"If you live to be a hundred, then I want to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you." -Winnie the Pooh
---------------> IT HAD BEEN A WEEK SINCE SHE HAD LAST SEEN HIM.
Rose and the four Longbottom's were now living in Astra, and the couple was slowly recovering (She was willing to bet her -very large- inheritance that the Order must have thought that the Dark Lord had somehow kidnapped the five of them for some heinous plot since the five of them had disappeared from their sight without a word).
In the end, Neville did declare House Longbottom neutral in the war (thankfully, he didn't need to be in the Wizengamot to declare such a statement), but -the kind-hearted person he was- he also decided to let the Order of the Phoenix continue using his Manor as headquarters during the war. There was literally nowhere else the Order was going to get such good resources, after all.
But other than that, life was good. Rose was actually in the process of convincing Neville to let the couple take therapy for a couple of years. She was sure that they could find some squibs who had taken jobs as psychiatrists in the muggle world.
She got letters from the Weasley's every two days. Those letters were the only things that kept her in contact with the full-scale war going on in Britain at the moment.
Many people had already died from each side, and Rose knew that the war wouldn't stop until a victor had been crowned. And for doing so, either Marvolo or Albus Dumbledore had to die.
Rose personally -in her completely unbiased opinion- preferred that Dumbledore be the one to greet Death.
She sighed, then looked at the calendar, then looked at the clock. It was a few minutes past seven in the evening.
Rose prayed to every holy being she could think of that Marvolo was safe.
She hoped this war was over soon. She couldn't take the anxiety. She couldn't stand not knowing what was going on.
Rose was impatient and she knew it.
"Mipsy!" A pop sound. "Where is Marvolo now?"
------> 0o0 <------
The whole of last week, many places had been raided by the Death Eaters, with each of those places serving as a mini-battle field between the ever-clashing Dark and Light sides.
The very first location to be attacked had been Britain's hospital, St Mungo's. This was followed by similar attacks on Diagon Alley, Hogsmead, and so many other places. The message was clear: Nobody was safe.
Currently, it was the Ministry of Magic that had been turned into a battlefield.
The Death Eaters fought against the members of the Order of the Phoenix and Aurors alike, just with lesser casualties.
However, inside the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, in the room that was used as the Wizengamot, one could see two of the greatest wizards of all time duel against each other. The two of them were alone in the room, leaving no witnesses to their battle. It was a duel to the death. Only one of them was going to leave this room alive.
They were forces to be reckoned with, both of them equally as powerful as the other, reaching a perfect stalemate in terms of raw power and intelligence. The duo had been fighting against each other for almost two hours now and didn't show any signs of stopping any time soon.
The younger of the two was fighting offensive.
He sent a huge snake made of fire to his opponent and a second later used an earth-quake spell to tip him off his balance.
His opponent put up a huge silvery shield in front of himself, that when the fiery snake touched against, turned into mist. He levitated himself off the ground until the earth stopped shaking and was about to fire another curse when-
"Expelliarmus!" A shout was heard out of nowhere.
A red light flew and hit Albus Dumbledore's hands, making his wand -the Elder Wand- fly in the air and fall at a great distance away from the man.
Albus Dumbledore looked at the newcomer in shock.
A beautiful girl dressed elegantly in an emerald green gown and black heels was smiling sweetly at him and twirling a wand in her hand expertly like a baton.
Albus felt his breath hitch.
The Dark Lord Voldemort glared at the intruder but his eyes were soft. "It was my duel." He said.
The girl shrugged. "You were taking too long." She replied simply and started walking over to his side. "I just realised that today marks six months since we first met, and we have dinner reservations in twenty. It's at a French restaurant." She said nonchalantly.
Albus Dumbledore was feeling a turmoil of emotions as he watched Rosalie Potter -the girl who he promised that he would protect to her parents, the girl who her parents had said that he was the honorary grandfather too, the sweet, innocent girl who he had introduced to magic just a few days ago before she had been kidnapped by Tom again- hug the Dark Lord (who's eyes had softened and was now wearing a small smile) and kiss him on the cheek lovingly.
Albus Dumbledore thought that he was seconds away from having a full-blown panic attack.
"Rose?" He asked in disbelief, all the air having been knocked out from him. "What are you-"
"-Plot twist." She interrupted him, eyes shining in a sick kind of amusement. "The poster girl for the light is in love with the Dark Lord."
Albus Dumbledore's eyes widened, but he had no time to react to her statement, as Tom Marvolo Riddle pointed his yew wand at his former Transfiguration professor with a smirk.
"Avada Kedavra."
------> 0o0 <------
You guys, that is the end of A Rose's Thorns!!
Thank you so, so much for all your support and words of encouragement that you all gave me as I wrote this book. It really means a lot to me.
When I had first started this book, I had written an epilogue so that I could plan my chapters already knowing how this book ended.
As a treat, here was what was supposed to be the original ending of the book.
------> 0o0 <------
"Sunsets are proof that endings can be beautiful." -Unknown
"Where will you go?" He asked looking straight ahead.
"I'll travel a bit- learn about new types of magic. Maybe even settle down in the muggle world. Who knows?" She said with a soft smile.
"You will be travelling.. with that boy?"
"Yes. We are together, after all."
"True." He chuckled in reply.
They both sat watching the sunset in comfortable silence before Rose stood up and dusted herself.
"Goodbye, Marvolo."
This was it. This was how it ended.
He knew that she would never have said Goodbye otherwise.
Goodbyes were permanent.
She took out her wand –the Elder Wand- and was just about to go when-
"I never stood a chance, did I?" he asked looking at her with a bittersweet smile on his face.
She smiled back, "That's the sad part- you did. Once."
He stood up and walked to where she was standing and looked into her beautiful, beautiful green eyes. He tries to plunge her eyes deep into his memory- the greenness of it, the faint lines of light blue mixed in with the greenness randomly. He looks into it because he knows that it will be the last time he would ever see them.
She stood on her tippy toes and placed a kiss on his lips, similar to how she had done when they first met, all that time ago.
However, this kiss was not passionate, loving or even chaste.
It was so innocent that it only spoke one word- Goodbye.
"Good luck, Tom Marvolo Riddle," said Rose Potter with a sombre expression on her face before she vanished.