There was a slight bump in the road of bliss when Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Rose's parents, arrived that night. Rose had been growing more anxious about their arrival throughout the course of the day, and when Mrs. Weasley walked in, I finally understood why.

"ONE DAY WITH THEM AND YOU MANAGE TO STEAL A CAR AND ALMOST KILL YOURSELF?"

"Mum, we didn't al-"

"Hermione, relax, they're still alive, right?"

"YOU SHUT UP, RON, YOU'RE ONLY ENCOURAGING HER!"

"Hey, she's only acting like her dad!" Mr. Weasley hugged Rose, who laughed nervously.

Mrs. Weasley gave up, rolling her eyes. She and Mrs. Potter retreated to the kitchen, muttering about their husbands.

Rose and Albus went to set the table, leaving James and me alone in the hall.

After a minute of awkward silence, he asked, "Have you heard from Wren?"

I shook my head dejectedly. "No...I'm not really expecting to, honestly."

He nodded. "Yeah..."

"Who's Wren?" asked someone behind us. I turned around to see Hugo standing there, looking up at us.

For a nine-year-old, he was adorable. His hair was a bright orange, and his face was covered in freckles, and he was tiny for his age. He stared at us expectantly as I fumbled for an answer.

"She...she was our friend, at school, last year," I said finally.

"Oh." Hugo considered this. "Okay. Where is she now?"

"We don't know," James said, shrugging. "She...well, she kind of... It's a long story, Hugo."

Hugo shrugged. "Okay. Dinner's ready, anyway." He grabbed my hand and James's and dragged us into the dining room.

Rose had arranged a seating chart (control freak) and escorted each of us to our places. With a wink, she sat me next to James. I rolled my eyes. Had Lacy gotten to her, too?

She plopped down on the seat next to me, and I immediately turned to her. I didn't like James, at least not like that, and I was going to prove it. Not just to Rose, either. Lacy and Iris, too, once we got to Hogwarts.

Anyway, James still liked Mackenzie Walker. Why, even? She wasn't even that pretty, and she was kind of boring. No, Astra, you don't even care about that, I told myself firmly.

Albus was seated across from us, in between Hugo and Lily. He glared at Rose from across the table. "Seriously? Why'd you put me with the little kids?"

Rose shrugged. "You're practically a little kid yourself, Al."

"By three days! I'm only three days younger than you, Rose!"

Rose shrugged. "Well I didn't want to sit over there. I wanted to sit next to Astra." Albus sighed and gave up. A smart move. It was almost impossible to win an argument with Rose. To my knowledge, the only person who'd done it successfully was Scorpius.

I glanced at Rose. "How's Scorpius?"

She froze, then glanced down the table at her dad, who wasn't listening. "Let's talk about that later, okay?"

"Why?"

She bit her lip. "Well, Dad doesn't exactly know... I don't know how he'd feel about me being friends with a Malfoy."

"Oh." I shrugged. "All right. But are you really never going to tell him?"

"I will, eventually," Rose said evasively, twirling her fork in her green beans, but not eating.

James leaned forward just then. "Mr. Malfoy and our parents were enemies when they were at school."

"Mr. Malfoy was a Death Eater," Albus added.

My eyes grew wide. "He was?"

"Yeah...how did you not know that?" James asked.

"Well, I mean I'd heard it, but I'd never... believed it, really."

"Oh, he's changed now," Rose assured me. "Scorpius says he didn't have a choice, really. It's really Mr. Malfoy's father's fault."

"I can't believe Scorpius is Teddy's cousin," James said absently.

"He is?" That was news to me. I was learning so much today.

"Yeah..." Rose gave me a weird look. "Second cousins, at least."

"Their grandmas were sisters," Albus explained.

"Andromeda and Narcissa Black."

"Don't forget Bellatrix," Lily said, looking incredibly important now that she had something to add to the conversation.

Hugo and Rose both glanced at their mum worriedly, but Mrs. Weasley was paying absolutely no attention to our conversation.

"Lily, you know that's a touchy subject," James scolded, making his sister stick her tongue out at him.

Rose frowned. "Lily, seriously."

"Why...?" I asked. "What's wrong with this Bellatrix lady?"

The cousins all exchanged a glance.

"Well..." James shrugged. "We'll tell you later, okay?"

"But-"

