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A breeze escaped through an open window, causing the curtain to move slightly to the side. Sunlight streamed in and focused itself directly on Rose’s face. The light on the outside of her closed eyes made a pain shoot from her eyes to the back of her head. When she turned in an attempt to avoid the glare, the pain turned into a steady pounding. Knowing that there was no way she was going to get back to sleep with such a headache, she reluctantly opened her eyes.
She was laying on a double bed with her head by the foot. A foot twitched by her ear, and she saw Dom fast asleep to her right. Lily’s familiar auburn hair was fanned out over her stomach and Lily’s arm was thrown across her midsection. She looked down at herself to find that she was still in her clothes from the night before. Rose moved slowly as to not wake her cousins. On her way to the door, she had to step over Molly and Roxie sprawled out on the floor.
Once Rose saw the room the bed was situated in, she knew exactly which Weasely house they had ended up at, and better yet, she knew exactly where the hangover potion would be. She dragged herself down the hall until she reached the nearest bathroom. There, in the cabinet, was the neon green liquid she needed so much. She took a swig and started to feel its affects.
With a much clearer head, she made her way downstairs. When she reached the bottom step, she could smell bacon cooking. Her stomach made a growling sound as she realized she had had nothing to eat since lunch yesterday, which might explain her inability to fully recall the night before. She ambled into the kitchen, her hangover still not completely quelled by the potion.
“Quite the night I assume,” Harry was at the stove where the bacon smell was originating.
Rose sat down at the kitchen table, “The evidence would seem to suggest that, yes,”
“You know there’s hangover potion…”
“In the second floor bathroom? Yeah, I know, been there, done that,”
“Wow,” Harry looked at Rose in amazement, “You had a rougher night than I thought,”
“I’m fairly certain I had an awesome time,” she rested her head on her hand, “Doing what, well that’s another question,”
Harry laughed and levitated a plate of bacon and eggs over to her. As she dug in, Dom and Lily appeared at the door, looking even worse than Rose.
“Good morning ladies,” Harry greeted brightly.
All he got back in response was muffled grunting and two dismissive hand gestures. The two girls slumped down at the table with Rose and eagerly received their own plates of eggs.
Slowly, but surely, everyone else began to trickle into the kitchen. Within the hour, Harry had provided bacon and eggs to everyone, except for James and Kenny.
“I think we lost James last night,” Al commented through a full mouth of eggs.
“Nah,” Fred replied, “He met a girl at the club. I’m pretty sure he took her back to his place,”
Al silently shook his head and went back to his breakfast.
“Speaking of missing boys,” Molly spoke up, “Where’s your beau Rose?”
A look of panic spread over Rose’s face as she twisted her head back and forth down the table. Molly was right; Kenny wasn’t there. In all honesty, Rose didn’t even remember coming to the Potter’s house, never mind who was with them.
“Oh my God,” she looked at Dom with concern, “Did he come back with us last night?”
Dom gave an unconcerned shrug. She obviously still hadn’t gotten past the initial hangover.
“Does anyone remember coming back last night?” she appealed to the whole table. There was a lot of shoulder shrugging and head shaking.
“What a responsible group of adults we’ve raised,” Harry commented from his station by the stove.
“Uncle Harry! This is serious! I think I lost my Muggle boyfriend clubbing on Diagon Ally,” Rose dropped her head on the table, “I am the worst girlfriend ever!”
“Don’t worry Rose, maybe he’s with James…” a smirk danced across Molly’s face.
Rose’s look of panic instantly turned into one of horror. Being with James was almost worse than being lost. She knew what James did when he met girls…
“Oh my God!” she gasped.
Harry turned off the stove and went to leave the kitchen. As he walked past where Molly was sitting, he smacked her on the back of the head with his copy of The Daily Prophet.
“Ow,” she cried and rubbed the back of her head.
“Oops, sorry Molly,” Harry’s face, however, conveyed that he was not at all sorry.
Soon after Harry had left the room, they heard his voice coming from the hall. “We’ve been wondering where you’ve been. They’re in the kitchen. Make Albus get you some eggs,”
Kenny appeared in the kitchen looking like he got hit by a truck. He shuffled over to the table and took a seat next to Al.
“Thank goodness,” Rose sighed, “You look terrible.”
“You guys don’t mess around, do you?” Kenny glanced at the other occupants of the table.
“Get a little rough for you Ken,” Fred laughed.
