girl with long, sleek dark ringlets and Eastern European features. By the time Bee had caught up with Rose, she was out of breath, her lovely features red with exertion.. "What...is...the...matter..with you? Aren't you...tired?"

"Nope." Rose slowed down out of courtesy, but her legs were begging her to run. "I ran track at my old school, a muggle one. My mum insisted."

The girl walked down a wide, sweeping staircase and into a fork in the corridor The path they'd taken was narrow, with wide ceiling and stained glass portraits. One portrait of a short, pale prince blew Rose a kiss, which she playfully returned. Bee rolled her eyes in amusement.

"What are you such a rush for anyway?" Bee asked she tried to flatten her flyaway hair back into their usual smooth curls.

Rose, whose hair remained at fluffy, bushy mess no matter what she did, rarely bothered with her appearance; better to embrace what was unchangeable. "I need to talk to Scorpius Malfoy."

Bee sucked in a breath. "What about?"

"I want to be his friend."

"His friend?"

Rose smiled and nodded.

"Forget him." Bee snorted, amused. She thought Rose was joking. "Do you think you can introduce me to cousin, the older Potter?"

"Jamesy? Sorry, but its against my moral code to play matchmaker between people I know. That kind of thing always ends in heartbreak."

"What? How do you know that?"

"I watch tape recordings of muggle shows my mum has that she thinks I don't know about. In the stories, every time someone brings together two people that they know, they're problems. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. Its stupid to waste energy on something like that. If you like James, talk to him yourself." Rose maintained a pleasant, slightly airy tone. "Besides, you're too young to want a boyfriend."

Bee rolled her eyes, "You're so dramatic. And you have no right calling me too young when I'm older that you."

"How do you know my age?"

"Your aunt, Ginny Potter, said 'Happy Birthday' to you in one of her articles a few weeks ago. I was born in March, which makes me older."

"So says the calender." Rose shrugged nonchalantly. "I feel more like a thousand than eleven."

Bee's eyebrows came together, "You're quite strange."

"No I'm not." Rose countered, "Little brothers are strange. I should know because I have one. You can't call me strange because I'm no-one's little brother."

"Logic doesn't work that way!" Bee snorted.

Rose gazed at her fondly, "'Logic works at the discretion of the one who wields it.'" she quoted, "Geraldine Fritz-Andrew, muggle philosopher."

"Why do you talk about muggles so much? You aren't muggleborn."

"No, but my mum is. She made sure I was aware of my muggle heritage."

"You could just take Muggle Studies in your third year."

"Yes, but I won't have the authentic experience would I?"

The narrow corridor opened up suddenly. The next instant, the were in the main entrance, about to enter the Great Hall. Rose stopped to the left the huge double doors; Bee followed. Hungry, tired students were pouring in from all directions.

Bee lowered her voice, "Are they are brutish as everyone says?"

"Well, sometimes; not always, but often. Many of them are extremely wonderful, though. Most are just in-between, regular. Like wizards, actually."

"Muggles are like wizards?" Bee tried to picture it, but the was as hazy as the misted windows of the corridor.

"Wizards without magic." Rose confirmed, "And slightly different habits. But basically the same."

"Are you around muggles a lot?"

"All the time. My family lives on the muggle side of London, so they're our neighbors; one of neighbors offered to babysit us once, but we couldn't risk it, what with Hugo still doing accidental magic. I used to go a muggle school, like I told you; my brother still goes there. Its a private school."

"Private? You mean you need a invitation to attend?"

"Sort of," Rose shrugged, "But theres public school too."

"Hmm..." Bee murmured.

At last they reached the Great Hall. Most of the students had already arrived for dinner. Rose scoured the crowd for Scorpius but came up short. She moved.

"Where are you going?" Bee touched her shoulder.

"To the Gryffindor table."

"Leave it alone Rosie. he won't want to talk to you anyway."

"He'll listen." Rose insisted. "Beside he's lonely."

Bee snorted, "So? Being lonely's no big deal."

Looking deeply into Bee's eyes, Rose whispered. "You don't understand that, so I'll forgive you."

