• • •
Rage, maybe rage would
Lift me up, make me stand,
Make me walk
• • •
"Tell me, Miss Potter, has there been any new developments that I should be aware of?" Healer Becker asked Rose as the young girl sat on the examination room of St. Mungo's.
"I've been home for two weeks," Rose shrugged carelessly, as if she didn't care for being there. Truth was, ever since she woke up in the hospital, headaches had kept her up all night and day. "Not much room for developments, is there?"
Rose knew what Becker was talking about, the Healer had insisted Rose had gone from manic into depressive in the two weeks she had been home. Either leaving in the middle of the night to god knows where or not leaving her room and starving herself to near death.
Healer Becker raised her eyes towards the girl, for once tearing her attention from the files in her hand. She huffed indignantly before speaking, "Have you gone to the mind healer I recommended?"
Rose flickers her gaze down to her lap before going back to the Healer with the same bored expression from before, "Haven't had the time yet," she admitted, twirling the hem of her dress in her fingers. "But I've taken the potions you've given me."
"Those are only temporal, Miss Potter, you can't take them forever," the Healer sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before bending to scribble on her clipboard. "Your body received enough trauma for a lifetime; you've got to see a mind healer."
"My body may be weakened for now, but my mind is perfectly fine," Rose insisted, raising her chin as she squared her shoulders; she hated the idea of having to stop taking the potions that provided her so much peace. "I haven't gotten the need, nor the time, for a mind healer."
The Healer sighed again; disappointment written all over her face but Rose's head was only focused on rage. Burning, red, rage clouded her insides and made her want to burn the whole place to the ground with the flick of her wrist. The feeling had been there since she saw Cedric on the floor, and she was sure it would not be leaving until she had Pettigrew begging for his life; a life that she would gladly take with her bare hands.
She could imagine it perfectly; the man who betrayed her parents and killed the man she loved, screaming and pleading on the floor for his life. She wouldn't be gentle, no, but she would be slow and careful. She would make him hurt and cry and scream as loud as his lungs would permit him until it all hurt too much that he would be deprived of even screaming. Rose could imagine herself soaking with the blood of the man she hated the most; looking at herself in the mirror with a sadistic smile on her face as red crimson blood dripped from her hair.
"Miss Potter!" Healer Becker snapped Rose out of her daydream, her crimson eyes changing into the lifeless grey she was becoming accustomed to. "Did you hear anything I have just said?"
"Beg your pardon, Healer Becker," Rose shook her head, clearing her throat as she straightened her dress. "What were you saying?"
Healer Becker seemed about to hex Rose for not listening, but she quickly looked down her files before speaking, "I said you will be asked to testify for the Aurors sooner rather than later; if you continue to refuse to go to the mind healer, when the Aurors demand answers your mind will not be capable of giving them at all."
"I won't be testifying," Rose scoffed, rolling her eyes at the Healer as she started to stand and pull her robe up her shoulders, wincing slightly as her head pounded again. "We both know who was responsible for Ced – his death. And we both know the Ministry won't help for shit; they've been proving as much in the papers after Harry spoke against You-Know-Who."
"Miss Potter-"
"I am going to have to ask you to never bring this up again," Rose insisted sternly, glaring at the Healer harshly before plastering a fake smile on her lips. "I will not be speaking to the Aurors any time soon, and neither will you, understood?"
"Perfectly," Healer Becker nodded, her bottom lip between her teeth as Rose turned on her heel and walked out of the examination room with the bag of potions on her arm. She fled to the lifts and rushed to push the button that would take her to the lobby.
Once she was there, she made a bee-line to the boy sitting in one of the chairs at the waiting area; his hair messed up just the right way and his jawline set tight with a copy of the Daily Prophet in his fingers. As soon as he heard her approaching, Adrian Pucey put down his newspaper and gazed up at her carefully.
"How'd it go?" he wondered, standing next to her as they walked towards the exit of the horrid hospital. "Did you get the refill for the potions?"
"Would've gone better if you were there," Rose admitted, even if she was the one who had insisted she could do it on her own. "Healer Becker reckons I will need to talk to the Aurors. And yes, I got the refills."
"Are you going to? Talk to the Aurors, I mean."
