Chapter 1
With Rose Granger-Weasley’s magical abilities, her name was put down for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the time of her birth; both her parents had attended Hogwarts, which presumably had some way of recording the birth of every child in Britain with magical ability. This could happen to Muggle-born children (children born to non-magical parents) if they had a Squib (someone born to a Wizarding family without any magical powers of their own) somewhere on their family tree—introducing the potential for magical ability into the bloodline—and, as Rose’s Muggle-born mother Hermione Granger had shown, being Muggle-born did not adversely affect one’s magical ability if such ability was present in a person. Rose’s family acknowledged this and therefore had a relative lack of belief in the supremacy of pure-blood wizards; this was evidenced by the fact that her paternal family members did not reject Rose’s father Ronald Weasley for marrying Hermione. This was in sharp contrast to a story told to Rose by her paternal uncle through marriage, Harry Potter, of Harry’s godfather Sirius Black and his (Sirius’) family. Oddly enough, Rose herself was biologically related to the Black family; her paternal grandfather, Arthur Weasley, was the son of Cedrella Weasley née Black—making Sirius Rose’s fifth cousin once removed, although he had died before Rose was born. But Rose did not know this until the first time she went to her uncle Harry’s house in London (which he had inherited from Sirius), as Cedrella, like Sirius, had been disowned by the Black family for not believing in pure-blood supremacy to the extent that most of the family did. Ever since then, the Weasley family had been considered “blood traitors” in the eyes of pure-blood supremacists all over the Wizarding world, particularly with Mr. Weasley’s obsession with Muggle lifestyles (which extended so far that Mr. Weasley had once worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office). Ron had even joked, when Rose met Scorpius Malfoy—the son of one of Ron’s former schoolmates with whom Ron, Hermione, and Harry had had a mostly antagonistic relationship, though this was not true to so much of an extent now—that “Granddad Weasley would never forgive [Rose] if [she] married a pure-blood”.
For her first few years at Hogwarts, Rose—despite her lack of belief in pure-blood supremacy—felt privileged to be a part of the Wizarding world. However, she did have a connection to Muggle society, as Hermione was Muggle-born. Witches like Hermione were viewed by pure-blood supremacists as unworthy of being part of the magical world, even though some of them—such as Hermione herself—were greatly talented; when Hermione had gone to Hogwarts, she was the best in her year. If the Weasley family had believed more in pure-blood supremacy, Hermione’s Muggle-born status would have been a great problem in their eyes, especially as Ron had married her; however, the Weasley family were such “blood traitors” (in the eyes of pure-blood supremacists) that they were not included on the Black family tree after Cedrella was disowned.
It is certain that if Muggle children knew of the Wizarding world (none of them did, due to the International Statute of Secrecy) the majority of them would give anything to be a part of it. There is, however, a minority of Wizarding children who can see the problems with the Wizarding world’s lifestyle. In the summer before Rose’s fourth year, Ron and Hermione decided that Rose and her brother Hugo should be introduced to Hermione’s parents, who as we know were Muggles. This was the connection that Rose had to Muggle society, as Hermione seemed to have fully “immigrated” to Wizarding society. This was not because Hermione’s parents hated wizards and witches; despite being Muggles, they were as supportive as they could be of Hermione’s magical education. Harry had told Rose a story showing that this was not true of all Muggles; if it were, the wizarding world would not have to keep its existence a secret from the vast majority of Muggles. It was because of people like the Dursleys, Uncle Harry’s own aunt and uncle who were intensely hateful of magic, that this was the case; the Dursleys had not supported Uncle Harry’s magical education at all–and with so many hidden dangers present during Ron, Hermione, and Uncle Harry’s time at Hogwarts (which had largely been shared by Rose’s aunt Ginny, Ron’s younger sister and Uncle Harry’s wife), the Dursleys hated Uncle Harry so much for his magical abilities that they would not have minded if he had died.
