Flora And Fawna [REWRITTEN]

2

Rose Evans was a quiet child. She always had been. In fact, Rosie could count on exactly one hand all of the people she had spoken to in the last week and that was how she was comfortable. School was a scary experience for her, and not even for the obvious reasons. Right now, the wizarding world was in an uproar and there was a tyrannical, radical wizard by the name of Voldemort trying to purge the magical world of muggleborns like Rosie. Which was something Rosie had grown up with and felt she could handle well enough. Hogwarts would be a fairly protected place, and Rosie wasn't unaware of what was happening. Lily had shared that much at least with them.

And as much as the current state of things worried everyone, Rosie was more worried that she would be going to entirely new placed and be made to interact with all sorts of new people. She wasn't good at making friends.

"But what if no one in my house likes me," Rosie protested, dragging her feet as Vernon and Petunia led her towards platform nine and three quarters to board her train. "What if I get sorted into that snake house, Slytherin, where all the purebloods go, and I get cursed every day for the rest of term?"

That was one thing, too. Rosie had always been raised to know that words had meaning. But sometimes those meanings were a lot more literal than she was used to. She could handle being looked down on for having two muggle parents that loved her. But now it wasn't just rude names. It was actual curses that could even kill Rosie. Kill Petunia and Vernon if it came to light that they were raising a muggleborn. 

Petunia rolled her blue eyes and pulled Rosie on a little faster, refusing to let her sister miss the train simply because her overactive imagination. Vernon smiled down at his wife's little sister, and stepped through the barrier with them, trying not to look like the odd one out as he carefully admired the gleaming red engine that would be taking Rosie to Hogwarts. It was far more magnificent than the silly little muggle train that had taken him to his boys college when he had been her age.

"You're a very likable girl when you actually talk to people," Petunia assured her as she began to lead the group through the crowd of people, parents and children, brothers and sisters all saying goodbye until the term ended in December. "Besides, you need to go to Hogwarts and learn as much as you can so I can hear all about it when you come back home in the winter."

Rosie opened her mouth to protest once more but Vernon put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. There would be no winning this argument and besides that Petunia had already given Rosie's trunk to the trainmaster and was leading her sister and husband towards one of the doors in the side of the train. It wasn't difficult for the woman to maneuver, she was quite heavily pregnant with she and Vernon's first child, a son they had decided to name Dudley. One of the perks of being 'as big as a house', as Petunia always put it, was having people move out of her way when she was trying to get somewhere in a hurry.

"Now," Petunia said coming to a stop in front of the train and turning to look her younger sister in the face. "You're going to write to me, right? Even if it means Vernon has to go and shoo one of those hideous owls off of our doorstep in the morning, I want to hear all about your adventures at school. So, you will write us, correct?"

Rosie nodded obediently, and Petunia smiled warmly and pulled the girl into her arms for a long, lingering hug. A hug that Vernon joined after a short pause because as much as he wouldn't say it, he had been raised to believe men didn't partake in all of the emotional hoodlum a woman did, he would miss Rosie as well.

The train whistled in warning that it was about to leave the station and Rosie finally pulled away from the two.

"I suppose I ought to get on the train before it leaves without me," she smiled ruefully, earning a grin from her sister and sister's husband. And without further grandeur Rosie turned around, boarded the train, and only turned back once to wave at the two before she disappeared to find a seat.