“You, dear,” he pointed his finger at Rose, “are a champion.”
“Rosie’s always been a heavyweight,” Louis chimed in from the end of the table, “You didn’t keep up with her did you?” he added in awe.
“Hell, no,” Kenny shook his head. The whole table gave a laugh.
After a minute or two of eating in silence, Dom finally spoke up, “Are you guys going to the hospital today?”
“Probably,” Rose stole a glance at Lily, “I’ve got some other stuff I have to do today too,”
“I want to see your dad. Mom says he’s not doing very well,”
“He’s not,” Hugo responded, “Rose, tell him I’ll come by later,”
Everyone turned to look at Hugo in shock. He had been at the hospital almost as much as Ron.
“What?” Rose asked, “Where are you going?”
Hugo looked uncomfortable. He pushed the remainder of his breakfast around on his plate. “I’m meeting Hannah,” he said quietly.
“Who’s Hannah?”
“Hannah. The waitress from last night. We ended up talking after she got off her shift. She was really nice. We’re going to have lunch,”
The table erupted in ‘ooos’ and catcalls. Hugo’s face turned bright red and he got an embarrassed look on his face.
Fred was dejected, “Sad Sam over there even picked up a girl. I couldn’t get anything. Damn it!”
Roxie glared at her older brother, “I wonder why Freddy, you’re so classy,”
“Shut up Rox,” he threw his napkin at her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Your mom has a lot of crap,”
“Tell me about it. This is absurd,”
Rose, Lily, and Kenny were elbow deep in books and papers. They had been searching Hermione’s office for almost two hours, looking for something to explain that missing year, or to answer any of their questions really. Kenny was actually laying on one of the couches trying to calm himself after being attacked by an enchanted book. He was officially overwhelmed.
“I give up,” Rose made her way over to where Kenny was laying, “I didn’t know there were that many books written on the movements to free house elves,”
“I didn’t even know there were movements to free house elves,” Lily let her head drop on a pile of books in front of her.
“Ah, it looks as if we are getting weary,” Rose slowly raised her head and gazed at the portrait behind the desk. Dumbledore wore a large smile and his eyes twinkled. Rose had never seen a portrait twinkle like Dumbledore’s did.
Lily glanced up for a second before placing her head back down on the books. She had been rather impressed by meeting Dumbledore when they first arrived, now she was just aggravated at their lack of success.
Kenny just closed his eyes tighter. He had certainly had enough magic for one day.
“We’ve been searching for hours,” Rose explained, “and we haven’t found anything even remotely helpful. We need your help,”
Dumbledore slowly nodded his head. “I thought you might reach this point. I have arranged for some assistance, but you won’t find it here,”
Lily looked at the portrait wearily, “Then where do we go?”
“Well, my dear, there is only one other place I can go,” he looked at her poignantly.
Rose hoisted herself up off the floor, “Looks like we’re going back to school Lil,”
“You owe me for this Weasely, big time,” Lily too got up and started toward the door. On her way by the couch, she tapped Kenny on the shoulder, “You coming buddy?”
“Um,” Kenny reluctantly opened his eyes, “Would it be ok if I just went back to your house Rose? I’d kinda like to just take a nap, and pretend all this magic stuff doesn’t exist for like a hour,”
Rose smiled sympathetically, “Sure, we’ll drop you off first,” she looked back at Dumbledore, “What are we looking for?”
“Oh, you’ll find a familiar guide when you arrive,” he smiled and walked out of the frame.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two faint pops were heard outside the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Wind whipped around Rose and Lily as they stared up at their former school. The castle loomed above them as they started on the path. They had forgotten how far a walk it actually was from the front gates to the entrance of the castle, and when they finally reached their destination they were significantly out of breath. As they approached the giant, wooden doors, a vaguely familiar woman came towards them. She was tall, and thin, and from what they could see, very old. Her emerald green cloak whirled around her ankles in the wind. It wasn’t until they had come face to face with the woman that they recognized her.
“Professor McGonagall?” Rose greeted in confusion.
“My, my,” Minerva McGonagall replied, looking at the two young women in front of her, “Aren’t you two just the spitting image of your mothers,”
“Are you still teaching?” Lily asked in amazement.
Professor McGonagall taught at Hogwarts long before Rose and Lily had ever gotten there. Lily was positive she had taught her parents. She had even been Headmistress for quite a long time. A few years before Rose went to school, she had retired from being Headmistress and focused on specifically teaching NEWT Transfiguration. Both Rose and Lily had had her in their sixth and seventh years.
