CHAPTER FOUR

BACK TO HOGWARTS

Rose climbed into the cramped Ministry car, crowded for the first time by the substantially greater amount of luggage. She waved goodbye to Gran and Granddad from the window as the car pulled out of the driveway and towards London. They followed the Potter car most of the way there, and after a while she got the familiar headache yet again.

Are you on your way yet Weasley?

Yeah, are you?

Yeah. Your Aunt Luna's… nice I guess. Little odd though. Her twins are completely mad too.

She's not my aunt… not really. But yeah, you kinda get used to it.

Well, until I do, I'd rather talk to you.

We really have to stop doing this, Scorpius.

How else am I going to talk to you?

Buy a cell phone. You've got trust fund money now.

I don't know how to use those things. And don't they not work at Hogwarts anyway?

Lucy's pretty close to fixing that, I think.

Rose swore she could almost hear him shrug. Maybe. Fine, then. See you at King's Cross.

Yeah.

"You okay, Rose? You just kinda spaced out," Hugo said, tapping her on the shoulder. She smiled quickly.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay…oh, did I show you? Granddad said he could fix my iPod so it'd work at Hogwarts, look!" Rose watched as Hugo pulled out his iPod from his pocket, which looked basically the same except for the addition of a large battery glued onto the back.

"I don't think that's going to work, Hugo," Rose said, smiling. She pulled out her wand and touched the tip to the iPod. The screen immediately went static and then black. Hugo groaned. "It's all right, Lucy might be able to fix it for you."

"Or you could try reading," their mother said from the front seat pointedly.

"I read, Mum," Hugo insisted.

"Quidditch books," Rose scoffed.

"Don't listen to her, Hugo," their dad told him. "Quidditch books are brilliant literature. And Ginny writes them for a living, you know, Hermione."

"I know that, Ronald, I'm not trying to insult Ginny…"

"I'm joking, love."

Hugo rolled his eyes and whispered to Rose, "Merlin, I'm glad you're not leaving me alone with them again."

"You were with Lily," Rose reminded him.

"Lily was in her room with books or playing with Lorcan all the time," he muttered.

"True."

When they arrived at King's Cross, immediately they heard Lily's voice shrieking at her brothers from somewhere else in the car park. "But I don't even want to be in Gryffindor!"

"Oh, Lord, here we go," Rose's mum sighed, shaking her head, and Hugo ran right up to his cousin.

"Why wouldn't you want to be in Gryffindor? It's the best! Everyone's in Gryffindor!"

"Exactly!" Lily exclaimed, glaring at James, who smiled back.

"Oh," Hugo said, nodding. "Right. Well, if you're not in Gryffindor, I'll… we could go on walks or something. Or you could join chess club with me!"

"But I always beat you."

"Well, I could still beat you someday!"

"Hey, Rosie, isn't it great they're at Hogwarts this year?" James asked. He was smiling, but it looked more like he was in pain.

"Oh, definitely," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Be nice to your brother, please," her mother sighed as they walked towards the barrier.

"I will, Mum," Rose sighed.

"Is Scorpius here yet?" Al asked as they ran for the platform. Rose shrugged, and they emerged on Platform 9 3/4 as the whistle blew as a warning. Lily and James followed with their parents and finally Hugo and Rose's parents. Her mom walked up to her and smiled.

"Got everything? Hogsmeade slip? Your broomstick?"

"Yes, Mum," she said, smiling. She tugged slightly on the chain of the Time Turner around her neck, hidden for the most part underneath her jumper. Her mom hugged her and Rose saw Scorpius come through the barrier with Luna, who waved. "Bye, Mum. I'll write."

"Look after Hugo. And try not to get him mixed up in anything," her mum told her sternly. She nodded, smiling.

Ginny seemed to overhear them and said, "Same to you, James. Keep Lily out of your mischief."

"I will, Mum, I'm the responsible Prefect now, remember?" James snickered. After a stern look from his mother, he said, "I know, I know, I won't get her killed, I promise."

