• • •
feel the fear and do it anyways
• • •
"Remus!" Rose called as the professor came into their compartment with a sour look on his face.
"Rose, are you alright, love?" Remus asked, holding Rose's face in his hands. She nodded her head, forcing Remus's hands off her and tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Why was that- that thing here?" She asked disgusted, pointing to were the dementor had been. Behind her, Annie was shaking and was being held by George who was stroking her hair with ease.
"The dementor-" Remus began but he was interrupted.
"What did you do?" Annie asked quietly, forcing herself out of George's arms and staring at Rose with bewilderment.
The tension in the compartment, which had been there ever since Rose had stepped in earlier, sprung our bigger this time. The boys looked tense and even Remus placed an encouraging hand on Rose's shoulder.
Rose took a deep breath, turning back to Remus and nodding her head.
"I can handle this," she told him.
"Rose-"
"She's my best friend," Rose interrupted. "I can not lie to her any further."
"No, Rose!" Remus loudly interrupted this time. "It's Harry, you might wanna come and have a look. Fred, George, you too."
The trio shared a concerned look as Remus walked out of the compartment and stood waiting for them patiently outside.
"Rose?" Annie asked, she was now holding Lee's hand tightly as the boy shook his head no.
"Go," He said. "We can wait."
"I am terribly sorry, Anne," Rose apologised, stepping out of the compartment. "I have to take care of whatever this is."
"Sir?" Fred asked once they were all out of the compartment and heading over to Harry. "Is everything alright, are Ron or Ginny hurt?"
"A dementor stepped into their compartment," Remus explained as he stopped walking in front of what they now figured was the third year's compartment. "They are all quite shaken up."
They slid the compartment door open as Remus muttered something about settling an issue up at the front of the train.
"Harry?" Rose called as she entered the compartment only to have her brother run into her arms in a desperate need of a hug. Rose wasted no time in wrapping her arms around her brother and kissing his head, which now reached up to her nose. Rose pulled back to hold his face in her hands like Remus had done only to realise that every part of his face, except for his eyes, looked exactly like James Potter had looked in an old ragged picture she had from his third year of Hogwarts.
When she looked up, she realised that Fred and George had entered the compartment and were having a chat with Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Ron as they cuddled a shaken up Ginny in their big brother arms.
"The dementor came in here too, didn't it?" Rose asked. The teenagers in the compartment nodded, Ron and Ginny avoiding all the eye contact possible, telling them all a very detailed story of how it had felt when it had come. Harry had been quiet, which lead Rose to pull him out of the compartment to talk to him in private, where the thirteen year old told Rose all about his encounter with the creature.
"Screams?" Rose wondered after Harry told her about what he heard.
"They were odd," he confessed. "Almost familiar."
"Alright," she nodded, putting her hand in his shoulder and guiding him inside his cart once more. "Get changed, we'll be reaching Hogwarts in no time. Fred? George? I have to go to the prefect's meeting, alright?"
"Oh, you got prefect, that's wonderful!" Hermione cheered, not reading the room. "Right, not the time."
"Thank you, Hermione," Rose smiled.
"Go on, Ro, we're alright in here," Fred assured the red head before she took a deep breath and left for her meeting.
• • •
"That is all for now, Prefects," Percy Weasley, Head Boy, said promptly as he wrapped us his parchment. "You may begin with your rounds with your new inter-house program. All of you have been assigned a partner and you can find out who it is by reading your personalised Prefect handbook that had been owled to you along with your prefect's badge. Rose, may I speak to you for a moment?"
As Penelope Clearwater, the Head Girl and Percy's girlfriend answered everyone else's question, Rose approached Percy with a tired smile on her lips.
"You're doing amazing, Perce," she said in all her honestly.
"Well, thank you very much, Rosalind," he smiled, before clearing his throat and squaring his shoulders. He sighed and spoke, "Rose, as you might already be aware many of your fellow prefects and classmates have the idea that you might only have been choose as prefect because of who you are. I want you to know that the decision made by Dumbledore and advised by myself and Penelope had nothing to do with your last name."
"I know that, Percy," Rose said. "And yes, I am aware of their thoughts. I am moved to prove them wrong, of course."
"I know you will," Percy rushed out, "however, had you had a chance to flip through your handbook?"
"I have not," she admitted. "I wasn't keen on the idea of having my mind in school work all through out the holidays."
"Well, you might want to look at it now," Percy suggested before dismissing everyone to their respective partners and rounds.
Rose cocked up an eyebrow and opened her handbook once she was out in the corridor of the train, they would arrive to the Hogsmeade station in less than ten minutes, which meant that she would most probably have to do rounds that night after curfew.
She opened the handbook in the section titled 'Rounds and Inter-house companions', she did not have to go far into the book to realise who her partner was, in that moment, she did not know what or who she had expected before. Percy's words bounced in her brain, 'you might want to look at it now,' he had said that with a sense of pity that Rose could only place at that moment because written in bold black ink, the name Adrian Pucey was spelt.
