Rose Weasley: Real, Live Cinderella

One upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a young girl named Rose Weasley. Her eyes were as green as jewels and her hair fell in fiery waves to her waist. Her skin was pale as porcelain and she was slim and slight. All in all, Rose was beautiful.

You may be thinking that this girl should most definitely be swimming in riches and have many friends and admirers, and that she should never work a day in her life. Unfortunately for Rose, however, this was not the case… at least not in the latter end of her childhood.

You see, Rose's mother, Hermione, died shortly after Rose turned eleven years old. At the time, Rose was away for her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rose never got to say her final goodbye to her dear mother. The next few months were hard for Rose, especially when her father, Ron, started seeing another woman. Rose was quite certain that this woman, Romilda Vane, was secretly administering a love potion to her father, although every time she tried to say anything to her father about this, he waved her off with a laugh.

Exactly one year after Rose's mother died, her father eloped with Romilda while Rose was at Hogwarts. Of course, Romilda's two children, Valentina and Drusilla, were at the ceremony. It was only later that anyone bothered to tell Rose.

The only bright spot in Rose's life was her two best friends, Scorpius Malfoy and her cousin Albus Potter. But soon, very soon, even they would be ripped away from her.

You see, the very night Rose returned home from Hogwarts for the summer (which also happened to be her birthday, but no one seemed to remember other than she), Rose's father and stepmother announced that they would be moving to Italy and that she, Rose, would no longer attend Hogwarts, but rather a smaller school closer to home. It was so close, in fact, that Rose wouldn't need to board at the school, but rather stay at home. Rose wasn't sure which she dreaded more.

Rose couldn't even so much as explain to her friends, because she didn't own an owl and her stepmother wouldn't let her use the family owl for something so 'unimportant'.

Shortly after the move, Romilda finally convinced Ron to write a will, leaving her everything he had (which, mind you, is actually a lot, for Rose's father was one third of the Golden Trio and was able to score a very highly paid job as an Auror) in case of any 'accidents'. Conveniently for Romilda, Ron just so happened to be poisoned by an unknown person and died within the week. Authorities never caught the criminal, nor did they even have a viable suspect. Rose, however, knew the truth of the matter.

Shortly thereafter, Rose was made to attend Vladimir the Wise's School for the Magically Gifted. She was also quickly being turned into the family servant.

She would wake up early every day to make her stepmother and stepsisters breakfast, serve it to them in bed, and then wash up the kitchen before she was allowed to eat herself. Then she would prepare for school while tending to her stepsisters' needs as they got ready for their day. The three of them would then proceed to floo to school, where Rose was greatly disliked and mistreated by everyone because her stepsisters were very popular and people tended them hand and foot. When she returned 'home' from a day of insults and bullying, she would prepare dinner. Then she would clean up, wash the dishes, sweep the floors, polish the silver, do the laundry, and serve her stepfamily tea. And all that without her wand, as her stepmother claimed it every day as soon as she got home from school 'to prevent Rose from any accidents'.

After Rose's work was done, she would then be dismissed to her 'room' which was really only the attic of the manor's tower with a very uncomfortable bed squished in next to a wardrobe and a small vanity. Rose would sit up late at night studying, for she strived to be the best at something, even if it was only schoolwork. While she was proud of the fact that she maintained the best grades in the class, this only encouraged her peers to tease her even more, calling her a teacher's pet, among other, nastier names. While Rose wished they would leave her in peace, she wouldn't let her grades slack for anything. You see, Rose had another motive. She yearned to someday get away from her life, to apperate away and magic herself into a happier existence. But in order to do that, one would have to be a very skilled magician indeed.

For four years, this is what Rose's life was like, until finally, something changed. Romilda was running out of Rose's father's money. In order to keep up the lavish lifestyle she was living, she had to move back to England to qualify for money from the Ministry of Magic for being widowed to Ron Weasley.

Rose's stepsisters, Drusilla and Valentina, were to start at Hogwarts for their fifth year, while Rose was to complete her seventh and final year. While Romilda did, in the end, allow Rose to go, she was quite upset to lose her personal servant.

When Rose arrived at Hogwarts, she was ecstatic to realize that everything looked just the same as when she had left all those years ago. However, Rose soon came to realize that her two best friends, Albus and Scorpius, did not seem to remember her. Disheartened, she became somewhat of a recluse, just as she had done at her previous school. She threw herself into her schoolwork, but she always sat in the far back corner of every class so as not to draw attention to herself. She rarely spoke to anyone, except for the house elves.

And, of course, it didn't help that Valentina and Drusilla had quickly become everyone's favorite people. If Rose ever passed them in the halls, they would shoot hexes and jinxes her way simply for existing. And, naturally, their usual posse would laugh and poke fun at the poor, broken girl – and, of course, none of them even so much as knew her name.