Rose hugged her mother again and started for the door of the train. "Have a good term, love!" she called.

Rose stood in the doorway and watched her father help Hugo up, saying, "Remember, if you're in Slytherin just don't tell me, I don't want to know."

"Dad," Hugo groaned, and their father smiled.

"Have fun, guys. See you at Christmas. Remember, you do actually have to come home this time, with the wedding and all."

"Bye, Dad," Rose said as the whistle blew again. "Come on, Hugo, let's go find the others." They ventured into the train and after some searching, found Al, Lily, Roxanne, Emma, and Scorpius.

"Where's James?" Rose asked as they sat down.

"Prefect's meeting," Roxanne said, rolling her eyes. "Molly came round looking a minute or so ago. Twat. How he got picked, who knows."

"Now Molly as Head Girl, that's not a surprise at all," Al said.

"You've got that right," Rose muttered, sitting down next to Scorpius. Hugo sat next to her and after a while, started asking so many questions about Hogwarts that Rose seriously contemplated pretending to be asleep more than once before they reached the castle. The carriages pulled by invisible creatures and the first year boats prompted another whole round of questions, and Rose was extremely grateful when he had to go cross the lake with Hagrid.

When they entered the Entrance Hall, Rose noticed that there was a good amount of people staring at their group. "Er, what's going on?" she asked. She was used to some staring, being Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley's daughter and all, but this seemed like an abnormal number of people.

"Scorp!" a very high-pitched, unfortunately familiar voice shouted from the other end of the room.

Lexa Rae came beelining for them and Al muttered, "Oh, no," and he, Roxanne and Emma made a quick escape into the Great Hall. Lexa shot a glare at Rose when she reached them and turned to Scorpius, instantly looking concerned.

"I heard you left Malfoy Manor," she said. "You could still go back, you know. Just because you made one mistake—"

"It wasn't a mistake, Lexa, leave me alone," he muttered.

"You can't be serious. You're throwing away so much and you don't even care—"

"No, not really. Could you please go… I don't know, somewhere else."

She huffed indignantly and rolled her eyes. "You're kind of an idiot, you know? I can't believe you." She stomped away and Scorpius sighed loudly in relief.

"Maybe she'll stop talking to me," he said hopefully. Rose noticed that Professor McGonagall was walking towards her and hushed Scorpius as she reached the two of them.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said, "it's come to my intention that the… additional funding from your grandfather has ceased."

"Yes, ma'am, though if you ask him at this point, I'm not exactly his grandson anymore," Scorpius said pointedly, and she nodded slowly.

"I see. Well, I seem to have… no choice," she said, and smiled a little bit, "but to return you to your originally assigned housing situation."

Scorpius grinned. "Really, Professor?"

"Yes. I believe Professor Rudomin has extra Gryffindor uniforms if you should require them." She turned to Rose. "Oh, and welcome back to Hogwarts, Miss Weasley."

"Thank you, Professor! Come on, Rose," Scorpius said, and they left quickly for the Feast.

When they arrived at the Gryffindor table, they found James, Roxanne, and Harry betting on Hugo and Lily's Houses. "Five Galleons says Hugo's a Hufflepuff," James snickered. They all looked up as Scorpius sat down next to Rose. Rose gave them a look and Roxanne nodded.

"Er, hey, Malfoy," she said, as casually as she could probably manage. "New House?"

"Back to my old one, actually," he said. "My—er, the Malfoys stopped bribing the school."

Roxanne grinned. "Right."

The first years entered with Flitwick and the noise in the Hall quieted considerably. The Sorting began not long after that. Rose didn't pay quite as much attention as last year, but some names did catch her ears.

"Creevey, Colin." She watched as Benjamin's younger brother became a very quick Gryffindor and one of the several teenage ghosts that sat in the corners looked more proud than anyone else in the whole room. "Goyle, Vincent," was a Slytherin like his brother, and the very public trial of his father last month made for much gossip about his Sorting. "Jordan, Jenna," was called, and Rose turned to Al, confused.

