Chapter Two Part 2: Her Hogwarts Year: 1994
A/N: Hey, guys! Looking for some Beta readers for this story. I could use the extra eyes since I mostly write to myself. The usual people I have read my work are not available as often anymore. If anyone is interested please contact my account, and please describe your strengths and weakness as a Beta reader- Someone who is well-rounded in grammar, storyline consistency, and character development (Is experienced in reading romance.) Preferably someone 16+ age range.
"Ugh! I have nothing to wear," Rosie plopped herself on the bed.
After Dumbledore had dismissed the students back to their houses, Rosie immediately unpacked her things, in search of a dress. Rosie rummaged through her trunk, throwing all her clothes around the dorm. She found a couple of dresses packed in her trunk. They were hidden at the very bottom. They had little wear out of them. Strictly, for Slytherin gatherings– Rosie wouldn't call them parties.
The dresses were pretty, but all the fabrics were dyed in Slytherin house colors, meaning various shades of greens. Emerald greens, ivory greens, or pine, which were not appropriate choices of colors for a Back-to-school party hosted by the Gryffindors.
"Why don't you just wear the white one?" Daphne said.
"It's still a little green. Can't you see?" Rosie lifted the dress' fabric to Daphne's face. Rosie sighed, "Can't I just borrow one of yours?"
"The dress is just like a pistachio ice cream, an extremely light green and no," Daphne said.
Daphne was dressed in a thin black slip. Although, it was more like borderline basil. Rosie could barely see the green, so at least Daphne had a dress to wear that was basically not green. It was black.
Daphne picked up the pistachio dress, "My dresses don't suit you. They're too tight. Too halter top-ish. If that is even a word. You need something with a more– you know– a v-neckline," she said, "-and that is exactly what this dress provides."
Daphne pulled Rosie up from her bed and stood her in front of the standing mirror. She held the dress up to Rosie's silhouette. She made a hum of approval, "This is exactly why Finkle helps you pick out your wardrobe. She knows what looks good on you. Now go put on the damn dress before I end up changing my mind about going."
Rosie slipped her dress on. She hated to admit it, but Daphne was right. The dress did look better after she put it on. She just wished that she had packed something else. Anything else would have been better than this. Pack more dresses. Rosie kept that as a mental note for next year. That way, she would not have been caught in a mess like this again.
Rosie let her hair fall loose at the back. She combed the tangles out, straightening it out in the process. Meanwhile, Daphne had her hair tied up in a ponytail. Nothing fancy. Rosie had asked Daphne to help her with her makeup, which she did. Daphne's makeup skills were magic. A little mascara here and some tinted lip balm there. It was the tiny changes that made a difference, and Daphne executed that perfectly. Daphne even let Rosie borrow her nude, strappy heels.
Rosie looked at the clock on the bed's side table, "It's time to go. We're running late, and Tiffany is probably waiting for us."
"Got it." Daphne grabbed her wand and slipped it into her dress' most-convenient pocket.
"Do you really need to take your wand?" Rosie asked, tucking her own wand carefully away in her trunk, "It's just a party."
"You'd be surprised," Daphne said, leaving the room.
"Well, when you say it like that, it makes me nervous," Rosie called out to her.
"Just do whatever you want," Daphne shouted. Her voice was getting quieter in the distance.
So, Rosie took her wand back out of her trunk just in case. She didn't need to actually use it. It was a safety measure.
The two girls walked their way through the Slytherin common room, trying to look as natural as possible. They had their dresses hidden underneath their cloaks. There was quite a plethora of Slytherins chatting by the fireplace. Just the right amount to get away with certain things. Rosie and Daphne could get away without being noticed.
The Slytherin common room was deceiving. The windows were icy-cold, and the room was accented with black, crushed velvet and leather. Layers and layers of cool-toned fabrics draped around the room, and silver hardware. It didn't exactly seem the most inviting, but Rosie thought that that was not true at all. Despite, the chilling interior, the common room was classy– true pureblood design. It felt like a winter wonderland, and with the lake looming over the the Slytherin house, it was as if they were living underwater underneath a frozen lake. The lake was like a glass-stained window, lighting the room with a green tinge. The common room never failed to wow Rosie.
