Harry Potter: 19 Years Later

2: Rose's POV

 
With one last look back at her parents waving to her, Rose climbed into the train, the door shutting behind her. One of the train people came up to her and helped her with her cart. Rose went to immediately sit with Albus, as he was the only person she knew (that was her age). However, when she reached the booth he was sitting in, there were two other boys with him.

"Hello, Rose," one said.

It took her a moment to recognize them; Lorcan and Lysander, Luna Lovegood's sons. They both had dirty blond hair and mysterious gray eyes, just like their mother.

"Hi, Lorcan, Lysander," Rose greeted them.

Lorcan looked at her curiously, his weird eyes looking faraway and distant. "Your hair. That kind of hairstyle was worn by Helga Hufflepuff. Did you know she wore that exact hairstyle the day she met Godric Gryffindor? They went on to found Hogwarts. Also, Minerva McGonagall almost always wore that hairstyle in her first year at school."

Rose stared, unsure of what to say (of course, she had already known all of this). "Oh...well...it's just an ordinary braid," she finally stammered.

Lysander nodded. "Ah, yes, a braid. Did you know that in ancient times, goblins believed that the number 3 was unlucky? Therefore, they shunned all who wore braids because braids consist of three parts."

Rose shook her head. "I read all of my history textbooks; they didn't say anything about that," she argued, trying to remember anything about the number 3 and goblins.

"Well, then they were wrong! Or they forgot it!" Lysander countered.

"They wouldn't forget such an important detail."

"It's true, Rose, goblins did believe that back then," Lorcan chimed in.

All this time, while the three argued, Albus just stared. He wasn't as studious as any of them, so, unsure of what to say (he hadn't even glanced into his history textbook!), he stayed silent and kept himself busy watching Errolla in her cage.

"Would you like anything from the cart, dears?" a kind voice asked. Rose looked up and saw an elderly lady pushing a cart full of candies and snacks.

Her stomach growling, Rose purchased a package of Chocolate Frogs.

"Do you two collect these?" she asked the twins.

They just stared, confused. Finally, Lorcan spoke up. "Why would we collect small pieces of cardboard?"

"To trade," Rose said. "And to learn about the different wizards and witches."

"But we've got textbooks to learn," Lysander said. "And why would we want to trade pointless pieces of cardboard with pictures of things we already know?"

"Yeah, those are just for the dim-witted," Lorcan piped up.

Suddenly, Albus made a sort of snorting/choking sound. "The dim-witted?! How does that make us dim-witted?" he sputtered.

Rose laughed. She knew Albus absolutely loved collecting Chocolate Frog cards and trading them with his cousins when they came over.

Finally, after arguing about who was right, who was dim-witted or not, they arrived at their destination; Hogwarts.

"Firs' years, foller me!" a gruff, but kind voice yelled. Over the sea of heads, Rose saw an extremely tall, wide man with a long, wild beard.

"Hagrid!" she shouted, waving to him.

She had only seen Hagrid about once every year (he came over for Christmas every year), and she was looking forward to spending free days with the fun-loving half giant (her parents had told her all about their adventures). And so, all dressed up in their uniforms and packed, Albus, Rose, Lorcan and Lysander followed the crowd of first years toward Hagrid.

"See you, Rose! Have fun getting eaten by the giant!" James called from where the third years were.

Rose rolled her eyes. As a younger child, she had been scared of Hagrid when he first visited and had believed Dominique when she said Hagrid was going to eat her. Now, James liked to tease her about it whenever he could.