Three - Back to Hogwarts

We meet Rosie's classmates, who brainstorm what possible excitement awaits them at Hogwarts.

Chapter 3 - Back to Hogwarts

“Did you remember everything?”

“Yes, Nana.”

“Your spellcheck quill? All your books? Your Dragonhide gloves?”

“Yes, Nana, I remembered them.”

“Because some of those potions you work with are quite nasty.”

“Nan!” Rosie laughed, “It’s my seventh year doing this, I’m sure I packed everything.”

The thick, smoky air of Platform Nine and Three Quarters milled through the crowd.  Rosie stood on the platform, burdened with her enormous trunk, and caught in a fierce hug by her Nana. The crowd swarmed with adults, students, and children alike, all rushing to and fro, with the Hogwarts Express steam engine towering over the entire scene.

“I can’t believe it’s your last year, Rosie. Promise me you’ll be safe - that you won’t…won’t do anything reckless.”

Rosie laughed again. “Nana, I’ve never had a detention before in my life, I’m not about to start now.”

“I know, I know, I just meant…”

“Alright, Molly, that’ll do; the train’s leaving soon, and you’re not the only one saying goodbye.” Rosie’s Papa put a hand on her Nana’s shoulder, and she could feel her lungs begin to inflate again as her Nana’s vice-like hug was released. She gave Rosie one last kiss on the cheek and backed away, reaching in her bag for a handkerchief. Rosie seemed to be the only one to inherit her Nana’s height (or lack thereof), as everyone else in company could comfortably look right over the tops of their heads.

It was one week after Rosie’s trip to Diagon Ally, and the Hogwarts Express was waiting to take her, Albus, Hugo, and Lily back to school. In their group was the four of them, Rosie’s Nana and Papa, her Dad, and her Aunt Ginny - Albus was the only one there without the Weasley-red hair. Rosie’s eyes periodically lingered toward the billowing clouds of steam  running down the length of the train, inside of which she knew Scorpius was likely waiting for her. She knew she must be patient for just a little more, though, for to cut short a ceremonial family goodbye was tantamount to ruining Christmas.

“Have fun, Rosie,” her Papa said as he hugged her goodbye, “be safe.”

Rosie returned the hug. “Bye, Papa.”

He let go and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small package, wrapped in paper. “A little something for your last train ride off,” he said with a wink and a grin.

Rosie grinned back. “Thanks, Papa.”

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew this year, OK, Rosie?” Her Aunt Ginny had grabbed her from behind in a tight hug. Then she whispered in her ear. “Your dad used to try to bully me about who I dated, too. Just kick him hard in the shins until he stops.”

Rosie laughed in surprise. She turned and gave her aunt a proper hug. “OK, Aunt Ginny.”

“Speaking of…” Aunt Ginny said mostly to herself, and looked around at Rosie’s Dad, who had finished saying bye to Hugo, and seemed to be hesitating to return to the main group, determined to keep waving at the back of his son’s head. In the week since their trip to Diagon Ally, Rosie and her Dad had managed to keep their distance from each other, determined to not fight again, but also determined to not be the one to apologize. “The git.” Aunt Ginny marched up to Rosie’s Dad and gave the back of his head a hard flick.

“Oi!” Rosie could hear her Dad’s voice carry over the steadily rising volume of commotion on the platform. Her Dad and Aunt had a quick, quieter argument, broken by her Dad’s voice again. “I know, Ginny, get off it!”

Her Dad left Aunt Ginny behind as he approached Rosie. Her brother and cousins were now on board. Rosie wished her Nana and Papa could also leave and give them some privacy, but they continued to stand happily next to her, most likely unaware of the tension suddenly twanging across the platform.

“Rosie,” her Dad said once he was close enough, “be good in school. I know you’re not…but you’re smart, I know you’ll…”

Rosie was growing less comfortable by the second. She wished her Dad would just nod and say bye so she could get on the train. Then he gave her a hug. She wasn’t sure why, but it made her extremely sad. She hugged him back and took a steadying breath.

“Everyone wants you to be safe this year,” he continued quietly in her ear, “but I know you can do anything you put your mind to.”

With that, Rosie’s Dad let her go, and she made her way onto the train, feeling a bit confused. Why was everyone afraid Rosie was going to get herself into trouble this year? She was still a bit mad at her Dad for not apologizing when he had the chance, but she supposed what he had said was the best she was going to get.

Once she was on the train, and making her way down the cars, the familiar excitement of returning to Hogwarts cleared all these troublesome thoughts from her mind. The narrow hallway, dimly lit by the tiny light fixtures used to make her feel claustrophobic, but now they meant she was cozy and safe.