“No, no,” McGonagall waved her hand at Lily, “I’m fully retired from teaching now. Actually, I made it official the year after you left Miss Potter. I believe there was only one Weasely I didn’t have the pleasure of teaching,”
“Lucy,” Lily replied, “She’s the youngest,”
As much as Rose enjoyed catching up, she was cold, and curious, “Can we go inside? I’m not really dressed for the wind,”
“Of course, of course,” McGonagall lead the two of them into the entrance hall. As they walked, Rose was transported back to her time at Hogwarts. Everything felt exactly the same. There was the familiar scent of dinner wafting from the Great Hall, the way the light from the torches danced on the walls, and the comfortable chatter of students as they rushed past.
“I really do miss this place,” Rose stated dreamily as they walked.
“Really now,” her former teacher gave her a suspicious smile, “I seem to recall a certain Head Girl who couldn’t, and I quote, ‘wait to get out of this God forsaken place’,”
“I might have been a tad stressed,” Rose looked up at the ceiling.
“And I thought you were off having all kind of experiences overseas,”
“Well, I was,” Rose’s eyes followed the path of a ghost as he sailed by them, “but nothing compares to this. I guess I just didn’t know what I had when I had it,”
“That seems to be a theme for you,” Lily muttered under her breath.
“Did you say something Lily?” Rose eyed her.
“Nope,” Lily quickly shook her head.
Before Rose had time to pursue the issue, Professor McGonagall stopped in front of a large wooden door that neither girl could remember.
“Here we are,” she pulled a large brass key from her robes and stuck it into the door. The door swung open to reveal a vast room filled with shelves and shelves of volumes. “The Hogwarts Archives,”
“The Hogwarts Archives?” the two younger women said in unison.
“Hogwarts has archives?” Lily asked.
“Of course, with the shear amount of students we admit every year we do need some sort of record system. That’s what I do now, mind the archives. It’s far less stressful and demanding than teaching, but I get to keep my own bed,” she smiled at them, “take as much time as you need. As you can attest to, students aren’t really aware of this room,”
Rose glanced at the shelf closest to them, “These go back centuries. How are we ever going to find even the decade we need?”
“The further back you go, the more recent the dates. Good luck ladies,” Professor McGonagall gave them one last warm smile and shut the door.
“You know,” Lily looked at Rose as they headed to the back of the room, “She probably could have told us too. Maybe we should catch her and ask her, instead of wading through all this stuff,” she turned to head to the door.
“I doubt it,” Rose grabbed her arm, “Dumbledore obviously told her we were coming. I bet you a hundred galleons he told her not to tell us anything either,”
“But why!” Lily shrieked.
“He gave me something about knowledge discovered being more satisfying. He sounded like a fortune cookie,” Rose sighed.
The two of them continued to walk toward the back of the room, each of them taking occasional glances at the dates engraved on the shelves. When they finally reached the last set of shelves, Lily examined the dates on the one closest to her, “School years 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, hey this is us!” she made to look at the volumes when Rose grabbed the back of her shirt.
“We’re not here to look up us,” Rose started back tracking, this time paying very close attention to the dates. Lily was doing the same thing on the other side of the room.
Rose heard her call out, “I found it! School years 1990-1991, 1991-1992, 1992-1993,” Rose rushed over to where she was standing. They scanned the massive shelves until Rose’s eye caught a volume that read 1991-1992: First Year Sorting and Ranked Class Lists. She pulled the massive volume down off the shelf and lugged it over to a small table nearby.
She opened the book to the page entitled: 1 September 1991: First Year Sorting. Lily appeared next to her and squinted down at the small writing. There was an alphabetical list of all the First Year students in 1991. Both girls put fingers on the page while they read names. Lily started from the bottom, so she found a familiar name first. “Hey, it’s your dad,”
There written fourth from the bottom was: Weasely, Ronald Bilius; DOB: 1 March 1980; Parents: Arthur and Molly Weasely; Sorted to: Gryffindor.
Lily jumped quickly up to where she would find another familiar name. “And there’s my dad!” Rose glanced down to where Lily was pointing and saw: Potter, Harry James; DOB: 31 July 1980; Parents: James and Lily Potter (deceased) Guardians: Vernon and Petunia Dursley (Muggles); Sorted to: Gryffindor.
