Every Rose Has Its Thorns

Shrieking Shack Attack

In the aftermath of her fight with Draco, Rosalie kept her distance  from the conceited Slytherin. It was mostly for her well-being, knowing  that her patience was wearing thin and one more argument could lead her  to harm not just Draco but anyone else around him. The second she laid a  single scratch, Snape would strike to defend his favorite student and  she preferred to avoid serving another detention of pickling rat brains,  with the added bonus of being caught between the silently feuding Harry  and Ron. Her self-imposed isolation meant that she would only be near  him during lessons, where she had no choice. Outside the classroom, she  spent most of her time with Harry and Hermione, falling asleep multiple  times in Gryffindor tower to avoid late night run-ins with the royal  jerk and his band of brainless lackeys.

The prospect of Harry  competing in the Triwizard Tournament was terrifying but provided her  with a distraction, for her and for him. He was not just contending with  the upcoming first task, of which he had no details aside from it  testing his courage, but the trashy journalism of Rita Skeeter.

A  few weeks after his meeting with Ludo Bagman, an article was published  in the Daily Prophet, exclusively about Harry and little to no mention  of the other champions. Rita Skeeter, a ruthless reporter, had twisted  his words or made them up, portraying Harry as a depressed teenage boy  who cried over his parents every night and speculation on his friendship  with Hermione. The article gave the Slytherins more ammunition for  their bullying, joyfully quoting it to him in the halls or at meals.  Hermione suffered her own insults at the hands of Pansy and her clique,  though she continued to hold her head high.

Lizzie warned Rosalie  not to speak to Rita Skeeter herself about the false reporting, calling  her nothing more than a sordid gossip reporter. Her family had been on  the receiving end of her lies in the past and she knew firsthand that  standing up to her made that person her next victim.

When she was  not keeping Harry from lashing out at his tormentors, which consisted of  three-fourths of the school, she was working on finding the time prism.  Unbeknownst to her roommates, her potion was brewing beneath her bed,  growing closer to completion, but finding the prism was half the battle.  Once the potion successfully located the prism, she needed to break  through its defenses. Hearing of the first official trip to Hogsmeade,  Celeste devised a plan.

"I'm not getting you another butterbeer.  You're a big boy. You can do it yourself," Rosalie whispered to Harry.  "I believe in you."

She was sitting in the Three Broomsticks with  Harry and Hermione, her hardheaded cousin choosing to hide under his  invisibility cloak. Even hidden away, she could sense him glancing over  at a table where Ron, Fred, George, and Lee sat, drinking butterbeers.

"You  don't want to see the Slytherins," he countered, petulantly. "Why won't  you tell me what Malfoy said? If you won't sit near him, it must've  been bad. Tell me and I'll handle it."

"Don't need you to because I  can fight my own battles. Either suck it up and get your own drink or  you can help me finish my packet so I can be done with this tutoring,"  she offered, holding up a thick packet. "If we can call it that..."

It  was given to her by McGonagall at the end of her Transfiguration  lesson. If she correctly answered each question, she would no longer be  required to attending tutoring sessions with Alec. The problem was that  the professors were under the impression their sessions had been  constant and educational, not interrupted by a jealous sixth year with  the urge to throw Rosalie off a cliff.
After Halloween, Vivienne  amped up her efforts to have Alec to herself, interrupting their  sessions before they began and pulling him away before she could greet  him between classes. It was as if she had a secret tracker implanted  under his skin. With Alec unable to teach her anything, she relied on  Hermione, who proved to be a much better tutor. Rosalie did not have to  worry about someone interfering with their studies in the library,  unless she counted Viktor Krum staring at Hermione from a distance which  she dismissed as a silly idea.