Professor Snape was strict with curfews. No surprise there. Snape set the rules and the Slytherins followed his lead. No questions asked. If it were a special occasion, Snape would let the students do what they wanted, but he liked to keep a perfect track record. A perfect track record meant more house points, and how glorious was that? With tonight being the first night back at Hogwarts, Snape tended to be laxer with students staying up. If you lost points at the beginning of the year, you could make up for it later, but as school drew longer, it was too late to fix your problems. That was Snape's opinion. Tonight was the only day Rosie and Daphne could get off scot-free with a one-hundred percent guarantee.
"Where are you two going?"
Rosie and Daphne stopped in their tracks. Pansy was in her nightgown, her hair rolled up in curlers, and her face clean of foundation or blush.
Pansy gasped, "You're going to sneak out, aren't you!?"
Rosie's heart sank. She noticed.
"Pansy, please, you can't tell anyone," Rosie pleaded, "It's our first day back, and you know how Snape is. We can only go today."
"Yeah, sod off, Pansy," Daphne whispered.
Pansy frowned, squinting her eyes in Daphne's direction for a couple of seconds, "Rosie, you never break the rules."
"I know. I know, but I really want to go," Rosie said.
Pansy went quiet. Then she sighed. She rolled her eyes, "Fine, you better not be out all night because I have to cover for you and Daphne here for roll call."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Rosie squeezed Pansy in a tight hug.
"Yeah, yeah," Pansy waved her hand, "You better have fun."
"You're, the best," Daphne grinned.
"Sod off," Pansy smiled. She pushed the two off to go enjoy the fun.
For a school filled with a bunch of teens, Hogwarts was abnormally quiet– even if it was at night. The candles were out, and the halls were pitch black dark. The ghosts were out and about, roaming around freely. Either the students were asleep, or they were up to no good.
They were probably up to no good, which was correct because Rosie and Daphne were up to no good.
Rosie and Daphne scaled through Hogwarts as quietly as humanly possible. Rosie was too afraid to even breathe, so she kept her hand over her mouth, worried that someone would hear her. As they walked down the halls, Daphne led the way, and Rosie trailed closely behind. They had to be quick because there were to be class prefects patrolling about. The Slytherin prefects were prone to tattle-tale, so Daphne and Rosie had to sneak around carefully near Slytherin house. Getting past the dungeons was the most crucial section, so they needed to be smart. They could not risk getting caught.
While Daphne scoped out in front, she used her wand to light the way. Whereas Rosie made sure no one was following from behind. Daphne would stop behind each corner to peak scope out the area. She would walk out first, and once the coast was clear, she signaled Rosie to follow. The system worked perfectly, and they left at the correct time that Tiffany had suggested. A quarter till midnight.
Then out of the corner of her eye, Rosie had caught a trail of students making their way toward the Gryffindor tower. Rosie tapped on Daphne's shoulder, making her housemate turn around. What? Daphne mouthed. Rosie pointed at the other students, and the two girls made a bee-line toward the other students.
Rosie and Daphne followed the students to the changing stairs. It seemed like every student was taking a different course to Gryffindor tower. The stairs would stop and a group of students would get on. Rosie and Daphne had to move fast. Their timing had to be perfect. It was as Tiffany said: get on the first staircase from the left, get off, go right, wait for it the stair to stop twice, and get onto the next staircase on the third stop. It was confusing, but Rosie had memorized the course of action all throughout dinner.
"There you guys are!" Tiffany smiled. "I was starting to wonder what was taking you guys so long." Tiffany was waiting for the two of them at the top of the last staircase, "The Gryffindor common rooms are this way."
"Pansy had to cover for us," Rosie said.
Tiffany raised one of her eyebrows in questioning.
"See, exactly. Pansy's a little snitch, so if you don't see us tomorrow in class, assume the worst," Daphne laughed.
"Alright, Pansy's a tattle, but she'd never really do it," Rosie said firmly.
"Okay, there's actually some truth in that," Daphne admitted, "Pansy's pretty lenient when it comes to Rosie, so maybe you'll see us alive and well tomorrow."
"I've got my fingers crossed for you two," Tiffany crossed her fingers in front of her friends.
"Really appreciate that," Daphne went along.
"C'mon, girls. Enough of that," Rosie complained.
"Patience, Rosie. The party is just beginning," Tiffany started, leading the group further down the hall to a portrait. "For someone who was hesitant to come, you sure are jittery."
"It's called nerves," Rosie pointed out plainly.