"I thought Alana said she had a brother," she whispered to Al.

"She does. His name's Tyler," Al said plainly, and Rose heard Gryffindor being called almost instantly. Alana cheered from a few seats down and waved at Rose.

Rose leaned down the table and whispered, "Your brother, right?"

Alana nodded. "Yeah. Mum didn't take it well, so he had to get the girl uniform. He's planning to talk to Rudomin." Rose nodded, finally understanding, and clapped as Tyler hurried to where Alana was sitting.

"Potter, Lily." Lily walked up to the Hat and it seemed to take a few minutes, before calling out, "Ravenclaw!" Lily grinned and skipped down to the Ravenclaw table, running right for Lucy, and James and Al cheered loudly with the House. A couple Muggleborns joined Hufflepuff and Gryffindor before Flitwick called, "Weasley, Hugo."

Rose watched her brother walk quickly up to the Hat, looking around nervously at the Hall. She watched his relief when the Hat only took a few seconds before saying, "Gryffindor!" Their whole House cheered and Hugo hurried over to sit next to her and Scorpius. McGonagall approached the podium as they finished their meals and the room eventually quieted down.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she told them. "I wish you all the best for the start of this term. A few changes have come to the school over the break. First of all, I would like to welcome Mr. Cepheus Barton, our new Potions master." Polite clapping came from most of the Houses, and quieted quickly. "In addition to this, a few security measures have been put into place. Due to recent events, there will now be two Aurors stationed in the school for our protection. There will also be routine searches put into place when leaving and returning to the school from Hogsmeade."

"That seems a bit much," Rose whispered. "Aurors?"

Al shrugged. "It'll probably be helpful if… something else happens."

"Yeah, but we won't have any fun," James complained. "Forget sneaking out."

"That didn't exactly end well last term," Al muttered.

"These measures will no doubt ensure the safety of the school so education can remain the priority," McGonagall said, "and I expect all of you to follow these procedures to ensure a safe term for all. For now, you are all dismissed, and term will begin tomorrow morning. Prefects, please lead the first years up to your Houses."

"That's me," James groaned, standing up, and along with a blonde girl at the end of the table, started shouting, "First years, follow me!" Rose, Al, and Scorpius followed James and the first years up to the tower, and watched as he said, sounding frankly a little bored, "Girls on the left, boys on the right." Hugo rushed up the boys' staircase with Tyler, waving to Rose. Tyler came back down a little while later, looking annoyed.

"Er, James Potter, right?" he asked, and James nodded. "I'm Tyler Jordan, my trunk isn't in my room. And there's no bed."

James looked at him, confused, and then said, "Oh, you're Jenna, right?"

"Tyler," he said, immediately glaring up at him until he backed up a little and nodded.

"Right, well, I think you should talk to Professor Rudomin, he's Head of House, but I, er, I think you should just go up to the… girls' dorm for the night at least."

Tyler stomped away and started up the girls' stairs. Almost immediately, the stairs turned into the slide and he fell to the bottom. "What…?" he asked breathlessly.

"Boys can't go up the girls' stairs," Alana said smugly from the corner. James nodded and looked around helplessly. Rudomin entered the portrait hole and Tyler ran right to him.

"Professor Rudomin? My stuff ended up in the girls' room by mistake," he said, shooting a glare back at James. "Also, I was wondering if you had any boy uniforms?"

Rudomin nodded. "Sure, let's go into my office, I'll get the elves to move your luggage." They left, and Rose looked around and saw Dylan approaching Scorpius.

"Hey, er, Malfoy," he said quietly.

"Dylan," Scorpius said coolly.

"I heard what you did… er, I just wanted to say sorry. You're… not really who I thought you were," he said. "Truce?" He held out his hand, and Scorpius shook it. "Well… see you two in class." He walked off quickly and Scorpius smiled at Rose.

"I think I like this year so far."