Chapter Text
Rose Weasley had always been the weird one. When the rest of the cousins were playing quidditch she was flying around the fields near her family home daydreaming about princesses and far away kingdoms she would eventually rule over once she came of age. She'd taken her time to learn different spells and practiced the wand movement with pencils her mum had made sure to leave around the home. Thank Merlin for all of the old books in the library, almost all of her mother's old textbooks we're hidden amongst the books out of order and with their respective topic. Rose found herself lost in the words so often she'd lose track of time. She'd been gifted a multitude of muggle fiction books as well which didn't help with her daydreams.
As time passed, Rose was the one who would always ramble on about topics no one had any idea about, she would find herself conversing with Luna at most big functions. Rose would coerce Lily into going on walks with her, sometimes in the middle of the night. Lily had pressed about the dangers of nighttime especially in the city where they lived. Rose had responded by showing her two daggers strapped to her leg, and slid her wand out of her hoodie sleeve and with an "Oh, please are you a witch or not?"
Her mother had given her muggle allowance and Rose had discovered flow toys, which were these spectacular light toys that muggles used to entertain people at parties. Since the discovery, she'd been the designated drunk entertainment, who knew waving lights and levitating colorful wands around a group of wizarding folk would be the go-to party trick. She'd even gotten some of her younger cousins and even Hugo to participate in the flow lights.
It wasn't until the summer did Rose realize she may just be a little too much, just a little too weird. Her mum had told her not to dim her light, but it was becoming increasingly more difficult when all of her friends were constantly telling her to stop talking and to be quiet, or calm down. She really only had a few friends outside of her cousins. Hadley Lodwick was a muggle-born Hufflepuff who would also ramble on and on about weird stuff like star seeds, lightworkers, traditional witchcraft, and spell casting the muggle way and how there was no such thing as true muggles and they just hadn't unlocked their true powers. Then there was Bea, Beatrice Rolfey, who was a blonde bombshell who had just stepped into her personal power and popularity. Rose was happy she was venturing out and able to experience the party life, even if she did have her eyes on her cousin Albus, Rose wasn't against it but knew Albus could do better than that. The girl had no common sense and no book smarts, not to mention she'd become someone with quite a track record for bedding the male population at school. Rose had even seen her list, there were quite a few on the list last year.
"Mum said we could throw a party for the main friends as long as we clean up after ourselves!" James announced to the cousins who had been staying in the cabin the last week, the sudden outburst from James had woken Rose from her thoughts, she couldn't help but chuckle when she saw the barn owl perched on his head waiting for a treat.
"Who does main friends cover?" Albus lifted a brow at his older brother.
"Bea and Hadley?" Rose questioned, moving to get the owl some treats for the bird perched and quite frankly holding on for dear life.
"Obviously, I'm owling Scorp." Albus grinned, already scrolling his reply onto a piece of paper and handing it to the majestic bird. "Scorpius Malfoy, please." he gave the bird a small scratch and smoothed out its feathers.
"Tony will be here this evening, we'd kinda already planned this with or without the approval." James grinned sheepishly, not seeing the small smile that spread over Rose's face.
"Hugo? Lils?" James questioned the younger two.
Lily had been studying her older cousin curiously, tilting her head and making eye contact with Rose, "I mean I can try to get Heather over but we're still only fourth years I doubt her mum would ever allow it."
"I only really hang with Lily and Heather..." Hugo sighed, shrugging his shoulders.
"Oiii, Hugs what about Jasmine Thomas?" Lily squeaked, smacking his stomach slightly with her forearm.
"No... no.. I doubt she'd want to come to hang out over here anyway. Not with me." he blushed three different shades of red across his face.
"Well, it was worth a shot." Lily giggled throwing her long legs up onto the couch backing and wall letting her head hang off the cushions, "Are we drinking? Rosie do you have the light toy things?"
"Always, you know that," Rose smirked.
"Ick, you look like Scorpius when you do that." Albus turned up his nose, grimacing.
"Oh please, Malfoy could never look this good." Rose smiled at her cousin.
"Malfoy could never what?" a tall blonde boy stepped out of the floo, the green flames dying down.
"Gods do you have a personal floo system in your room?" Rose questioned, he had arrived uncharacteristically fast.
"Yeah, who doesn't?" he shrugged, eyeing her choice of apparel. "James may have given me a heads up earlier."
"Prat." Rose gritted her teeth, he knew damn well not everyone had a floo in their room, she even doubted that he had one in his room.
"You love it." he winked at her, causing Albus to shrivel his face in disgust.
Rose fake gagged and stuck her tongue out at the blonde boy.
"You'd look much better-" he had begun teasing the little red head but stopped when Albus shot him a glare.
"HEY, that's my cousin!!!" Albus couldn't help but swat at his friends head.
"I was going to say with her mouth closed you dirty pervert." Scorpius sniggered as Rose rolled her eyes. Their relationship had always been strangely comfortable, borderline friends but also with enough competition to fuel some pretty intense pranks and snide remarks in passing. Merlin forbid anyone actually thought they got along in public. He was alright, he'd never done anything to actually harm her, pick fun yes, but not harm. Albus trusted him and that was good enough for Rose.