And then she felt the tip of a wand press against the small of her back.

Rosie stopped dead in her tracks, realizing that the hallway was completely empty, save for the familiar lilting voice whispering in her ear. “What do you think you’re doing on my train, Weasley?”

“You gonna kick me off?” Rosie asked, looking straight ahead.

“I should,” her voice continued in a menacing melody, “I really should…Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment?”

Rosie laughed. “Probably about three months, since we waved bye to each other at the start of summer break?”

There was a slight pause. Then, “Well aren’t you cute?” Rosie felt the wand tip press harder against her back. “BANG!”

Rosie jumped at the word shouted in her ear, and immediately fell into a fit of giggles. She spun around and threw her arms around her best friend - Daisy Macmillan.

“Good to see you, Rosie,” Daisy said, returning her friend’s hug.

“You too, I missed you!” Rosie let go and took a hop back to get a better look. Daisy looked about the same as she had at the end of their Sixth Year: her golden-blonde hair hung just a bit lower than shoulder-length, and her thin, curvy frame rested with perfect posture, like always.

“How was Egypt?” Rosie asked, but Daisy held up a hand for silence, and tilted her head up ever so slightly in her usual pompous expression.

“Sorry, Rosie, I can’t stay and chat, you know.”

Rosie rolled her eyes with a grin. “Right, you need to go to the Prefect’s Carriage.”

“Correct, but not for the same reason you might think,” and Daisy flashed a truly devilish grin, waiting for Rosie to guess an answer.

One did occur to her. “Daisy, you’re not Head Girl?!” Daisy’s grin widened into absolute joy as she bobbed her head in a jubilant nod. Rosie shrieked and hopped forward, pulling Daisy into a hug again. “Congratulations, Daisy!”

As they separated, Rosie saw that Daisy had fastened her devilish grin back on. “And I heard through the grape vine that a certain Mr. Malfoy is Head Boy.”

Rosie felt some of her enthusiasm deflate. “You behave yourself,” she warned.

Daisy wrinkled her nose and winked. “I will if he does.”

The two of them jumped as the train lurched forward a quarter of a meter, followed by the long, high-pitched whistle, signaling the departure of the Hogwarts Express. With an elegant twirl, Daisy turned around and frolicked toward the front of the train.

“Bye, Rosie, I’ll see you at the feast!”

And then Rosie was alone. She picked up her luggage again, and continued to make her way down the train, mostly sure that Daisy’s threat was just a joke. She was very happy for both Scorpius and Daisy. Head Girl was never an ambition of hers, and yet, not for the first time, Rosie found herself a bit jealous of Daisy.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a compartment door sliding open as she passed it. The familiar head of Albus poked out and smiled at her. “Rosie, in here, we saved you a seat.”

Albus helped Rosie hoist her trunk onto an overhead shelf, and Rosie unbuckled a side compartment, letting Beolet leap out into the spacious room. Finally able to sit down, Rosie rested onto the comfortable seat, facing the other occupants.

There was Albus, of course, his green eyes like two emerald beacons. Next to him was his best friend, Nathan Finch-Fletchley, with his dark curly hair. On the other side of the car sat Delilah Corner, another close friend of Rosie and Daisy, who had jet black hair and dark brown eyes.

As Beolet hopped up onto Rosie’s lap, Albus said “Great news about Daisy and Scorpius, huh, Rosie?.”

“What do you mean?” Rosie said a bit more urgently than she intended.

“They’re Head Boy and Girl,” Albus answered.

“Oh,” Rosie felt a bit stupid for her reaction, “right, yeah, it’s really great!”

“Your Dad can’t complain about you two dating now, right?” Delilah said cautiously.

“Yes he can,” Rosie said, her mood very quickly dropping.

“There was, uh,” Albus began, choosing his words delicately, “a worst-case scenario-type situation in Diagon Ally last week with Rosie, Scorpius, and both their dads.”

             

    Nathan let out a low whistle. Delilah pulled her knees to her chest and made her customary look of despair. Rosie could feel her face growing hot; she wasn’t in the mood to relive the last week of her summer break.

“So, my parents have been acting like I’m gonna try to wrestle a Troll at school this year or something,” Albus said after clearing his throat loudly. Rosie could feel him watching her face carefully as she looked out the window at the passing London scenery. “They keep telling me to be safe, and to not be reckless.”

“You did get a week’s detention last year for growing a pair of thrupney bits onto that Fifth Year boy,” Nathan interjected with a grin. This made everyone in the car laugh. “I don’t think I’d ever seen James more proud of you.”

