Title: A Secret Rose

Author: Elana

Date: May 20, 2006

Rating: G

Class: Alternate universe

Keywords: Harry, OC

Email:

Sharing: Only if you keep my name, email and other info attached and let me know where it's going, I don't see why not.

Spoilers: HBP

Feedback: I appreciate constructive criticism, but no flames, please.

Disclaimer: Rosa is mine, but all other characters and a few lines are the creations of, the great J.K. Rowling.

Summary: What might have happened if Hermione and Ran hadn't come, after Scrimgeour left, at the end of HBP.

Author's Notes: This is my first HP fanfic. I've written two other x-files stories, though. This is just a little something I thought up after re-reading HBP. I am quite proud of it and maybe, MAYBE, I will make it a small series.

~ A Secret Rose ~

By Elana

Harry was walking by the edge of the lake while Dumbledore's funeral was finishing up. He was watching his feet and thinking about the conversation he'd just had. He couldn't believe the nerve of this Minister. It seemed to him, that if you wanted to be Minister (and why anyone would want this, Harry didn't know) you had to kiss a dementor first. Or perhaps, you had to have some creature suck out your brain. So far, the two Ministers Harry had met, had both been incredibly ignorant cowardly and heartless. It must be in the job description. He was glad Dumbledore hadn't taken the job, if it would have meant that he would have been like that. Dumbledore was very wise, he probably knew this.

He heard a small splash near the water's edge and looked up. There was a girl, Harry didn't know, sitting there, tossing stones into the water. He turned to watch the ripples made by each pebble. She heard him move and looked up. "It's you!" she said sounding slightly surprised.

"You know me?"

"Of course. It's funny that that still surprises you." She spoke casually, as if they had known each other for years and had this conversation regularly. "You're looking at me like I looked at that Luna girl, when I met her." She had a bit of a glare on her face as she said this.

"It's just... Do I know you?" he asked even though he was quite sure they had never met, before this.

"No," she looked back at the water, "but I've heard a lot about you." She picked up a handful of stones, "Bet you've been told that before, too." She started to throw them into the water one by one.

Harry sat down beside the girl and looked out at the lake. He turned back and looked at the girl a little more closely. She had long brown hair that shone both silver and gold in the sunlight. She was thin and looked like she might be tall. Taller than Hermione or Ginny at least. The thought of Ginny made his chest feel tight and he quickly shook the thought out of his head. The girl turned to look at him and he noticed she had a kind of twinkle in her eye. "My name is Rosa, by the way. Rosa Bluemick."

"How did you know Dumbledore?" It might have been the light or maybe he was imagining things, but he could have sworn he saw the twinkle fade a little as he asked this.

"He was family." Somehow, he knew this already. She reminded him of the Headmaster.

"Oh." He felt as if she knew him well and he wanted to find out more about her. "Were you close?"

"Yes and no. Actually, I didn't even know who he was until just a little while ago, but after I met him, I got to know him pretty well," she smiled. "We were close enough that..." Her smile faded and her lips twitched a little. "...I miss him already." She threw another pebble into the water, but it landed a lot closer that the others had. Her hands were shaking slightly. She turned and looked over her shoulder, "Someone's coming." They sat silently and listened for the people coming. Harry realized that he recongnised the two voices getting louder as they got closer.

"I wonder where Harry's gotten to."

"Honestly, Hermione, let him be. I reckon, he'd like to be alone, right now."

"I suppose you're right, Ron." Hermione looked up at the castle as they walked past Harry and Rosa. "I can't bear the idea that we might never come back," she said softly. "How can Hogwarts close?" He noticed Ron sliding an arm around Hermione's waist and pull her a little closer to him.

"Maybe it won't," said Ron. "We're not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Everywhere's the same now. I'd even say Hogwarts is safer, there are more wizards inside to defend the place.

"I doubt we'll be coming back even if it does reopen," said Hermione sadly. Ron gaped at her.

"But where will we go if we don't come back to school?"

"We'll be with Harry, wherever he goes." Ron looked at her, determination flowed onto his face.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll be there for him, whatever happens." Just before they walked out of sight Harry saw Ron pull her towards him and kiss her on the temple. Harry realized that something had obviously changed between the two. Not just because of Ron's actions, but because they had agreed with each other so easily.

"Were those your friends?" He had almost forgotten that Rosa was with him.

"Yeah," he felt he could talk to this girl about whatever, for some reason, about anything and everything. He knew, somehow, there would be no repercussions. "The three of us have been friends since our first year here."

"That's nice," she said with a smile. "I've never had friends like that. Sometimes I wish I did."

"Maybe you'll find someone like that someday." He looked back out at the water as she continued her stone tossing. It was nice to sit and talk like this. "Good friends are rare and it's hard when you loose them. Dumbledore isn't the first friend I've lost and probably won't be the last, and I don't think I'll ever get used to that feeling."

They sat like this for a while. Occasionally, someone would pass by and not notice them, but mostly they were just listening and making little splashes. "So, how are you related to Dumbledore?" He hadn't herd Dumbledore speak of any relatives except his brother.

"Well... I'm his granddaughter." Harry was quite shocked by this, he had no idea that Dumbledore had children, never mind grandchildren. "I know it's hard to believe. You see... we're a secret. Me, my mother and her mother, too." She paused and threw another stone. "I'm sorry, but it's a big, long story and I'm not really feeling up to telling it at the moment."

"That's O..."

"There you are, Harry, it's time to go home. The carriages are waiting. "It was Hermione, who apparently hadn't stopped wondering where he was. Ron was looking apologetic behind her. Rosa had gotten up and started walking back to where the funeral had been.

"I'll meet you guys there, okay?" As Ron and Hermione started for the carriages, he caught up with Rosa. "Hey, you didn't say goodbye." He didn't know why, but he didn't want to loose touch with this girl. "Could I owl you or something, over the summer?" She gave him a strange look. "I think Dumbledore would have liked it, if we became friends."

"I'd like that, too." With that, she walked over to a pretty woman that was speaking to Professor McGonagall. He looked away, in the distance he could see that some of the carriages had already started to leave. He ran off to find Ron and Hermione, hoping that he would see the mysterious girl named Rosa, again.

The End... maybe.