After The War (Romione & Hinny fan fiction)

Rose's Greatest Secret

The day before

Lily was humming the tune of Hoggy Warty Hogwarts as she brushed her teeth in the bathroom.

Clara had just finished showering when she stepped out of the shower, fastening the knot on her Gryffindor red bathrobe. "Hey." She smiled when Lily's eyes met hers in the mirror.

"Sorry for the intrusion." Lily apologised, "There was too little time: Longbottom's class starts in twenty minutes and we still have to get dressed."

"No problem." Clara shrugged. "Are Lara and Ellie up?"

"Ellie has gone to the Great Hall to pick up some sandwiches for all of us. Lara, obviously, refused to get up."

"Obviously." Clara said before grabbing her wand and preforming the hot-air spell her Grandma had taught her. She pointed the wand to her long hair and started to mess it up as Clara usually did whenever she had to dry her hair.
She never resisted.

Lily watched, her eyes glinting with amusement as her friend shook her head around, now pretending to be some Muggle rock star. They both started laughing when Lily put down her toothbrush and started doing the same.

But then Lily noticed something she never had before. Her eyes caught a glimpse of pinker skin on Clara's head. A thin line that went from the top of her head to behind her ear.

It was visible only for the barest moment, for so little that Lily wasn't even sure what she'd seen wasn't a trick of the light. Or maybe her imagination.

But no, it had been there. And it looked so much like her father's... scar. Wait! A scar?

Lily tapped on her friend's shoulder before she could stop herself. "Cl?"

Clara stopped jumping around and looked at Lily in concern when she heard the sudden seriousness in her friend's voice. A lock of her blond hair fell over her eyes. "Lils?"

"Is that... on your head..." Lily pointed shyly to where she thought she'd seen...
Clara only stared at Lily, the look on her face unreadable.

Since Clara wasn't going to help, Lily summoned the strenght to ask the question herself. "Is it... a scar?"

Clara nodded silently.

"How did you get it?" Lily asked gently.

A few seconds passed before the words left Clara's mouth. "Which version would you like to hear?"

"What do you mean?"

"My mom used to tell everyone who noticed that I had fallen down the stairs when I was small. I've learned to say the same thing whenever someone asks me about it, but now I can tell that I didn't fall..." Clara's eyes met Lily's and she held her gaze for an intense moment. When Lily nodded gently for her to go on, Clara inhaled slowly and said, "My mom used to leave me at my uncle's house while she went to work when I was little. I never liked going to my uncle's house, bacause... well, he had a drinking problem." Clara cleared her throat and went on, "I think I was three or four when my uncle had to bring me back home since mum had come back from work. It was early in the afternoon and he was already drunk. As we were making our way outside the house, he pushed me down the stairs. I don't think he knew what he was doing at the time. I just remember falling down and hitting my back first and then my head - thankfully not too hard, but still enough to leave a scar when the cut healed."

"That is... terrible. I'm so sorry."

"You don't have to--"

"No, I mean it, Clar. You shouldn't have gone through that."