Sands of Dragon Scales

Chapter 1

It was a rather chilly September mid afternoon as a single girl sat basking out on one of the benches, in the sunlight, in one of the many courtyards of Hogwarts. She currently had a sketch book in hand and was watching a ferret like animal jump around chasing a butterfly in pure joy. It was a lazy Saturday. And much like Hermione, her homework had long been completed. It was almost hard to comprehend that this was to her sixth year at Hogwarts. It seemed just yesterday that she had met Harry and the others.

"Rose? Rose, are you out here?" Speak of the devil. The girl looked up from her sketch, pushing a bit of her long brown hair behind her ear to reveal her shimmering light blue eyes. Harry had almost gone weak at the knees when their eyes met and she smiled brightly up to him, "Good afternoon, Harry." "Good afternoon. Sketching again?" Harry came up to the girl, trying to take a peek at her newest drawing. Rose gave the famous boy a look before completely showing him her work by handing him the sketch book.

Harry looked over the picture as he drew out a smile, "Amazing as ever." "You're just saying that," Rose teased, biting her lip to stop herself from letting loose a giggle. "No, I mean it. It's really good," Harry reassured her before realizing she was teasing him. He just chuckled before he handed the artwork back, "May I sit?" "Of course," Rose inched over on the bench so her friend could sit down.

Rose took a deep breath before letting it go. This was what normal was supposed to be like. Over the past five years, she had become anything but normal. And due to being friends with the famous Harry Potter, it was much more work than one would have thought.

Where could she begin? She had met Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express their first year. She had invited the boys to sit with her considering that there was no other place for them to go. Though she had been sorted Hufflepuff, she still keep up with the Gryffindor trio. She had been there through it all. She had gone to help protect the Philosopher's stone, only to have ended up playing with Fluffy, the tree headed dog, once the harp had stopped so the others could go on.

The next year, Voldemort had attacked through a dairy to place Ginny in a trance and let loose a Basilisk. Due to this, the large snake like creature was ordered to go around and petrify the half-blood wizards, or mud-bloods as some prefer. Considering Hermione had been petrified by the beast, Rose took it upon herself to aid the boys. Needless to say, she ended up babysitting a knocked out Gilderoy Lockhart, their once-oh-so-great-and-heroic Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for that year.

Their third year was the year that Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, had escaped from Azkaban. The man had been framed and was only trying to serve justice. Harry, Hermione, and Rose had to go back in time to save, not only Sirius, but a Hippogriff named Buckbeak. They had to run away from their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that year, a half Werewolf wizard, Remus Lupin, and scare off a bunch of Dementors.

The following year was the restart to the Triwizard Tournament. The arrival for Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and all which school, and Durmstrang Institute, and all wizards' school, was exciting to say the least. However, it had been the most toughest year for Rose. Their small group had a short break after Harry's name had been drawn from the Goblet of Fire. Ron had gotten upset at Harry as Hermione stuck by the redhead's side. Rose stayed close to Harry. This in turn had led them to the dragons Hagrid had shown them, exposing a secret she didn't want anyone knowing about, even if Harry promised to keep it a secret. The Yule ball had been much more complicated. As much as Rose had wanted to go with Harry or Cedric, a close fellow Hufflepuff, neither had stepped up to ask her until it was too late. She had been asked by another friend of hers, and Harry's number one rival within the school; Draco Malfoy. Throughout the other tests, came more and more surprises. But at the end of the games, Rose had lost one of her childhood best friends, Cedric Diggory. Not to mention that You Know Who had returned.