Rose went back to her search at the beginning of the alphabet and quickly found what she was seeking: Granger, Hermione Jean; DOB: 19 September 1979; Parents: Harold and Emily Granger (Muggles); Sorted to: Gryffindor.
“Ha! She did go to Hogwarts with Dad and Uncle Harry!” she looked up at Lily, “They were in the same year!”
Lily glanced from the bottom to the top of the page in confusion, “Hey Rose, I thought your mom was younger than your dad?”
“She is. My dad’s birthday is in March, hers is in September,”
“Well not according to this,” Lily put one finger under Ron’s birthday and another under Hermione’s, “It says here she was born the September before your dad, not after. Which would make sense for them being in the same year.”
“She lied about her birthday,” Rose was outraged, the problem was, she didn’t know who Hermione had lied to, Hogwarts or her and Hugo. She was starting to get the feeling it was the latter.
“Well, if she was in the same year as our dads she would have to have been born then, if she was born the next year she would’ve been too young,” Lily pointed out.
“Yeah, and she would have been with your mom, like we thought,” Rose threw her hands in the air, “Why doesn’t this make any sense!?”
Lily had started to flip through the pages of the large volume. On the following pages, she found lists of students in all the other years. “Look Rose, they have lists of all the students that attended that year, I bet if we look at all the school years after this, we can figure out where she missed one,”
Lily had to admit to herself that, now that they were actually getting some information, she was getting rather into this. It was like a giant puzzle, and the more they dug, the more complicated it became.
She rushed around pulling down thick volume after thick volume, until she had seven of them stacked on the table. They opened the 1992-1993 volume and began to look. Rose started furiously taking notes. Every time they saw any of their parents’ names, she made note on her parchment.
They had successfully noted all of them (including Ginny) in every year up to what was Ron, Harry, and Hermione’s sixth.
Rose made her notes and sighed. She shoved the latest book to the side and let the last one fall open. After scanning all the class lists, Rose finally made the discovery she was looking for, “Lily! Here it is! She isn’t on the list! She didn’t go her seventh year!”
Rose raced back to the shelves and grabbed yet another large book. She quickly flipped the pages to the back and slapped the table, “She’s there the next year! But why?”
Lily was inspecting the list in front of her and the new one in front of Rose, “Well that’s not the only question,”
Rose looked at her in confusion, “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Lily pointed to the page, “Yeah, your mom might have skipped a year, but both your dad and my dad aren’t on either list,”
She was laying on a double bed with her head by the foot. A foot twitched by her ear, and she saw Dom fast asleep to her right. Lily’s familiar auburn hair was fanned out over her stomach and Lily’s arm was thrown across her midsection. She looked down at herself to find that she was still in her clothes from the night before. Rose moved slowly as to not wake her cousins. On her way to the door, she had to step over Molly and Roxie sprawled out on the floor.
Once Rose saw the room the bed was situated in, she knew exactly which Weasely house they had ended up at, and better yet, she knew exactly where the hangover potion would be. She dragged herself down the hall until she reached the nearest bathroom. There, in the cabinet, was the neon green liquid she needed so much. She took a swig and started to feel its affects.
With a much clearer head, she made her way downstairs. When she reached the bottom step, she could smell bacon cooking. Her stomach made a growling sound as she realized she had had nothing to eat since lunch yesterday, which might explain her inability to fully recall the night before. She ambled into the kitchen, her hangover still not completely quelled by the potion.
“Quite the night I assume,” Harry was at the stove where the bacon smell was originating.
Rose sat down at the kitchen table, “The evidence would seem to suggest that, yes,”
“You know there’s hangover potion…”
“In the second floor bathroom? Yeah, I know, been there, done that,”
“Wow,” Harry looked at Rose in amazement, “You had a rougher night than I thought,”
“I’m fairly certain I had an awesome time,” she rested her head on her hand, “Doing what, well that’s another question,”
Harry laughed and levitated a plate of bacon and eggs over to her. As she dug in, Dom and Lily appeared at the door, looking even worse than Rose.
“Good morning ladies,” Harry greeted brightly.
All he got back in response was muffled grunting and two dismissive hand gestures. The two girls slumped down at the table with Rose and eagerly received their own plates of eggs.
Slowly, but surely, everyone else began to trickle into the kitchen. Within the hour, Harry had provided bacon and eggs to everyone, except for James and Kenny.
“I think we lost James last night,” Al commented through a full mouth of eggs.