"Fan-bloody-tastic," she mumbled to herself as she restrained the urge to punch a wall.
• • •
"Can I sit here?" A familiar but slightly pitched voice asked Rose once she, Fred, George and Lee were sitting at the far back of the Gryffindor table, the four of them joking casually before the sorting began. Rose turned her head to the voice only to see Ron Weasley looking nervous and slightly bothered.
"I don't know, can you?" Teased Rose, making Ron stumble over his words. The poor boy hadn't even spoken to the Gryffindor Prefect since the news of her family had been realised. She moved one space to the right and smiled at Ron, "Go ahead, Ronnie, of course you can sit."
Ron smiled with relief at Rose whilst the twins made annoyed looks at Ron. The latter did not join in the chit chat until George directed a question at him.
"Where are Harry and Hermione, Ron?" He asked. "Why aren't you with them?"
"Let me guess," Fred attempted, "They finally realised what a git you are, did they?"
"Fred, shut it," Rose hissed, but a smile was adorning her blossom red lips. "Let the boy speak, for Godric's sake."
"McGonagall called them up for a chat," Ron explained.
"Huh," George said. "Reckon it's because of the dementor?"
"Must be," Ron shrugged, however, the group had no time to dwell on details as the sorting began and the face of eager first years were seen as the hat called their houses for the next seven years. Right after the sorting, Harry and Hermione joined them on the table, Harry looking a bit peaky but Rose could only guess it was because of the dementor attack.
"Did the news spread?" Harry whispered in Rose's ear. She instantly understood, her brother was referring to the news of him fainting in the train.
"Afraid so," she answered. "Don't worry, Harry, reckon everyone's to busy with other gossip that they'll forget about it in no time, you'll see."
However, Rose had been wrong. As she walked up to the Gryffindor Common-Room with Kenneth Towlers, escorting the young first years up for the first time, she could hear faint whispers of how Harry Potter had fainted. News seemed to be following the Potters because a few of her class mates were also looking at her and turning back to their own mates, she reckoned about her new found last name.
"Well, hello every one," Rose began once she and Kenneth had ushered the first years inside the cozy common room. "My name is Rose Light-er- Potter. My name is Rose Potter and I am your Prefect for this term."
Kenneth also introduced himself, letting everyone know that if they were to have any questions either him, or Rose would answer them. Once they finished with their Prefect duties, Rose joined her fellow fifth years for a cozy catch up in front of the fire place.
Alicia and Angelina were talking about their summer as Fred and George scribbled madly in their scrap books, probably about a new idea for their dream joke shop. Lee was talking to Amara, which instantly sparked up Rose's interest.
"Alright, Ames?" Rose greeted as she sat besides her cousin, facing Lee, and taking a sip of his drink. Which she soon discovered was pumpkin juice.
"Rose!" Amara cheered, giving her a one sided hug. "I haven't talked to you in ages, woman, were have you been?"
Rose barked out a laugh as she pulled her hair back into a pony tail. "You know, been around."
"Been around?" Amara laughed in disbelief. "What do you mean 'been around'?! After the party you didn't come back. Adrian was going mental, he kept saying that it was his fault that you left but he wouldn't say what he did."
"What's this i'm hearing about you not coming back?" Lee, who hadn't greeted Rose until that moment, asked. His face turned in concern. "I thought you said you spent your summer at Morgenstern Manor."
"I did," Rose defended herself, but received a glare from Amara. "Well, most of the time. I needed some time for myself so I went back to Remus's. I would've gone to the Weasleys's but they weren't answering my owls."
"I heard our name!" Fred called, picking up his head from his writing, he pushed George, making him pick up his head as well. "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, just summer," Rose answered before Lee or Amara could.
"No, no, no, Rosie," Fred tutted as he and George went over to sit by them. "You weren't with us this summer-"
"Which means you were talking about us," George continued.
"So go on with it, pretend we're not here!" Fred finished.
"And that, lads, is the reason one can not pretend you two aren't here," Rose joked, pinching George's and Fred's cheeks.
"Get off," George said as she shoved her backwards.
"Did you just shoved me, George Weasley?" Rose asked, laughing as she stood up with a pillow in her hand.
"I guess I did, what are you gonna do about it, rainbow- OI!" George was not able to finish his sentence as Rose threw a pillow at him, hitting him straight in the face.
• • •
"This is how it's gonna go, Adrian," Rose began, glaring at the Slytherin Prefect who stood before her. "We'll do our rounds, we'll make polite chit chat, we'll go back to the meeting point and then we'll go our separate ways, sound good?"
"No, actually, Lightbourn, it does not sound good," he argued.
"Well too bad," Rose answered sarcastically. "We're doing this my way."
"Well what about a bet, Lightbourn," he teased. "You love bets."
"What kind of bet?"
"I bet, that by the end of term you and I will be better than ever," he spoke with so much interest that Rose almost took his bet.
"We will be better than ever?" Rose asked. "What's in it for me?"
"If you win i'll leave you alone, Rose," he said, a hint of sadness in his voice.
"I'll think about it."