The Red Table

chapter i

Rose Weasley slumped on the couch and helped herself to another serving of ice cream. She tentatively watched Gabriella and Troy dance around in the rain and groaned. She had been watching muggle romance movies all summer and she still didn't understand how the protagonists found love so bloody easily.

She was seventeen and still hadn't had her first boyfriend, much to her father's relief. All her friends had gotten boyfriends, so why couldn't she? Rose groaned as she slowly realized again that she had been too enraptured in her studies for all six years to care. She had always had unbelievably messy red hair and wore the frumpy school uniform that appeared to be one size too big. She never made an attempt to perfect her appearance rather she had constantly perfected her memorization of the history of magic and charms. Heck, not even the witty and intelligent Ravenclaws wanted her, for she had a tendency to correct them during lectures.

Rose let out yet another inarticulate sound and glanced at the calendar. Five more days till she was going back to Hogwarts for her final year. She scurried up the stairs and nearly tripped over a broken quill. Her room was a terrible mess. The beauty magazines and snack wrappers claimed the floor as their territory. Disturbed by the large clutter, she decided to clean her room. The muggle way. She collected all the food wrappers and tossed them into the waste bin.

Before throwing away her magazines, Rose skimmed through them and checked if there was anything that would be able to fix her up in a few days. However, what she found inside one of them was much more than just a sample fragrance. She had found a small piece of red parchment wedged into a magazine, which she had figured was her best friend, Alice Longbottom's from the last time she had visited. Peaked with curiosity, Rose pulled out the parchment and decided to read the writing on it.

"Join the first drawing of the Red Table on the 8th day back at Hogwarts at The Room of Requirements. However, the first drawing is exclusive to seventh years! Be prompt and be there at 11 pm."

Rose had recalled the Red Table was essentially the game of getting a pen pal, however, most ended in relationships. She had always thought that the game was juvenile and a load of bullocks, but at this point, she was desperate to have some kind of romance in her seemingly last year of youth.

She was convinced that this year was going to be the year. Or at least she hoped. Rose was dusting off her suitcase when a pair of brown eyes peeked from the doorway. 

"Rosie! Are you excited for your last year of Hogwarts?" Hermione exclaimed, with twinkling eyes.

"No, Mum. I'm definitely dreading my duties as head girl and absolutely not excited to see my housemates," Rose sarcastically said, rolling her eyes.

"You're quite the sarcastic one aren't you?" Hermione chuckled.

"Right you are." Rose joked.

"Enough with this fooling around, we're visiting the Burrow in ten minutes for a small back to school gathering. Get ready, I'm now going to go tell your brother and father," Hermione instructed, as she was walking out of her room.

Rose took a glimpse of her current outfit, which consisted of a baggy grey jumper and loose pajama shorts, and decided against wearing that to the burrow. She took a look at her now organized closet and just slipped on a pair of skinny jeans and a navy blue crop top. She fixed her raggedy attempt of a messy bun by just setting her bouncy red curls free. She flopped on to her bean bag chair & laced up her white Converse. Rose took a look at herself and was actually quite proud of herself. She had managed to put together an outfit that made her somewhat look like all the other girls at Hogwarts. She grinned and admired herself in the mirror, till Hugo popped his head through the door opening.