“Nah,” Fred replied, “He met a girl at the club. I’m pretty sure he took her back to his place,”
Al silently shook his head and went back to his breakfast.
“Speaking of missing boys,” Molly spoke up, “Where’s your beau Rose?”
A look of panic spread over Rose’s face as she twisted her head back and forth down the table. Molly was right; Kenny wasn’t there. In all honesty, Rose didn’t even remember coming to the Potter’s house, never mind who was with them.
“Oh my God,” she looked at Dom with concern, “Did he come back with us last night?”
Dom gave an unconcerned shrug. She obviously still hadn’t gotten past the initial hangover.
“Does anyone remember coming back last night?” she appealed to the whole table. There was a lot of shoulder shrugging and head shaking.
“What a responsible group of adults we’ve raised,” Harry commented from his station by the stove.
“Uncle Harry! This is serious! I think I lost my Muggle boyfriend clubbing on Diagon Ally,” Rose dropped her head on the table, “I am the worst girlfriend ever!”
“Don’t worry Rose, maybe he’s with James…” a smirk danced across Molly’s face.
Rose’s look of panic instantly turned into one of horror. Being with James was almost worse than being lost. She knew what James did when he met girls…
“Oh my God!” she gasped.
Harry turned off the stove and went to leave the kitchen. As he walked past where Molly was sitting, he smacked her on the back of the head with his copy of The Daily Prophet.
“Ow,” she cried and rubbed the back of her head.
“Oops, sorry Molly,” Harry’s face, however, conveyed that he was not at all sorry.
Soon after Harry had left the room, they heard his voice coming from the hall. “We’ve been wondering where you’ve been. They’re in the kitchen. Make Albus get you some eggs,”
Kenny appeared in the kitchen looking like he got hit by a truck. He shuffled over to the table and took a seat next to Al.
“Thank goodness,” Rose sighed, “You look terrible.”
“You guys don’t mess around, do you?” Kenny glanced at the other occupants of the table.
“Get a little rough for you Ken,” Fred laughed.
“You, dear,” he pointed his finger at Rose, “are a champion.”
“Rosie’s always been a heavyweight,” Louis chimed in from the end of the table, “You didn’t keep up with her did you?” he added in awe.
“Hell, no,” Kenny shook his head. The whole table gave a laugh.
After a minute or two of eating in silence, Dom finally spoke up, “Are you guys going to the hospital today?”
“Probably,” Rose stole a glance at Lily, “I’ve got some other stuff I have to do today too,”
“I want to see your dad. Mom says he’s not doing very well,”
“He’s not,” Hugo responded, “Rose, tell him I’ll come by later,”
Everyone turned to look at Hugo in shock. He had been at the hospital almost as much as Ron.
“What?” Rose asked, “Where are you going?”
Hugo looked uncomfortable. He pushed the remainder of his breakfast around on his plate. “I’m meeting Hannah,” he said quietly.
“Who’s Hannah?”
“Hannah. The waitress from last night. We ended up talking after she got off her shift. She was really nice. We’re going to have lunch,”
The table erupted in ‘ooos’ and catcalls. Hugo’s face turned bright red and he got an embarrassed look on his face.
Fred was dejected, “Sad Sam over there even picked up a girl. I couldn’t get anything. Damn it!”
Roxie glared at her older brother, “I wonder why Freddy, you’re so classy,”
“Shut up Rox,” he threw his napkin at her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Your mom has a lot of crap,”
“Tell me about it. This is absurd,”
Rose, Lily, and Kenny were elbow deep in books and papers. They had been searching Hermione’s office for almost two hours, looking for something to explain that missing year, or to answer any of their questions really. Kenny was actually laying on one of the couches trying to calm himself after being attacked by an enchanted book. He was officially overwhelmed.
“I give up,” Rose made her way over to where Kenny was laying, “I didn’t know there were that many books written on the movements to free house elves,”
“I didn’t even know there were movements to free house elves,” Lily let her head drop on a pile of books in front of her.
“Ah, it looks as if we are getting weary,” Rose slowly raised her head and gazed at the portrait behind the desk. Dumbledore wore a large smile and his eyes twinkled. Rose had never seen a portrait twinkle like Dumbledore’s did.
Lily glanced up for a second before placing her head back down on the books. She had been rather impressed by meeting Dumbledore when they first arrived, now she was just aggravated at their lack of success.
Kenny just closed his eyes tighter. He had certainly had enough magic for one day.
