• • •
The fact that
you are trying
is a proof that
you are strong
• • •
For the first few weeks after Rose returned from the Holidays, she didn't go back to the mirror again, she couldn't deal with the fact of staring at the people who she most missed in the whole universe, knowing that she would never see them again. . . Besides Harry said that Dumbledore had caught him one night after curfew and asked him to stop coming to the mirror of eridise, Dumbledore reckoned it didn't do well to dwell on dreams.
On another note, Oliver Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. Fred and George complained that Oliver was becoming a fanatic, but Rose was on his side. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the House Championship. Rose found that lately she had been prioritising quidditch ahead of everything else in her life, she felt as if she spent too much time on the pitch rather than on the library or the common room. But that might've been the fact that Oliver was quidditch crazy.
Then, during one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Oliver gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd just got very angry with the twins, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms.
"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"
George really did fall off his broom at these words.
"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."
The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.
"It's not my fault," said Oliver. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."
"Even if we play the cleanest game in the whole century, we haven't got a chance at winning with Snape refereeing!" Rose said, her cheeks were a bright crimson colour due to the cold.
"Sorry, everybody." Oliver said, throwing his hands up in the air. "There's nothing we can do."
Rose huffed in annoyance and turned on her heel, stalking towards the quidditch changing rooms.
"What is it with her?" She heard Angelina ask the team, Rose kept walking.
"Leave her to it, Angie." Fred sighed, he was obviously tired from practice. "Reckon she hasn't been sleeping well."
Rose heard Angelina say 'oh', before all the noise was cut off as she turned the handle of the showers on, making burning water fall from it. Fred had been quite right, she hadn't been sleeping well, or eating well, or concentrating on anything at all. Whenever she closed her eyes she saw a blinding green light, she willed herself so make that light turn into the emerald eyes of Lily and Harry Potter, but deep down she knew what that light was.
• • •
As the day of the match grew closer, the team's nerves didn't lower, instead they grew bigger. It was mid February and most girls in Rose's year seemed to be talking about the upcoming Valentines day, which luckily for them, had fallen on a Hogsmeade weekend the day after the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor match which was on a Friday.
Rose tuned out Oliver's speech, she was too busy trying to come up with a strategy to win before Snape even thought of docking off points or making them lose.
"The whole school's out there!" said Fred, peering out of the door of the changing rooms. Rose gasped quietly "Even – blimey – Dumbledore's come to watch!"
"Dumbledore?" Harry shrieked, dashing to the door to make sure, Rose following suit. Fred was right. There was no mistaking that silver beard.
Soon the teams were walking to the pitch. Both captains shaked their hands before Snape blew the whistle, and just like that they were off to the skies.
A Hufflepuff chaser was in possession of the quaffle, but Rose was hot on his tail. Just then, a bludger flew past her head and towards Snape's direction. Hufflepuff obviously received a penalty for that.
On the stants, however, something very different was happening. Draco Malfoy had seated himself behind Ron, Hermione, and Neville Longbottom.
"Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?" Malfoy teased, Crabbe and Goyle snickered. Ron didn't answer, he kept his eyes on the sky watching his brother and friends.
"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all. Rose was starting to go frustrated up in the sky. "It's people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money, there's Lightbourn who's a mudblood – you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."
Ron glared at the sky when Malfoy had mentioned his siblings and Rose.
Neville went bright red but turned in his seat to face Malfoy. "I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," he stammered.
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle howled with laughter, but Ron, still not daring to take his eyes from the game, said, "You tell him, Neville."
"Longbottom, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something."
Ron's nerves were already stretched to breaking point with anxiety about Harry.
"I'm warning you, Malfoy – one more word –"
"Ron!" said Hermione suddenly. "Harry –!"
"What? Where?"
Harry had suddenly gone into a spectacular dive, which drew gasps and cheers from the crowd. Hermione stood up, her crossed fingers in her mouth, as Harry streaked towards the ground like a bullet. Rose had scored the quaffle, earning a high-five from her fellow chasers.
"You're in luck, Weasley, Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground!" said Malfoy.
Ron snapped. Before Malfoy knew what was happening, Ron was on top of him, wrestling him to the ground. Neville hesitated, then clambered over the back of his seat to help.