Albus shrugged humbly. “That Fifth Year bloke was cheating on Lily with that Carter girl. And anyway, Mum thought it was brilliant. She sent Uncle Percy a Howler telling him off for not overruling the detentions.” Albus and Rosie’s Uncle Percy - or Professor Weasley, as he insisted they call him - had been Headmaster of Hogwarts for the last six years. “He, uh, didn’t appreciate it.”

Rosie giggled. “No?” She adjusted an imaginary tie on her neck and adopted her Uncle Percy’s pompous voice. “At 41 years old, I became the youngest Hogwarts Headmaster in several centuries; I have far more important things on my mind than my little sister trying to tell me how to run my school.”

Albus laughed. “Exactly, so I don’t think Mum would be concerned about anything like that…No, it sounds like they think I’m going to do something dangerous.”

Rosie remembered all the cryptic warnings she had received on the platform as she was saying goodbye to her family. “Yeah, now you mention it, Al, everyone was acting like I was thinking of doing something dangerous, too. Your Mom told me to not bite off more than I could chew.”

“A bit unfair of them, I think,” Nathan said. “Weren’t both your parents slaying Giants and Dementors when they were your age?”

“Not that you’d want to do that anyway, right?” Delilah cut in, looking like she was afraid Rosie was about to jump up and begin a dangerous quest.

“Of course not. But…” Nathan’s mention of Dementors had jogged Rosie’s memory to last week. Her confrontation with her Dad and Mr. Malfoy had eclipsed everything else from her trip to Diagon Ally, but she suddenly remembered the conversation she overheard between her Uncle Harry and that huge, foreign Wizard.

“But what?” Delilah tugged on Rosie’s sleeve, as though to keep her from jumping out of the train.

Rosie realized Albus and Nathan were also looking at her anxiously. She said to Albus “Do you remember that big, tall Wizard your dad met with at the Leaky Cauldron last week?”

Albus nodded. “Yeah, Yuri Biryukova. Dad mentioned he was the Head of the Auror Office for the Magical Directorate of Russia.”

“The Magical what?” Nathan said.

“The Magical Directorate. It’s like Russia’s Ministry of Magic. What about him?”

And so Rosie told Albus, Nathan, and Delilah about the conversation she overheard.

“Dementors…” Delilah said a bit airily.

“At Hogwarts?” Nathan said, voice cracking slightly.

“Wouldn’t it be Dad’s job to take care of something like that?” Albus said with a hint of pride in his voice.

Rosie shrugged while she scratched behind Beloet’s ears . “The way he was talking, it didn’t sound like he was even going to be involved, like it was that Yuri-guy’s responsibility, and he had to take care of it himself.”

“But why would he expect someone from a continent away to patrol Hogwarts? Seems a bit out of the way, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe the Dementors are FROM Russia?” Nathan offered. “And Yuri needs to wrangle them back where they came from?”

“I don’t think that’s it, either,” Rosie said. “Uncle Harry was very clear that Yuri and his department would be patrolling the grounds all year. That doesn’t sound like they’re there to wrangle anything, just to keep the school safe…And then there’s this deadline he mentioned involving something that Mr. Shacklebolt would need to cancel on if the Dementors weren’t taken care of.”

“Maybe the deadline was the start of term itself,” Nathan said.

“But Yuri said it would be a financial disaster, and I doubt anything like cancelling term at Hogwarts would affect him financially.”

The four of them had fun discussing the possible machinations of Yuri Biryukova and Uncle Harry for most of the rest of the train ride. Eventually, the little Elf named Glookey came by with the trolley of juice and sweets. The four of them bought their usual assortment of Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pastries and Pumpkin Juice, Cauldron Cakes, Cockroach Clusters, and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

After an hour of snacking and chatting, everyone changed into their Hogwarts robes. Rosie and Delilah’s robes included ties of deep blue, which signified their place in Ravenclaw House. Daisy was also in Ravenclaw. Albus and Nathan’s ties were a rich yellow, placing them in Hufflepuff House. James had been in Gryffindor House before he left, and Hugo and Lily also wore the red ties of Gryffindor. Scorpius was in Slytherin House - denoted by green ties - like his father. This, in Rosie’s Dad’s mind, was proof enough that he was no good.

After they had changed out of their street clothes, Albus took out a small wrapped package. “Papa gave me this on the Platform. He said it was a senior-year present, or something.”

“Oh, he gave me one, too,” Rosie said, as Albus was tearing the paper away on his package. She rummaged through her trunk for several seconds, and took out her package.

