• • •
Loyalty,
don't come for free
• • •
"Alright, the potion's ready now," Rose Potter announced, serving the potion in two vials. She looked around the boy's dorm, smiling as the twins made their way to the floor with her.
"We drink this, and we enter, right?" Fred asked, taking one of the vials in his hands and examining it carefully.
"Right," Rose agreed, handing George his own vial. "Just make sure you drink it right before crossing the age line, or else it will wear off quickly."
"Got it, thanks, love," Fred grinned, pecking Rose's lips quickly before going back to the vial.
"Lee?" Rose called, filling up another vial. "Are you sure you don't want one?"
Lee, who was perched on the window with a cigarette dangling from his lips and a pair of black earbuds connected to a muggle player, shook his head, and exhaled some smoke, putting the earbuds on. Rose glared up at him as he looked back to the grounds; she could hear the slow beat of his heart in his rib cage and a few words that were coming out of his earbuds.
"Not worth it, Rosie," George said bitterly, following her line of sight and glaring up at Lee too. "Been trying to get a word out of him for hours."
Rose pretended not to listen to George, instead, she studied Lee even harder; his posture was bad, very bad. His head, even if it was resting against the wall, hung low and if she squinted hard enough, she could make out a few unshed tears in his eyes.
"Hey, boys?" Rose called to the twins, not tearing her eyes from Lee. "Do you mind fetching my potions book? I think I left it in the common room."
"What for?" Asked Fred.
"Just want to make sure I didn't miss any of the final steps of the potion," she muttered back to him, smiling with gratitude as both boys walked out of the dorm. "O.K. they're gone, talk," Rose ordered, taking a seat in the window ledge beside Lee.
"Nothing to talk about," he mumbled, taking another drag from his cigar.
Rose rolled her eyes, her patience wearing off as Lee stared into the nothingness. "Come on, Lee," she tried to persuade him. "I know you and I haven't talked about your feelings in a while, but I know something's bothering you, I just want to help you."
"Rose," Lee sighed, his voice annoyed and loud as he ripped the earbuds off his ears and glared at the red head. "I don't want to talk about it; can't you let it go for once?"
She kept quiet, staring at her best friend as he glared at her as if she was the person, he despised the most. Her mouth made a low sound, almost a gasp but not quite.
"Just get out of here, Rose," Lee muttered, plugging back his earbuds, and staring off into the distance again. She felt her eyes swelling with tears; Lee had never talked to her like that. She and Lee were honest with each other, there were no secrets. If it would've been another person, she would've told them to fuck right off to the States for daring to talk to her in that voice; but it was Lee, so she bit her lip, nodded her head, and dashed out of the room.
As she walked down the boy's staircase she could hear her own loud heartbeat in her ribcage, her own blood running through her veins; it made her feverish... it made her sick. Reaching the common room, she saw the twins chattering and laughing with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, her potions book long forgotten.
It wasn't hard for her to disappear into the room, slip away; her hair matched the walls and furniture perfectly. She simply had to hang her head low and leave through the door... she did.
She strolled through the corridors, arms wrapped about herself, wishing she'd fetched a coat before rushing out. Her eyes weren't watery anymore, they were dry, as if Lee hadn't even rose his voice to her. However, that was not what she felt; the knot in her stomach wouldn't go away and all the voices in her head were getting louder and louder.
She kept biting her lip, reminding herself that it was only a fight, they would talk about it later. But nothing worked, she drew blood from her lips; marking little crescent moons on the inside of her palms where her nails had dug into.
Rose only noticed where her feet had taken her when she felt the cold chilly wind hit her face. She picked up her head, aweing at the beautiful landscape that could be seen from the top of the Astronomy Tower. She walked towards the ledge, allowing her ears to perk up at the sound of the rustling forest, however, that wasn't the only sound she heard; a loud thundering heartbeat and quickened breaths reached her senses.
Rose twirled on her spot; her nose red due to the cold as her eyes connected with deep blue eyes. Rose's eyes traveled towards the face of the person; shoulder-length blonde hair, pale freckled skin, and a button up nose.
"Rose?" Annabelle Fletcher, George's ex-girlfriend and Rose's former best friend, breathed, passing a nervous hand through her slightly darker blonde hair. Rose's eyes went wide, her green eyes shining and then darkening as she saw the fag in between Annie's yellow nailed fingers.
"Annie," Rose muttered, gazing at her as if examining everything from the blonde; the new aura she gave off, Rose thought, wasn't as bright and shiny as Rose recalled. "What are you doing here?"
"Needed to think," Annie shrugged, walking past her, and resting her arms on the ledge. Her hand then fumbled inside the pocket of her coat, and she pulled out a packed of cigarettes. She took one out and offered it to Rose. "Want one?"
"Thank you," Rose half-smiled, accepting the cigarette and lighting it up with the tip of her wand. They stayed quiet for a while, both prefects smoking in silence; but the thick cloth of dead silence was starting to make Rose nervous. "How are you?"
Annie's eyebrow shot up, giving Rose a surprised look before her rosy lips formed a smile. "I'm fine," Annie said, her voice low and raspy. "How are you? I heard you were in an accident right after we left fifth year."
Now it was Rose's turn to be surprised; Annie had been one of Rose's friends since they arrived at Hogwarts, but now Rose was not sure if she ever did know the blonde Hufflepuff.
"I got better," Rose admitted, ignoring the sudden urge to scratch her scar. "Stayed with my cousins the whole summer."
"Right," Annie chuckled quietly. "The Morgenstern."
"So, you knew," Rose realized, her voice growing from low into sarcastic. "You knew where I was, yet I never received a letter from you."
Annie looked down, embarrassed as she twisted the ends of her radiant hair.
"I could've died, you know?" Rose continued, knowing Annie wasn't going to speak anymore. "Least you could've done was to send a letter."
"I know," Annie agreed, nodding her head in understanding. "I'm sorry."
"Save it," Rose spat bitterly, letting her now worn-out cigarette to fall to the floor and stomping on it once with her foot. She tried walking away, but something kept her there, turning her heel and glaring at Annie. "You know, Anne, I haven't heard from you since you broke up with George. I thought I would've had a choice to choose who I was staying close to after that, but you didn't give me one! You disappeared! It was like you never existed!"
"I know, Rosie, believe me, I know," Annie countered, pushing her hair behind her ears. "I reckoned it would've been easier that way-"
"Well, it wasn't!" Rose interrupted; her voice venomous. "It wasn't easier that way. It was harder, it was like missing a ghost."
"You missed me?" Annie wondered stupidly; her voice astound.
"We all did," Rose admitted, her voice growing lower. "Not only me."
Annie sighed, pulling at the roots of her blonde hair. "Will you forgive me?" she asked, her electric eyes teary.
"Over time," Rose nodded. "Over time, I will."
Annie smiled, walking towards Rose; but the red head put her arm up, placing it on Annie's shoulder and forbidding her from getting any closer.
"I said, over time," Rose reminded her. "Not yet."