From the sky Rose caught a glimpse of what was happening between the Slytherin and Gryffindors, she let out a hollow laugh before a bludger collided straight to her back, knocking the air out of her and making her hold her broom for dear life.
Not a second later Harry had caught the snitch, he rose his hand in the air in triumph. The stands erupted; it had to be a record, no one could ever remember the Snitch being caught so quickly.
Rose was still trying not to fall off her broom, she leaned forward trying to catch her breath.
"Blimey! Rose!" George had spotted her and was flying towards her with a huge grin on his face.
"M'fine!" Rose mumbled once he got closer, though her eyelids felt a little heavy.
"Alright, come down, you big baby!" George laughed, pulling her broom besides his so that she could descend easily.
However, she rolled off her broom and fell on her back to the ground. She could hear the celebration around her, the laughs and cheers from her house exploding on the stands and pitch.
"Quit being so dramatic!" George said as he rolled his eyes and pulled Rose up to her feet.
"It's your fault!" She accused, though there was a fond smile on her lips. " You didn't save me, Georgie!"
"Oh shut it, you bloody exaggerator!" George said, shoving her slightly but catching her once more.
The two friends walked back to the common room, half expecting it to be in utter chaos.
As they walked, Rose remembered something that Annie had so kindly asked her to ask George.
"George?" Rose questioned, she scrunched up her nose. "Are you getting Annie anything for Valentines?"
George made a grunting sound and then quirked up his eyebrow at her. "Should I?"
"Only if you want to," Rose shrugged. "I reckoned you had planned something since you fancied her and all that."
"When have I ever said I fancied Annie?" George asked in a shaky laugh.
"I thought you did, the way you look at her and all that." Rose explained, looking at her feet.
"Maybe I should get her something for Valentines." George spoke under his breath. Rose smirked, but her eyelids were still growing heavy.
• • •
"HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!" A shout echoed through the girls dormitory on the morning of February 14th.
Rose raised her head from under her duvet and looked up to see Angelina shooting paper-cut hearts from her wand and into the air. The girl was dancing and laughing all over the room, trying to wake up Alicia and placing a red ribbon on all the girl's beds.
"What's this for?" Rose yawned, holding up the ribbon. The relationship between Rose and Angelina had improved only because they were both so enthusiastic about quidditch, and maybe also because Rose had decided to not loath her team-mate because of some boy.
Angelina turned around from Alicia's bed and grinned broadly at Rose. "For your hair, of course! To show off the Valentine's spirit!"
"Can you and your 'Valentine's spirit' kindly SHOVE OFF!" Amara grumbled from her bed as she twisted towards the other side of her mattress.
"I like the idea," Alicia contributed once she had finally lifted of the covers off her, smiling up at Angelina. Both chasers then turned to Rose expectitavly.
"It's good, i'll wear it." Rose agreed, entering the bathroom and getting herself ready.
"Thanks for the support, Rose!" Amara whinged from her bed before Rose shut the door of the bathroom shut.
Rose took a shower and changed quickly, carefully tying her hair in a low ponytail with the red ribbon, a few strands of red hair were framing her face. She curled up the tips of her hair with her wand quickly in order to make them less messy, and curled up her eyelashes too. Only when she was done did she questioned when had she started fussing over her appearance so much. She stared at herself a little longer, before giving a long sigh and leaving the bathroom.
She gathered up her bag and her books before making her way to the common room were she knew the boys would be waiting for her like every other morning. Of course, there they were. Their hair was messy, it was always messy this days, they were lounging on the sofa of the common room talking quietly amongst themselves.
"Morning," She mumbled, pulling Lee up to his feet since he was the nearest to her.
"Bloody hell!" Lee laughed as she continued to pull him out of the common room. Fred and George were trailing behind. "What has got you in such a good mood?!"
"Haven't you heard?" Rose teased, she slowed down so that the twins would walk besides them. "It's Valentine's day!"
"UGH!" Lee and Fred groaned at the same time. George laughed quietly at their reaction.
"Don't tell me you've gone love crazy too!" Fred asked in fake horror.
"C'mon, Ro, Valentine's day is lame!" Gagged Lee.
"You three are no fun!" Rose complained as they got closer to the Great Hall. "Valentines isn't only for couple, did you know?"