“We’ve been searching for hours,” Rose explained, “and we haven’t found anything even remotely helpful. We need your help,”
Dumbledore slowly nodded his head. “I thought you might reach this point. I have arranged for some assistance, but you won’t find it here,”
Lily looked at the portrait wearily, “Then where do we go?”
“Well, my dear, there is only one other place I can go,” he looked at her poignantly.
Rose hoisted herself up off the floor, “Looks like we’re going back to school Lil,”
“You owe me for this Weasely, big time,” Lily too got up and started toward the door. On her way by the couch, she tapped Kenny on the shoulder, “You coming buddy?”
“Um,” Kenny reluctantly opened his eyes, “Would it be ok if I just went back to your house Rose? I’d kinda like to just take a nap, and pretend all this magic stuff doesn’t exist for like a hour,”
Rose smiled sympathetically, “Sure, we’ll drop you off first,” she looked back at Dumbledore, “What are we looking for?”
“Oh, you’ll find a familiar guide when you arrive,” he smiled and walked out of the frame.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two faint pops were heard outside the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Wind whipped around Rose and Lily as they stared up at their former school. The castle loomed above them as they started on the path. They had forgotten how far a walk it actually was from the front gates to the entrance of the castle, and when they finally reached their destination they were significantly out of breath. As they approached the giant, wooden doors, a vaguely familiar woman came towards them. She was tall, and thin, and from what they could see, very old. Her emerald green cloak whirled around her ankles in the wind. It wasn’t until they had come face to face with the woman that they recognized her.
“Professor McGonagall?” Rose greeted in confusion.
“My, my,” Minerva McGonagall replied, looking at the two young women in front of her, “Aren’t you two just the spitting image of your mothers,”
“Are you still teaching?” Lily asked in amazement.
Professor McGonagall taught at Hogwarts long before Rose and Lily had ever gotten there. Lily was positive she had taught her parents. She had even been Headmistress for quite a long time. A few years before Rose went to school, she had retired from being Headmistress and focused on specifically teaching NEWT Transfiguration. Both Rose and Lily had had her in their sixth and seventh years.
“No, no,” McGonagall waved her hand at Lily, “I’m fully retired from teaching now. Actually, I made it official the year after you left Miss Potter. I believe there was only one Weasely I didn’t have the pleasure of teaching,”
“Lucy,” Lily replied, “She’s the youngest,”
As much as Rose enjoyed catching up, she was cold, and curious, “Can we go inside? I’m not really dressed for the wind,”
“Of course, of course,” McGonagall lead the two of them into the entrance hall. As they walked, Rose was transported back to her time at Hogwarts. Everything felt exactly the same. There was the familiar scent of dinner wafting from the Great Hall, the way the light from the torches danced on the walls, and the comfortable chatter of students as they rushed past.
“I really do miss this place,” Rose stated dreamily as they walked.
“Really now,” her former teacher gave her a suspicious smile, “I seem to recall a certain Head Girl who couldn’t, and I quote, ‘wait to get out of this God forsaken place’,”
“I might have been a tad stressed,” Rose looked up at the ceiling.
“And I thought you were off having all kind of experiences overseas,”
“Well, I was,” Rose’s eyes followed the path of a ghost as he sailed by them, “but nothing compares to this. I guess I just didn’t know what I had when I had it,”
“That seems to be a theme for you,” Lily muttered under her breath.
“Did you say something Lily?” Rose eyed her.
“Nope,” Lily quickly shook her head.
Before Rose had time to pursue the issue, Professor McGonagall stopped in front of a large wooden door that neither girl could remember.
“Here we are,” she pulled a large brass key from her robes and stuck it into the door. The door swung open to reveal a vast room filled with shelves and shelves of volumes. “The Hogwarts Archives,”
“The Hogwarts Archives?” the two younger women said in unison.
“Hogwarts has archives?” Lily asked.
“Of course, with the shear amount of students we admit every year we do need some sort of record system. That’s what I do now, mind the archives. It’s far less stressful and demanding than teaching, but I get to keep my own bed,” she smiled at them, “take as much time as you need. As you can attest to, students aren’t really aware of this room,”
Rose glanced at the shelf closest to them, “These go back centuries. How are we ever going to find even the decade we need?”
“The further back you go, the more recent the dates. Good luck ladies,” Professor McGonagall gave them one last warm smile and shut the door.