Tiffany stopped at a large portrait with a fat lady on it. She was dressed in a white toga with fruit and vines entangled in her tight curls
"Password?" The fat lady asked.
"Pumpkin juice," Tiffany answered.
Then the fat lady smiled and her portrait swung open, revealing a stone walkway.
"The passwords change, so don't even bother to memorize it," Tiffany said as she led Rosie and Daphne through the opening, "Although, who thought it was a good idea to use a password to keep out intruders?"
"Speak for yourself," Daphne said, "That Ravenclaw shit where you have to solve a riddle. That's beyond me."
"Yeah. Didn't you say last year it took you three hours to get in even with help from other students," Rosie questioned.
Tiffany put her hands up in surrender, "That's fair, but why are we arguing about this when we're about to party?
Rosie had never felt anything like it. The room. Heavy in scarlet and gold. Tinged in a peachy shimmer. The room glowed like an ongoing hearth, and smelled like a rainy day in, cozied up in a fleece blanket. The furnace burned its oakwood logs, shining like treasure. The sound of student chatter and crackling fire embers mingled together. Tables filled with punch and desserts were set off to the side, making an open space in the middle for the carpeted dance floor.
Girls wore their simple dresses as the boys had stuck to casual button-ups and dark slacks. One thing Rosie liked. The lack of house colors. It made Hogwarts seem 'normal'. Hogwarts was by no means 'normal' at all, but this was a breath of fresh air. In the end, there was no such thing as split houses. Behind the house colors, they were all just regular, hormone-raging teens, having a little party.
For the past few minutes, the gramophone had been glitching. The music was choppy, and the needle kept scratching the record. A few students were trying to fix that. It looked like it was not going well. One of the boys, his hair was standing up, erect like acupuncture needles, and his face covered in exploded soot and ashes. He was tampering with the knobs on the device.
Rosie counted at least more than fifty students attending this little soiree.
"Ooh, food," Tiffany did a shimmy to the dessert tables. She grabbed Rosie's hand to follow, while Daphne tagged after them.
Tiffany grabbed one of each dessert and piled them up onto a cheap, paper plate provided by the party. Rosie swore Tiffany had a separate stomach for dessert and dinner. Even after the Welcoming Feast, she still had room for more. Tiffany scooped herself a cup of toxic-pink punch. It was like a neon, flamingo pink, the type of pink that would burn your insides and throat. How Tiffany could stomach that down was beyond Rosie's comprehension.
"Want some?" Tiffany asked, shoving the cup into Rosie's hand.
"Sure." Rosie sniffed the drink's aroma and took a small sip. Rosie wanted to hurl. The punch reeked a pungent taste of pure sugar. It was like a combination of sour gummy worms, Gatorade, and granulated baking-sugar compressed into a liquid. Rosie could feel a pimple rising up on her forehead from such a small intake of sugar.
"Um, you can have the rest," Rosie said. She shoved the cup back to Tiffany.
"Alright then, more for me," Tiffany gulped half of the drink down.
"Hey, you should slow down," Daphne insisted.
"Oh, hogwash. I'll be fine," Tiffany dismissed.
"Daphne's right. You should slow down," Rosie repeated.
"Whatever," Tiffany said, "I'm having seconds."
Rosie made sure to monitor Tiffany out of the corner of her eye. She nabbed a corner piece of brownie onto her plate. It was the only thing that looked appetizing in Rosie's eyes. She still felt absolutely stuffed from the welcoming feast.
"You think they have any sticky toffee pudding?" Daphne said. "I've been craving it ever since I saw it at dinner earlier."
"I have the last one right here for you, milady." A boy came up to Daphne. He was shorter than Daphne, right below her eye-line, but to be fair, Daphne was on the taller side. The boy's skin was dark, and his black locks were tied into dreadlocks. "The name's Lee. Lee Jordan."
"Well, thanks for the pudding, Jordan," Daphne said curtly. She was about to grab the plate from the boy when he pulled it back from her grasp. Daphne's mouth dropped, "Excuse-me?" She snapped.
"In exchange for the dessert, you first have to give me a kiss on the cheek," the boy smirked.
Daphne narrowed her eyes. "What-did-you-just-say?"
"Just one kiss. Right here," Jordan tapped on his cheek, and Daphne slapped the plate of pudding out of Jordan's hand and walked away, "As if!"
"B-But Milady, just give me a chance!" Jordan ran off after Daphne.