"No," she answered instantly, her gray eyes turning red for a single fleeting second. "They won't believe my story; they'll think I've gone off it since the maze, just like Harry."
"Have you talked to Harry since the maze?" Adrian wondered as they walked up to a dark alley where they would apparate.
"No," Rose said, her stormy grey eyes only going darker before she peered around the alley to make sure no one was around. "Shall we?"
"Rosie-"
"I don't want to talk about it, Adrian," Rose insisted, a glare starting to form in her eyes. "It'll only make me upset."
"Fine," Adrian sighed, gripping her arm and waiting for her to nod before he dissaparated them. She felt the familiar and dreaded sensation of dissaparation before she was twirled out of existence and appeared over the cobbled stone of Hogsmeade.
She grasped her throat as she let go of Adrian's arm quickly, her stomach was turning, and she was sure she would be sick at any given moment.
"Here," Adrian said, holding a vial of a green liquid which Rose knew was a potion to make her senses re-adjust and the nausea to go away. She drank it quickly and send him a thankful smile before clearing her throat.
"We should go," Rose suggested, dusting off her summer dress and making sure the glamour she had Amara cast in the morning was still in place over her bare arms. "We don't want to be late for the ceremony."
Adrian nodded, slipping his arm onto the small of Rose's back as he guided them towards the place where Avalon's graduation ceremony would take place. Rose, for her part, was glad that Adrian was holding onto her because she was quickly losing her mind with each step she walked towards the ceremony. She wasn't supposed to be there, it was all wrong. The fact that someone who should be graduating today was gone because of her made her want to rip out her own head out of her neck.
She tried closing her eyes, but all she saw was him. Him kissing her, him on top of her, him smiling down at her as she talked about her favourite book, and lastly, him lying on the ground after saving her life.
"Ro?" She heard Adrian by her side. She opened her eyes carefully and realized they were at the ceremony already. Rows of white chairs laid on the grounds of Hogwarts on opposite isles with a huge white tent over the whole place and a big stage before all the chairs.
She had never been to a graduation ceremony, but she hadn't expected it to look like a wedding. With everything white and the only difference was the house symbols draped over the back of the tent.
"Sorry, I zoned out for a moment there," Rose said, clearing her throat as she spotted Amara walking over them in her gorgeous flowery dress with her hair pinned back.
"You're both just in time," Amara beamed as she approached, kissing Rose's cheek gently and doing the same with Adrian. "They're about to come back from the boats. How'd the hospital go?"
"The usual," Rose shrugged, her eyes scanning the many people around her. "Got the refill of my potions and a quick check up before I walked out of there."
Amara rolled her eyes at her cousin, grinning slightly before she started bouncing up and down with excitement. "They're here! Come on, Mother and Father are waiting for us."
The trio walked down the isle and took their seats at the very front where Seraphina Morgenstern sat with her husband besides her.
"There you are!" the older woman cried as she saw them, a bright smile on her face and her bright eyes shining. "Avalon should be here at any moment! How did the appointment go, love?"
"It was fine," Rose shrugged from besides Amara with Adrian on her other side. "We can discuss it later."
"Whatever you wish, dear," Seraphina nodded, her lips pursing as she saw the grey colour on Rose's eyes. However, there was no time to discuss any of it because the former Seventh Years of Hogwarts were already forming a line on the middle of the isle.
Rose noticed Dumbledore walked up the stage and gave a speech she absolutely zoned out of. She was trying really hard to be present for her family, but the constant remainder that Cedric Diggory should be walking up the stage with his classmates wouldn't leave her mind when she saw the Hufflepuffs smiling with their class rings on their fingers as they descended the stage.
The Slytherins went next, Rose stood and tried to applaud as much as she could before she felt as if she would fall back into her seat again. Soon, it was all over, and Rose was left standing like a motionless picture as reporters snapped photographs of her family; all smiling in pride at Avalon.
As soon as she got the chance, Rose swiftly disappeared into the crowd and out of the ceremony. All of the people were giving her a headache, especially with all the looks they were throwing her way. She walked towards the womping willow, which for once seemed like it had gotten dormant. Rose could already feel the tears forming in her eyes by the time she got to the edge of the forbidden forest.