Rose pulled out her cell phone and texted Bea and Hadley, thankfully her mother allowed her to have a cell phone which came in handy when contacting both Bea and Hadley because they were both muggle-borns. Bea was only a few minutes away, whereas Hadley was about fifteen minutes away by broomstick. Which wasn't really a problem for Hadley because she was a beater for the Hufflepuff quidditch team. In fact, she made it over faster than Bea did. Bea showed up thirty minutes later and the party had already started.
Drinks were being made, probably the third or fourth round, because who doesn't love getting straight hammered at seven in the afternoon? Rose was on her second mixed drink and was trying to muster up the courage to talk to Tony, she'd been crushing on him for years since James had brought him around. He'd spent summers and even Christmas holiday's with them here and there. Bea and Hadley had tried to get her to approach him for years, even organizing a group activity in Hogsmeade. He'd come over to her and house and eaten dinner a few times, which she was sure was James' attempt at setting them up. He'd flirted with her every once in a while, but at school, he'd chosen to completely ignore her, and even after all these years her crush was still there.
She'd met him in her third year and fallen head over heels. James had detested the idea at first, saying he was older and his friends shouldn't be dating his cousins. Any of them. Rose had been increasingly frustrated with James and snapped. He'd never said another thing about it and he used any excuse to get them together and leave them alone. Sure Tony was a good conversationalist, he just didn't seem as interested in Rose as she'd liked, not when her feelings were so strong.
Albus, James, Scorpius, and Tony were pretty much inseparable throughout most of school, only really leaving each other alone after curfew when Scorpius and Albus had to go to the Slytherin common areas.
"Yooooou guys! It's time for never have I ever!" Lily sing songed loudly, grabbing Hugo and Bea who happened to be closest to her to a table they'd set up lined with shot glasses.
"So general rules, no one has to elaborate if they don't want too and no one can talk about this afterwards. If I find out you did, I'll bat bogey hex you. Also don't lie." James smirked at his little sister.
"Do we have to play?" Rose squeaked, she was a bit of a stick in the mud compared to most of the group and she knew that.
"Yes, Rosie dear you have to play. We're all playing." Lily looked smug with herself, setting herself down in between James and Albus, Scorpius was beside Albus, and Rose sat beside Scorpius and Hadley. On Hadley's other side was Bea and Hugo, then Tony beside James. "I'll go first!" Lily squealed excitedly, "Never have I ever passed out in the library."
Rose shot her cousin a glare, taking the shot that was already in front of her. Scorpius, Hugo, Albus, and Hadley all took a shot as well. James took the liberty of going next, "Never have I ever been in the restricted section of the library."
"Probably because you just don't read," Scorpius barked at him, taking a drink, giving Rose a chuckle when she also poured another shot and knocked it back. Rose wasn't surprised when Hadley also took another shot.
"Never have I ever smoked in the greenhouses.." Tony looked pointedly at James, who stuck a shot.
Scorpius sighed, also pouring another shot and filled Rose's glass up. "Don't think I forgot," he murmured under his breath, Rose hadn't forgot, he'd basically pulled her out to the greenhouse's during their O.W.L.'s to get her to calm down after having a full blown meltdown in the library . She looked at him and took the shot, knowing she was going to regret every bit of the alcohol going into her system.
"ROSE!!! You little pot head." Hadley faked shock.
"Hey now... don't test me. You know I'm not a complete prude." Rose giggled, her cheeks flushed from the shots and sudden spotlight.
"Never have I ever been out after curfew." Hugo crossed his arms, knowing all of them had been out past curfew at some point.
"Goody two-shoes.." James pouted taking a shot, as did the rest of the general population.
"Never have I ever," Bea seemed to ponder her words wisely, "used a polyjuice potion."
"You bitch..." Hadley whispered, taking a shot, wiping her mouth before continuing, "Never have I ever slept with someone I shouldn't have."
Albus took a shot, followed by Bea and Tony. Rose felt her eyes shift uncomfortably to Bea and then to Tony. Scorpius watched her, curious as to what her thought process was.
Rose stiffened, "Never have I ever set someone on fire."
"Oh come on!! It was once and on accident. Your hair grew back." Scorpius huffed, taking another shot down, Rose was surprised however to see Albus and James both take a drink. "Never have I ever knicked something from a professor's office!" he grinned, causing not only Albus and James to drink but also Tony and Bea.
It was Albus' turn and he looked absolutely wasted "Never have I ever gone skinny dipping."
"You absolute arse, Albus Potter." Hadley flushed red, her brown hair falling in her face as she took another shot.
"You told Al?" Rose's eyes were blown wide as she also took a shot.
"Who knew Rosie had it in her?" Tony laughed, catching her eye and giving her a seductive smile, Scorpius was watching Bea who seemed to be watching the two of them pretty intensely.
"I did..." Scorpius grinned, holding his hand up for a high five. Rose rolled her eyes, leaving him hanging.