"What-the-hell-was-that?!" Tiffany slurred, her words tied together, and for Tiffany who was abnormally loud, this was on an obnoxious level.
A fit of laughter. Another boy. He was taller and paler than Lee, and he had this flaming, red hair you could spot from a mile away. His lightly freckled-face crinkled as he stifled back a roar of wild howls.
"What's so funny?" Rosie frowned.
The boy could not contain his fit of laughter, "Your friend is in for a real treat," he said, wiping the stray tear running from his eye.
"George!" Tiffany slapped the boy's arm. "I can't believe you would put Jordan in harm's way that like. Oh, merlin, I better go help that poor boy." Tiffany followed after the train wreck that was Joran pestering Daphne.
"Someone's a little loopy," the ginger-haired boy laughed in Tiffany's direction.
"What do you mean by that?" Rosie asked.
The boy leaned into Rosie and he cupped on of his hands around her ear to whisper to her, "I spiked the punch," he said.
Rosie's eyes widened, "No way."
"Yes way," the redhead grinned in response. His smile was as bright like stars, "She should know better than to drink so uncautiously- if that's even a word- at a Gryfindor party."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rosie frowned, getting all up in his face, "She could seriously get hurt!" She could smell the scent of sugar candies coming off of him.
"Woah, take it easy. It's just a joke!" The boy said, "See look." He pointed at Tiffany. Her footing was sloppy, and she was hanging all over that Lee kid. Daphne had her hands covering her face in embarrassment, while that Lee kid was still trying to talk her up.
"Okay, it's a little funny," Rosie crossed her arms.
"See, it's a harmless joke, and if it really bothers you that much, I'll take full responsibility if anything goes wrong," the boy promised.
"They do look ridiculous," Rosie admitted.
"As I said. Harmless. Just making up some entertainment for the rest of us since the bloody music isn't working. Also, I didn't catch what your name was?"
"I didn't tell you."
"Well," the boy leaned onto the dessert table, in a casual fashion, "The name is George. Geroge Weasley."
"Rosie."
"That's a pretty name-"
Rosie went into hyper-focus. She was noticing everything. Every little detail about George. His sharp jawline, and his soft lashes. It was making Rosie feel extremely self-conscious. She could have put more effort into her outfit tonight, and preferably, not a dress that made her look like a pistachio ice cream. Even the way he leaned his head down to hear her made her jittery. Rosie twiddled with her fingers to distract herself.
Turns out, the legs of the dessert table were so weak that when George leaned onto it for too long, it collapsed from underneath him– hard candies and cupcakes spilling all over the place. George's face turned as pink as that toxic punch. An upperclassman girl scolded George- "Excuse me, I worked all night on that table!' -and spelled the table back to its previous nature.
It took every bit of Rosie's being not to laugh. It would have been rude.
"Why can't you be more like your twin, George?" The upperclassman retorted, and when she was satisfied enough with her berating, she left.
"You know what. Fred. Call me Fred," George combed his finger through his hair.
Rosie broke into laughter. She laughed so hard that she burst into tears. She was out of breath, leaving George utterly confused. She had never heard of something so ridiculous in her life. She had never seen a person with so much confidence shrink in such a short amount of time. Rosie blinked and it was as if George shrunk a whole foot, and George was pretty tall.
"You're funny," Rosie smiled.
"Should have known better," George scratched his head. His ears were steaming.
Rosie shook her head, "It is not your fault. You would not have known if the table was going to give out or not."
"You're right. Then I take it back. You can call me George. Unless, you wanna go with Gred, or Forge."
"I like George," Rosie said.
"Then should I call you Rosie?" George asked. "Or should I call you by your last name? Miss- what is your last name?"
Rosie felt a tug on her hand, and she turned around. A fuming Daphne. Her face angry with a tired look.
"Woah, what happened?" Rosie noticed Daphne's dress. It was a mess. A splatter of caramel and whipped cream patterns splashed onto the dress.
"Don't-want-to-talk-about-it," Daphne answered, "Leaving. Now." She left in the direction of the entrance to the common room.
Rosie turned back to George, "I'm so sorry. I have to go."
"No, go ahead. Your friend looked a little distressed. It was nice meeting you," George gave Rosie a slight nod.
"I'll see you around." And deep down, Rosie hoped this was not the last time she was going to see George Weasley.