Bee made a strange noise in the back of her throat. "Whatever floats your boat." she release Rose's shoulder and slipped off, ducking into the crown until Rose could no longer make out the shape of her beautiful black hair. It hurt a little, but Bee was better off that Scorpius, so she didn't worry too much.

With a sigh, Rose spun on her heel and continued her search. None of the Gryffindors paid her much attention-they thought she was just another lost first year. By the third time she'd gone up and down the length of the table, people started turning their heads and looking at her curiously. She ignored them.

"Hey!" a sixth year boy with oily skin, black hair, and grey eyes called. "Ravenclaw's over there."

Though it was unnecessary information, she smiled and nodded; once more, Rose craned her neck around to get better look.

"Are you looking for someone?" the same boy asked.

Before she could answer, Rose spotted her cousin Albus entering the Hall someone. "I found him." she told the boy before going off to meet him.

"Hey Rose." Albus smiled at his cousin.

"Hello, Al." Rose greeted. "Leave."

Albus' smile slipped in confusion. "What?"

"L-E-A-V-E." she repeated slowly.

"Rosie." Albus whined. "Why do have to be like that?"

"I want to talk to him," she pointed to Scorpius, "in private. See you later."

Annoyed, Albus bid his Scorpius and Rose goodbye and sat at his own house's table.

Rose turned to Scorpius with a toothy smile, "I'm been looking all over for you."

"You've been looking for me?" Scorpius repeated in a slight daze.

"I'm Rose Weasley." she began, "Its nice to meet you. Would you like to be my friend?"

Scorpius wasn't sure he'd heard right, "You want to be my friend?"

Rose giggled, "You're like my cousin Freddy's parrot, Lotta. She repeats everything I say."

"Sorry," Scorpius muttered awkwardly.

"Don't be; I think its cute," she replied good-naturedly, flicking her index finger across his nose. The compliment and affectionate gesture turned said nose pink. "Do you think I'm terribly strange?"

"A bit," Scorpius admitted, "But I-I like it. I like you."

Unexpectedly, she hugged him tight. Short, quick, for an instant her felt her warm body against his, her frizzy hair brushing uncomfortably on his face. The next instant, she was back in front of him, holding him gently by the shoulders, and looking at him in a way that made him blush deeper.

"Well, I'd better go," she muttered sweetly, "Dinner's half over. Meet my in front of the Great Hall before breakfast?"

"Sure." was his low, bashful answer.

Rose released him, "Alright then. Bye." She turned to the Ravenclaw table, gaving him a quick wave over her shoulder.

When Rose, who was in fact quite late, reached her seat, all the other Ravenclaw were already half-full.

"What was that?" Bee demanded from across that table.

"I became friends with Scorpius Malfoy." was the matter-of-fact answer.

Bee persisted, "But why?"

Rose took a sip of her ginger tea. "It's best not apply questions to relationships; it makes them awfully boring and more likely to fail."

"Are you dating him?"

"Absolutely not." Rose mimphed, "My feels are far too platonic."

"Too what?"

"Platonic-named after the Greek philosopher Plato, who said-"

"Is this another muggle thing?" Bee whined.

Rose blinked, "What's wrong with muggle things?"

"Nothing," Bee answered quickly, "But they get tiring after awhile Also, why do you know so much philosophy?"

"Philosophy is about ideas." Rose said shortly, "I like ideas."

Iris Virtia, another Ravenclaw in their year, overheard the conversation. "Is Malfoy like the rest of his kind?"

"Excuse us," Rose replied politely, "But we were discussing philosophy."

"Here's a philosophical question for you," interjected a bird-like third year boy, "Do you think raised by Death Eaters makes someone a Death Eater?" Several more people added their observations and pointedly asked Rose her opinion

Rose's patience wore thin as the interrogation continued, "Some people end up just like their parents and some people end up the exact opposite, so its hard to tell."

"Its get easier to tell as you get older; you start getting wise around when you come of age." a seventh year girl with an arrogant smile.

"Alright, that's enough, all of you!" Bee waved them off. Rose spent the rest of dinner picking at her pot pie and hoping for glimpses of Scorpius. When it has time to leave, Bee patted her arm and joked, "If you want to be friends with Malfoy, its fine by me. But he does anything, I'm gonna knock his teeth out."

Rose responded with a half-hearted smile.