"Well did you get us something?" George asked, fluttering his eyelashes.
"No!" Rose pouted, crossing her arms over her chest and walking towards the Gryffindor table. "Since you tossers think today is lame I didn't bother on getting any of you anything!"
"ROSIE!" The three boys called in a whine, all taking their usual seats around her.
"What?" Rose asked innocently. "Reckon you didn't get me anything either!"
The three boys shut up in the moment as the owls began to arrive to the Great Hall. Rose didn't look up, but Jamsie landed in front of her with more than five letters attached to her. Lee, George, and Fred arched up an eyebrow at her to which she shrugged helplessly and unattached the letters from Jamsie. She gave her owl a piece of toast before it flew off again.
"Why'd you get so many letters?" Fred asked with his mouth full of toast.
"Don't know." Rose responded before she began ripping open the letters all together. Harry, who was a little further down the table with Hermione and Ron was also looking at her in confusion.
Rose,
Hogsmeade later today?
Hoping to be your Valentine, Even Jasper.
She furrowed her eyebrow, throwing a quick glance to the Ravenclaw table where sure enough a blond lad with the name of Even Jasper was smirking at her. Rose had met him once at the library, but she had never talked to him again after that.
Happy Valentines, Rosie!
Did you know I used to fancy you last term? Thought you should know given everything. Thanks for the ring, I love it!
Cheers!
Cedric Diggory.
Rose went bright red and she refused to look towards the Hufflepuff table. She placed the letter over the table, unaware that the boys where reading the letters as she set them down. She read a couple more letter from boys she had never heard of or that she had simply bumped into sometime. Some of the letters were asking her to Hogsmeade while other where only wishing her a good day and complimenting her on her quidditch skills or looks.
She only had one note left to read, a neatly written one with a single black rose attached to it.
Lightbourn,
Happy Valentine's day. I don't really fancy this kind of holiday, but I reckon you do so here I am writing you a sappy letter. There's not much to say really, but I still wanted to let you know that I thought about you this Valentine's day.
I don't know which was your favourite flower, so I attached a black rose. Reckoned a red rose was a little too sappy considering you are literally a red-headed Rose. Please ignore that joke if you didn't find it funny, Rose.
Perhaps we can catch up in Hogsmeade some time? Even if only as friends.
Reply soon?
Adrian Pucey.
Rose found herself blushing and beaming once she finished reading the letter. She let the letter over the table but gathered up the rose in her hand. She looked over to the Slytherin table where Adrian was smiling sheepishly at her and Cassius Warrington seemed to be teasing him mercyless.
'Lilies,' Rose mouthed at Adrian. Adrian's eyes shone for a moment before he gave her a nod and turned to his own table once more.
Rose looked at her friends, only to find them reading the last sentence of Adrian's letter, the other letter were sprawled out on the table. Obviously they had read those.
"OI!" Rose shrieked, making a grab for her letter but failing as Fred held it over his head. "That's mine, you wanker!"
"I'm not finished reading!" Fred said in a cold tone as his eyes drifted from word to word in the letter. By the time he finished reading, Rose thought he might explode from the look of his face.
"Sonorus," She heard Fred whispered as he stood on top of the table.
"Oh no," Rose murmured as her face grew to one of concern.
"Alright, everyone, listen up!" His voice echoed through the Great Hall loudly. Professor McGonagall stood up from her breakfast and gave him a warning look. "Anybody who gave Rose Lightbourn a bloody Valentines letter, let me break it to you: She is not interested in anyone at the moment so kindly, BACK OFF or you'll be pranked merciless for the rest of the term!"
Rose's face grew even more red as every head in the hall seemed to turn to her. They were either laughing or glaring at Fred, most blokes where glaring at Fred though.
"Thank you, Mr Weasley!" McGonagall called loudly. "For kindly informing us that Miss Lightbourn isn't available at the moment. So please, get down from that table in this instant!"
"Yes, ma'm!" Fred grinned. Rose glared at him and stalked out of the great hall.
"What did I do now?" Fred asked as he saw Rose walked away with her hair curled up with electrifying magic that meant she was most likely pissed off.
"You embarrassed her, you idiot!" Annie came from behind him and slapped him over the head.