Albus had already finished unwrapping his. It was a small, black metal contraption about the size of an ink vial, though it was a bit boxier in shape. It was decorated with tiny images of silver stars, a full moon, and - covering one full side - a fierce, yet stoic-looking wolf gazing upward.

“Erm…what is it?” Albus fidgeted with a seam about a quarter of the way from the top, and it swung up and open on a hinge, revealing a small metallic wheel next to a sort of nozzle.

Rosie had finished opening hers, finding a similar-looking device, though hers was a deep shade of purple, and was decorated with an image of a roaring brown bear. “They’re lighters!” Rosie said excitedly.

“What’s a lighter?”

“They’re what Muggles use to make fire - look.” Rosie swung open the lid on her lighter, took a firm grip, and cranked the metallic wheel with her thumb. There was a tiny spark, and then a merry yellow flame - about the size of a candle’s - ppeared from out of the nozzle, where it danced happily in place.

“Muggle toys…” Delilah moaned.

“Should’ve known, coming from Papa.” Albus put his lighter back into his trunk, a look of disappointment on his face.

Rosie wasn’t disappointed at all. She and her Papa quite enjoyed exploring Muggle culture and technology together. Rosie’s favorite was movies - like the moving paintings of the wizarding world, but each one contained a vast amount of people and locations, all telling a thrilling story, usually accompanied by large explosions. Unlike magical paintings, though, they could only tell the same story, and didn’t seem to be aware of anyone watching. They had tried to get a computer to work once, but to no avail. In a rare fit of mischief, Rosie’s Mother had tricked them into thinking they needed to put a mouse inside it; but no matter how well trained, the mouse couldn’t make anything on the monitor move.

Her Papa would occasionally put enchantments onto Muggle technology. Rosie wondered if he had done so with her lighter - there was no note. She flicked the lid back on and off again, and saw that the flame had vanished. She cranked the wheel with her thumb again, and the flame reappeared. Fascinating!

Scorpius and Daisy were able to drop by for a few minutes each. Albus and Nathan offered each of them a chance to add to the wild conspiracies they had accumulated from Rosie’s story about Uncle Harry and Yuri Biryukova. Scorpius was first to visit, but seemed generally uninterested. He gave Rosie a kiss before he left to head back to the Prefect’s Carriage.

When Daisy visited, however, she seemed beside herself with smug when she heard about this meeting. “You’ll just have to wait until the feast to hear about it,” she practically sang at the four sets of wide eyes as she spoke.

“Daisy, are there really Dementors at Hogwarts this year?” Delilah asked with full attention.

Daisy shook her head, which seemed to glow from the golden-blonde hair swirling around it. “There hasn’t been a Dementor in England since 1998. Some of us may still see one, though.”

“What’s that mean - are we going somewhere?” Rosie demanded.

“Is it Russia??” Nathan shouted.

But Daisy put a hand on her cheek, as though concerned. “Oh, I’ve said too much already. Like I said, you’ll find out at the feast!” And, with a grin, she pranced out of the compartment, and back up the train.

“Ughh!” Nathan threw his head back against his seat. “How much longer until the feast?”

    “Sooner than you might think,” Albus said, craning his head against the window. “I can see the castle!”

Author's Note

Thank you to Sukieblackmore for the amazing drawing of Rosie I used for this book’s picture!

I am not British, and I am not a girl. I'm curious to know how apparent that is to anyone who read this. I'm trying to keep this writing as close to the Harry Potter books as I can, as far as style and atmosphere goes, so feedback on that will also be welcome, as well as pretty much any feedback. I hope HP fans will enjoy this!

Reviews

[Astrid]

from* (near beginning) signalling* (near middle) appeared* (near end)
for British-English spelling: *mum, *favourite (near end)

Wondering when more will come out so I can find out what happens next! :)

[Alex]

Thanks for your reviews and notes! Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Don't know when the next chapter will come out yet - this project isn't high on my priorities list right now. In the meantime, I'll make sure to take a look at some of your writing in turn when I get the time.

[Astrid]

Thanks :)

[Mifa]

More...please!!! This has got to be the eight Harry Potter Book. J. K. Rowlings should see this.

[Alex]

Wow, thank you so much for all the reviews! I'm very flattered to hear this compared to the original series. I agree that the last chapter's pacing could use some work at the end.

This series will be slow coming, as my life is just too busy right now for me to give it the attention I'd like to, so I apologize if you have to wait longer than you'd like for more chapters. In the meantime, I will be sure to return the favor and check out your content, and let you know what I think. I'd love to know what you think of my other book project, Zoey and Me, if you're ever so inclined.

Cheers!