“You know,” Lily looked at Rose as they headed to the back of the room, “She probably could have told us too. Maybe we should catch her and ask her, instead of wading through all this stuff,” she turned to head to the door.
“I doubt it,” Rose grabbed her arm, “Dumbledore obviously told her we were coming. I bet you a hundred galleons he told her not to tell us anything either,”
“But why!” Lily shrieked.
“He gave me something about knowledge discovered being more satisfying. He sounded like a fortune cookie,” Rose sighed.
The two of them continued to walk toward the back of the room, each of them taking occasional glances at the dates engraved on the shelves. When they finally reached the last set of shelves, Lily examined the dates on the one closest to her, “School years 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, hey this is us!” she made to look at the volumes when Rose grabbed the back of her shirt.
“We’re not here to look up us,” Rose started back tracking, this time paying very close attention to the dates. Lily was doing the same thing on the other side of the room.
Rose heard her call out, “I found it! School years 1990-1991, 1991-1992, 1992-1993,” Rose rushed over to where she was standing. They scanned the massive shelves until Rose’s eye caught a volume that read 1991-1992: First Year Sorting and Ranked Class Lists. She pulled the massive volume down off the shelf and lugged it over to a small table nearby.
She opened the book to the page entitled: 1 September 1991: First Year Sorting. Lily appeared next to her and squinted down at the small writing. There was an alphabetical list of all the First Year students in 1991. Both girls put fingers on the page while they read names. Lily started from the bottom, so she found a familiar name first. “Hey, it’s your dad,”
There written fourth from the bottom was: Weasely, Ronald Bilius; DOB: 1 March 1980; Parents: Arthur and Molly Weasely; Sorted to: Gryffindor.
Lily jumped quickly up to where she would find another familiar name. “And there’s my dad!” Rose glanced down to where Lily was pointing and saw: Potter, Harry James; DOB: 31 July 1980; Parents: James and Lily Potter (deceased) Guardians: Vernon and Petunia Dursley (Muggles); Sorted to: Gryffindor.
Rose went back to her search at the beginning of the alphabet and quickly found what she was seeking: Granger, Hermione Jean; DOB: 19 September 1979; Parents: Harold and Emily Granger (Muggles); Sorted to: Gryffindor.
“Ha! She did go to Hogwarts with Dad and Uncle Harry!” she looked up at Lily, “They were in the same year!”
Lily glanced from the bottom to the top of the page in confusion, “Hey Rose, I thought your mom was younger than your dad?”
“She is. My dad’s birthday is in March, hers is in September,”
“Well not according to this,” Lily put one finger under Ron’s birthday and another under Hermione’s, “It says here she was born the September before your dad, not after. Which would make sense for them being in the same year.”
“She lied about her birthday,” Rose was outraged, the problem was, she didn’t know who Hermione had lied to, Hogwarts or her and Hugo. She was starting to get the feeling it was the latter.
“Well, if she was in the same year as our dads she would have to have been born then, if she was born the next year she would’ve been too young,” Lily pointed out.
“Yeah, and she would have been with your mom, like we thought,” Rose threw her hands in the air, “Why doesn’t this make any sense!?”
Lily had started to flip through the pages of the large volume. On the following pages, she found lists of students in all the other years. “Look Rose, they have lists of all the students that attended that year, I bet if we look at all the school years after this, we can figure out where she missed one,”
Lily had to admit to herself that, now that they were actually getting some information, she was getting rather into this. It was like a giant puzzle, and the more they dug, the more complicated it became.
She rushed around pulling down thick volume after thick volume, until she had seven of them stacked on the table. They opened the 1992-1993 volume and began to look. Rose started furiously taking notes. Every time they saw any of their parents’ names, she made note on her parchment.
They had successfully noted all of them (including Ginny) in every year up to what was Ron, Harry, and Hermione’s sixth.
Rose made her notes and sighed. She shoved the latest book to the side and let the last one fall open. After scanning all the class lists, Rose finally made the discovery she was looking for, “Lily! Here it is! She isn’t on the list! She didn’t go her seventh year!”
Rose raced back to the shelves and grabbed yet another large book. She quickly flipped the pages to the back and slapped the table, “She’s there the next year! But why?”
Lily was inspecting the list in front of her and the new one in front of Rose, “Well that’s not the only question,”
Rose looked at her in confusion, “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Lily pointed to the page, “Yeah, your mom might have skipped a year, but both your dad and my dad aren’t on either list,”