There, adorned with beautiful white flowers, laid Cedric Diggory's grave. Rose fell to her knees before it, her summer dress now drenched in mud as she cried silently to him. She whispered things into the air, hoping he might hear something, anything, but it was no use. He was dead, and he wouldn't be coming back, no matter how many necromancy books she read and how many potions she tried he wouldn't be coming back.
However, she reached her hand out to the grave, touching the stone that said his name. She whispered the spell one more time, putting all of her energy in it and feeling as her soul started to fade from her body –
"Rose?"
"AHH!" Rose's hand instantly retracted back to her and she turned her head to see the person who had startled her. It was Sophia Diggory, Cedric's mother. Rose instantly raised to her feet, wiping her eyes and trying to get the mud off her dress with no avail. "Pardon me, Mrs. Diggory, I thought I was alone."
"What were you doing?" Mrs. Diggory asked curiously, her eyes going from Rose to the grave.
"N – Nothing, I was just talking to him," Rose stuttered, clearing her throat and trying to calm the headache that was brewing behind her eyes. "Maybe he's listening."
Mrs. Diggory didn't seem convinced of what Rose was telling her, but nonetheless she nodded her head and sighed as she glanced at her son's grave. "He loved you with all his heart, Rose, you do know that, right?"
Rose tensed; her fists clenched on their own but she nodded her head painfully. "I know," she whispered, working up an excuse to leave but Mrs. Diggory beat her to it.
"The burial was beautiful," she said, faint tears glistering in her eyes. "It was a shame you couldn't be there, but Amos and I completely understand the condition you were in."
Rose could feel herself tensing again, so she nodded; not trusting herself to speak without her voice shaking tremendously. She couldn't remember anything from the nights she spend outside her home, she thought she had been in a bar down town from the manor, but there was no way for her to be sure.
"Anyway," Mrs. Diggory continued, dragging Rose from her thoughts. "I wanted to give you something I found whilst cleaning Cedric's room." Sophia then handed Rose a small velvet box with Rose's name etched on the front. "I believe he got it for your birthday, dear. I am sure he would want me to give it to you."
Rose turned the small box in her hand, fearing what she could find inside after feeling the weight of it. When she looked back up to thank Mrs. Diggory, she gasped as she found the woman was no longer there, and Rose was all alone again before Cedric's grave.
She glanced at his grave slowly before putting her attention back in the box. She took a deep breath and opened it carefully. Inside, a beautiful silver ring with a red ruby laid in all it's glory. There was a note also, it read,
Happy birthday, my love. You mean so much more to me than you think. I know it is stupid, but I must admit that I am terrified of the last task. I wrote this letter in case something goes wrong for whatever reason and I never get to say this to you in person. Here it goes: I love you, Rose Potter. I loved you before I kissed you for the first time and I loved you well after that too, I never stopped loving you and when you came back to me I knew you'd be the person that would hold my heart forever.
I didn't want to fall in love, I promise I didn't, but at some point you smiled and I blew it. That was it for me. You must think demented, but it's true. I could never figure you out but I always tried. I know you always tried too, you tried to do everything right all the time and all I've got to say about that, Rosie, is that you don't owe it to anybody; not even if you believe you do.
So if by some unknown reason this is the last you hear from me, know that I want you to promise that you will live your life how you want to live it, not how other people want you to. I am completely useless when it comes to you, you entangled yourself in my soul and decided you liked it there; I like you there too.
P.S. read the inscription in the ring.
Love, Cedric.
Rose did as the note said with teary eyes, taking the ring out of the box and reading the words written on the inside of the ring with beautiful gold letters.
"You are the last witch I will ever love."
Rose sunk to her knees once more and cried for what felt like hours again. She was tired of crying, tired of missing someone she would never see ever again. She tried tossing the ring far away from her but found that she couldn't. Instead, she conjured a small silver chain and wrapped it around her neck with the ring dangling from it.
Slowly, as if she would fall again, she picked herself off from the floor. She knew there was no more time to cry over Cedric. He was gone, she couldn't bring him back. Rose could feel the fire in her veins getting stronger, her thirst for revenge was not leaving any time soon. There was a war brewing, and Voldemort may have started it, but Rose Potter was going to end it.