James cut me off. "Later."

~~~~

"Later" turned out to be that night, when Rose and I waited for Lily to fall asleep, then snuck outside to meet James and Albus. There was supposed to be a meteor shower that night, and we'd decided we'd go star-gazing and see it. The only way we'd gotten Rose to agree to it was by telling her "it's practically getting a head start on Astronomy."

Rose and I managed to slip out the back door, and found Albus waiting for us. James was no where to be seen.

"Where is he? This was all his idea," I grumbled.

Albus glanced around nervously. "He's probably got his Cloak..."

"Let's just go," I suggested, leading my two friends away from the house and toward the miniature Quidditch pitch. We laid down on the grass, still slightly warm from the sun that had set only an hour ago.

There were already a multitude of stars in the sky, and it took my breath away. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. The whole sky was filled with little pinpricks of light, and already the meteor shower was going on. There were streaks of light flashing across the sky every few seconds.

"This is so awesome," Rose breathed.

"Worth breaking curfew?" asked a voice right next to our ears.

A hand clamped over my mouth before I could scream, but I shoved it away as the Cloak fell off James. He started laughing. Rose simply glared at him, but I shoved him, and he toppled over, still laughing.

James made up for scaring us by bringing a bag of marshmallows with him. I hadn't known that wizards had marshmallows, but apparently there were some things even wizards couldn't live without.

Once we'd gotten settled, I propped myself up on one elbow. "So, Bellatrix Black?"

Rose sighed. "Lestrange, actually. Black was her maiden name."

"She was a crazy Death Eater," Albus said.

"Completely off her rocker," added James.

"Okay, but why is she a touchy subject?" From what I'd seen, other Death Eaters weren't touchy subjects. Why was she?

"Well..." Rose said slowly, "she killed Uncle Harry's godfather, for one."

"His name was Sirius Black," James said, staring up at the sky. "I'm named after him, actually. James Sirius."

"Yeah," Rose said. "The worst part was that he was her cousin."

"That's awful.."

"That's not all," Albus said. "She tortured Aunt Hermione..."

"With a knife..."

"What?"

Rose nodded. "She only ever told us because we saw the scar. Bellatrix carved the M word into her arm."

"What word?"

"The M word," James said, shuddering.

I stared at them in confusion. Were there wizard swears? "I don't know what that is."

Rose and James glanced at each other and seemed to wage a silent battle. James apparently lost, because he sighed and turned back to me. "It's – don't tell my mum I said this – it's," His voice dropped to a whisper, "Mudblood."

"That's a terrible word to describe a muggleborn," Rose whispered.

"Filthy blood," James said, obviously disgusted. "It's ridiculous."

I stared at them. "Wow..."

"It's really bad. I think Dad would disown me if he ever heard me say it," James said.

"He might disown you anyway," Albus teased, probably trying to lighten the mood. "You cause a lot of trouble."

James rolled his eyes and laid flat on his back. "Yeah, if he doesn't disown you first."

"I bet it'll be Lily," Rose said.

"Yeah," James and Albus said in unison. When they realized they'd spoken at the same time, they both pretended to gag.

~~~~

We stayed outside for about two more hours before sneaking back inside. The next morning, we slept in. When Rose and I wandered down to breakfast, everyone else except James and Albus was already eating. Lily was glaring enviously at four identical letters sitting on the table.

"Our Hogwarts letters!" Rose yelled, then ran forward and sifted through them for the one marked with her name. She handed me mine as well.

I skimmed the letter, which had a lot of fluff but basically just said to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual. My supply list fell out on my lap.

Second-year students will require:
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2
by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
Basic Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
Magical Herbs and Their Uses by Phyllida Spore
Potion-Making for the Second Year Student by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

Rose was already messing with her cousins' letters. "Why is James's bigger?"

"He's a third year," Mrs. Potter said. "More classes."

"And the Hogsmeade trips!" James said as he burst into the room. "I bet my permission form's in there." He plucked his unopened letter out of Rose's hands and sat down to read it himself.

"What extra classes are you taking?" I asked curiously. I knew that once you reached third year, you had to choose two or three extra classes. I just didn't know what James had chosen.

"Care of Magical Creatures, of course, and Arithmacy."

Rose looked impressed. "Arithmacy? Really?"

"Well, I obviously wouldn't do Divination. Dad says that's stupid-"

"I didn't say that, exactly," Mr. Porter said.

James didn't even pause. "-and Ancient Runes sounds boring-"

Mrs. Weasley looked slightly offended.

"-and I get enough 'Muggle Studies' from Grandpa and Astra."

"Glad to know I'm basically a class," I said, rolling my eyes. I smiled at him as he read his letter, then quickly looked away. Smiling at people who you don't have a crush on for no reason is weird.

Albus trudged into the kitchen, half-asleep, a few minutes later. He sat down and picked up his spoon, but accidentally dunked it into his cup instead of his bowl of cereal. With a groan, he gave up and put his head on the table.

"Someone's tired," Mrs. Porter observed.

"Must not have slept well," James said quickly.

Mrs. Potter raised an eyebrow. "That must be it, because surely he wasn't doing anything outside last night."

"Definitely not," I said.

"Well, then, all right..." She took a sip of her coffee before saying, "Hermione and I think we'll head to Diagon Alley next Friday, all right?"

A chorus of yays and okays filled the room.

"Do you think you could see if Arthur's family could come too, then?" Albus mumbled.

"We could ask Hannah," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling.

I knew Rose was dying to suggest inviting the Malfoys, as well, but that would go over about as well as James suggesting he quit school to become a llama-trainer in Brazil (one of the many interesting topics of the previous night). That is: not well.

The next few days were spent three ways. Playing Quidditch, planning our trip to Diagon Alley with Arthur and Andrew by owl, and helping Rose be rebellious.

She decided that she couldn't wait until September to see Scorpius. They'd exchanged a few letters, but it was hard since her parents would have flipped out if they'd known she was corresponding with a Malfoy. So, we sneakily wrote him a letter, telling him to convince his parents to come to Diagon Alley on the 24th. We sent it with Anastasia, and warned him to send his answer back with her, and not to sign it.

It took three days for him to reply, but he assured us he'd be there. Now, we would just need a distraction to get us away from the adults.

~~~~

That second year school list, though.

I looked up what it would be, and of course that was the year of Gilderoy Lockhart. So the supply list consisted of the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, and all his books. Of course, I couldn't have that, so I scanned all the lists from other years and picked and chose and made up books and reused books and I'm happy with the outcome.

And beyond that I don't really know what to say here (for once)...

So vote!

Comment!

Love you guys as much as hannahsue-- ships Jastra!

~Ellie