"Oi!"
"You better go apologize," Recommended George, eyeing Annie as she drank pumpkin juice.
"Why should I?" Fred asked, putting his hands up in the air. "She wasn't interested anyway!"
"And how do you know that, Frederick?" Annie asked, her glare was almost as intense as Rose's. "Have you ever bothered to ask?"
"Well she was going all red in the face and I assumed—"
"Exactly!" Anni snapped as she let her fork fall into the table. "You assumed that Rose wasn't interested! You assumed that she would appreciate you coming to 'save' her from really sweet letters that, for your information, where revised by me before they got sent to her! SO if I were you i'd be running behind her by now!"
By the time she Annie was finished she was breathless and everyone around her looked stunned. Annie straightened her robes and took a deep breath before giving her friends a more calmed down explanation about the letters.
"It seems that Rose has become a subject of interest amongst the boys on our year, some of them came to me asking what they should give her for Valentines to catch her attention. I told them that Rose would appreciate a short letter, since she was a very easy girl to please. Eventually about seven blokes came to me and asked me to go through the letters to see if she would like them. I told them that I didn't garauntied them a romantic relationship with Rose, some of them were very confident with themselves, and others where only happy to be on her radar.
"I knew that Rose was probably going to dismiss the letter, and that she probably wouldn't've been interested, but I still thought it was nice for her to get the letters. I wanted to do something nice for her, this was supposed to be my Valentines surprise for her. I couldn't help to notice the smile that grew on her face when she opened the letter, I think she was very happy to receive those letters, even if she wasn't interested in the boys themselves." Annie grew quiet after that, she began playing with her food. Eventually, she sighed and left the Great Hall in search for Rose.
Annie found her red-headed friend sprawled out the cold grass near the lake, she had her acoustic and a book by her side, but apparently she wasn't paying them much attention. Rose had her eyes closed, but Annie noticed how the skin around them were pink, just like the tip of her tiny nose and cheeks.
Rose heard the footsteps and sat up to look who it was. Anne smiled down at her and sat besides her. Annie wasted no time on gathering Rose in her arms and rubbing circles down her back as the shorted girl hiccuped with small cries and sniffs.
"Poor love," Cooed Annie as she kissed the top of Rose's head. "You'll feel better once it's all out."
Rose sniffed a few more times, before she pulled back and rubbed her sore eyes with her sleeve and half-smiled at Annie.
"Thank you," Rose breathed.
"Anything for my best mate." Annie responded with a bright smile. Rose tried to grin back but her expression grew somber. "He's very sorry, you know?"
"I know." Rose confirmed.
"I'm sure he'll apologize."
"I know he will."
"Will you forgive him?"
Rose have a sigh and nodded her head sadly. "I know I will."
Annie, sensing Rose's mood, fetched the acoustic and handed it to Rose.
"Go on," Annie said smiling. "I haven't heard it in ages!"
Rose gave a grateful smile to her friend and twirled her fingers against the chords of her acoustic.
"I don't wanna die or fade away
I just wanna be someone
I just wanna be someone
Dive and disappear without a trace
I just wanna be someone
Well, doesn't everyone?
And if you feel the great dividing
I wanna be the one you're guiding
'Cause I believe that you could lead the way
I just wanna be somebody to someone, oh
I wanna be somebody to someone, oh
I never had nobody and no road home
I wanna be somebody to someone
And if the sun starts setting, the sky goes cold
Then if the clouds get heavy and start to fall
I really need somebody to call my own
I wanna be somebody to someone
Someone to you
Someone to you
Someone to you
Someone to you (someone to you)
I don't even need to change the world (change, change the world)
I'll make the moon shine just for your view
I'll make the starlight circle the room (circle the room)
And if you feel like night is falling
I wanna be the one you're calling
'Cause I believe that you could lead the way
I just wanna be somebody to someone, oh (somebody)
I wanna be somebody to someone, oh
I never had nobody and no road home (I don't have)
I wanna be somebody to someone (somebody)
And if the sun starts setting, the sky goes cold
Then if the clouds get heavy and start to fall
I really need somebody to call my own
I wanna be somebody to someone
Someone to you
Someone to you
Someone to you
Someone to you