In any case, Ron and Hermione took Rose and Hugo to Mr. and Mrs. Granger’s house; Mrs. Granger confessed that she thought she would never see Hermione again now that Hermione was part of such a secret society as the Wizarding world. The Granger-Weasley family stayed with Mr, and Mrs. Granger for a few days, and the Hogwarts staff somehow knew they were there; the school owls therefore knew where to find the Granger-Weasley family to deliver the children’s book lists for school. At this time, Rose did not have a problem with the Wizarding world’s standard practice of using owls to deliver mail–but this would soon change.
Ron, Hermione, Rose, and Hugo left Hermione’s parents’ house and went to London, as there was a street full of Wizarding shops there called Diagon Alley; this street was unknown to the Muggles, who could not even see the Leaky Cauldron, the pub behind which it was located. Ron and Hermione could see it, though–this was enabled by Hermione’s magical ability, despite Hermione being Muggle-born.
But when the Granger-Weasley family was walking up Charing Cross Road to get to the Leaky Cauldron and enter Diagon Alley, they saw a group of Muggles doing an animal rights demonstration. They were wearing masks in order to remain anonymous, but they were showing (mostly illegally captured) footage of the factory farms in which the majority of animals were raised for food. After the family got into the Leaky Cauldron, they ran into Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, and Rose’s cousins Albus, James, and Lily Luna, the third of whose middle name was in honour of Luna Lovegood, a former schoolmate of Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. (Aunt Ginny was a year younger than Uncle Harry, Ron, and Hermione; Luna had been in the same year as Aunt Ginny at Hogwarts, but in a different House. Hogwarts had four houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin–into which Albus had unexpectedly been sorted, despite everyone else in the Potter and Weasley families having been sorted into Gryffindor, including Rose and the rest of her generation–as well as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, the last of which Luna had been in. Hermione had been considered for Ravenclaw by the Sorting Hat–a magical object that read new students’ minds and determined of which House they had the traditional qualities–but Hermione had instead been sorted into Gryffindor, without which she would have been none too close with Ron.)
Hermione took Rose and Hugo to the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron and up Diagon Alley–Ginny and her children followed the group—while Ron had a drink with Harry in the pub; Harry had been Ron’s best friend even before they were related by marriage, before Harry and Ginny were even in a relationship. Harry also had a connection to the Muggle world, though not a very close one; he reluctantly visited his cousin Dudley and Dudley’s children every Christmas, though he and Dudley did not talk much on these occasions. Anyhow, Harry had been reading a Muggle newspaper to which Dudley subscribed, and he had been reading about how the Muggles protesting on the street were just like the Antifa (anti-fascist) movement. Despite not being centralised, according to this article, the Antifa movement had quite a bad reputation in the United States, of which one of the main political parties was attempting to paint Antifa as a “terrorist organisation”. Ron said that the Muggles (or No-Majes, as they were called in the United States) would not say such a thing if they knew of the Wizarding world, which had been deeply harmed by a group of pure-blood supremacist terrorists known as the Death Eaters. Now that the Second Wizarding War had ended more than two decades prior, however, the term “Death Eater” would soon have an entirely new meaning in the minds of people like Rose.
Ron and Harry finished their drinks, and then they caught up with their respective wives and children at the joke shop Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes–which was owned by Ron’s brother George, although Harry (despite not having revealed it to Ron and Hermione until much later) had given Uncle George and his twin Fred–the latter of whom had died before Rose’s birth–the gold they needed to start such a business. Harry had a lot of money that he inherited from his family, though in his childhood he had often been quite embarrassed of this when he was around the Weasley family, who did not have nearly as much money. Ron saw Hermione and told her what he’d heard about Antifa and how the Muggles on the street outside may be associated with that movement. Hermione thought this unlikely, unless Antifa was connected to some sort of pro-animal rights movement; she said she would understand completely if they were, as she had worked extensively to improve the quality of life for house-elves–a type of magical creature that had historically been enslaved and been allowed to be treated extremely inhumanely.