Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Collect them All Challenge [Rose Zeller]
Inspiration: "Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you'd left open."- John Barrymore
Someone to Listen
Rose was a half-blood, and had only barely managed to remain in Hogwarts herself through pure luck as her parents had split ways many years ago. Her mother had gained custody of her through muggle means despite being a witch, something that had proven incredibly useful over the last year.
Everyone had changed so much though. The Gryffindors were less reckless than they had been before. Their pranks and jokes had lessened slightly but their humor had not faded even through the harshness of surviving the war and fighting through the battles. She had not been allowed to fight, being underage at the time. Rose doubted she would have been able to stomach the blood and death during the final battle if the stories she heard held a shred of truth within them.
Dennis had been one of the many muggleborns that had been forced to miss a year of schooling when the Dark Lord had taken over both Hogwarts and the Ministry for that one terrible year before the Dark Lord had been defeated. The change within him was perhaps the most startling.
Dennis had been one of the more well known Gryffindors for his cheerfulness, known for following his brother around everywhere. While still cheerful, he was often found clutching his brother's camera with a morose expression on his face. The death of his brother had hit him hard, something that was expected when one thought of how close the brothers had been.
Rose had found him in one of his morose moods with camera in hand one chilly morning. Winter was on its way, its path heralded by increasingly cold weather.
"Dennis?"
He turned around, slightly startled at being addressed. "Yes? Um…Rose?"
Rose nodded with a hesitant smile, "Are you okay?"
Dennis sighed, shoulders drooping slightly. "I suppose. I was just remembering the first time Colin brought me here. He had woken me especially early to show me this place. He told me that this was the best place in all of Hogwarts to take photos because if you were here just as the sun rose, the light from the sun made the lake glitter like it were encrusted with a tiara of diamonds. He was right, look."
Dennis pointed towards the sun that had only barely peeked over the mountain ranges. Rose's eyes wandered towards the lake and she gasped at the sheer beauty.
"Many people overlook the beauty of the lake because it is something that seems so common. Many never bother to take the time to really look at what they see and understand it, they don't take the time to do something that does not give them direct results," Dennis continued.
Rose turned her head slightly to look at Dennis, who was still staring out into the Black Lake that had returned to its usual bleak colour.
"Often there is only a moment where the true beauty of something is shown to the world, you simply have to learn to look. The first time Colin brought me here was after I had managed to set fire to my entire bag while practicing some hex or another, I had believed that I would never fit in, that I was not truly worthy of being part of the magical world. This was like a new start, seeing things from a new perspective. It helped me reassure myself that I did fit in, it did not need to be obvious at the moment but it would be obvious soon,"
Rose's eyes never left Dennis' face, taking in all his expressions as he talked about his brother. It looked like there was a large weight that had been taken off his shoulders. Somehow she knew that everything Dennis had said meant a lot to him, she felt she understood Dennis much better than she did before. Most other people saw him as the boy who had lost his brother, they hadn't seen that he had been searching for some kind of closure. He had been looking for someone who would listen to him, even if he had not known that himself,
Suddenly Dennis turned to her smiling sheepishly, "Oh, I've gone off at a tangent haven't I?"
Rose smiled. "A little bit, but I don't mind listening. It's interesting."