It was after one of these petty stunts that we find our heroine, on what would otherwise have been a very pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Rose lay curled up in a ball, tucked into the shadows of a tiny alcove in the wall. She had tucked herself into her nearest hiding spot to assess the damage from today's consignment of her own personal hell.

Wincing, she prodded at her scraped knee with the tip of her wand, muttering a quick healing spell. She then proceeded to repair her robes where they had torn from the fall caused by a tripping jinx. Rose took her handheld mirror out of her bag (she had learned to always carry one with her because of incidents like these) and fixed her hair, grimacing when her fingers came into contact with the patch of scabbed and raw skin from where they had pulled her hair out. Taking her wand out once more, Rose muttered yet another healing spell along with a hair growth charm.

Rose had become quite good at such spells over the last few years. In fact, Rose intended to be a Healer after Hogwarts (and, of course, if she could ever find a way to get out of her stepmother's clutches) so that she could help others who were unable to help themselves like she so often could not.

After she was done patching herself up, she picked up her mirror, intending to put it away. But something about her reflection made her stop. As she stared into the mirror, she realized something about herself was different than how she had been the last time she had properly looked in the mirror. At first, Rose couldn't quite put her finger on what that something was. But after staring for a while, she realized it was her eyes.

Rose's eyes, usually a bright and lustrous green, were now dull and weary. The spirit one could usually see in Rose Weasley's eyes had gone out of them.

Her shoulders sagged, suddenly extremely and inexplicably tired. That moment was when Rose knew she had lost her chances of getting out of this disaster that she called her current life; unless something changed, Rose knew there was no way for her to be happy again, for she had lost her fighting spirit somewhere among all of the derogatory remarks and painful curses.

'Maybe they're right, though. Maybe you really are useless. And stupid. And ugly. Very ugly,' she thought as she looked at all of the ugly freckles scattered upon her face, neck, arms, and torso. Her red hair really did look like vomit, and her pale skin really did remind one of a beauty spell gone wrong.

Rose sighed as she got up to start the long and arduous journey up to Gryffindor tower. As Rose walked, she kept her head down as she always did so as not to look anyone in the eyes. 'Why am I even a Gryffindor?' Rose wondered as she climbed yet another staircase.

So lost in these dark thoughts was Rose that she wasn't even paying attention to where she was going. So, naturally, she walked right into someone. Yelping, Rose braced herself for the impact on the tile floor below her… but it never came.

Two strong arms were wrapped around her waist, holding her upright – and against her rescuer's chest. Her breath frozen in her throat, she slowly peeked one eye open, followed hesitantly by the other. She dazedly looked upwards toward said rescuer's face, intending to thank them. But when she saw who it was, her jaw dropped and she gaped like a fish.

Rose Weasley was leaning into the chest of the Scorpius Malfoy. Yes, the boy who had forgotten her. Just thinking about it still brought tears to her eyes.

Unfortunately for Rose, Scorpius seemed to see. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Are you okay?"

Rose gawked even harder at his voice.

"Hello?" He asked with a confused look. "You look like you've just seen a ghost… or, well, you know, something frightening."

Rose shook her head, perhaps a bit harder than most people would consider normal, and managed to squeak, "No, I'm fine." Or at least something like that.

Scorpius flashed her a smile, and Rose nearly fell over with shock. She couldn't remember the last time someone had smiled at her. That was when Rose realized that Scorpius was still holding her waist and she was leaning on his chest. Blushing, she stumbled backwards and nearly tripped over her own feet.

"S-sorry," she stammered. She mentally face-palmed because she was sure she sounded like a total ditz and her face surely looked like a tomato.

"It's no problem," he chuckled. He tilted his head, squinting at her. Rose recognized this as his thinking face. "You know, you look really familiar. Have we met?"

"Er… sort of," Rose replied, unsure about what to tell him. Obviously she wasn't going to be that girl who was all like, 'oh, yeah, we were best friends and then you forgot all about me'. But she didn't want to outright lie to him. "I, er, sit behind you in Charms." There, that wasn't a lie.

"Oh, that's right! I knew you were familiar. I'm Scorpius, by the way." He extended his hand for her to shake.

Slowly, Rose reached out and shook her ex-best friend's hand. It nearly broke her heart to know that he really didn't remember her. Granted, she did look a lot different. And she acted a lot different. Where she used to be a bit of a tomboy, she had now filled out and looked more like a woman than a girl. Where she used to be bold and loud and carefree, she was now timid, quiet, and reclusive.

Rose realized that he was still waiting for her name. She didn't want to tell him 'Rose Weasley' because he might recognize it. After all, everyone knew her parents and a fair few of her cousins. So she simply said, "I'm Ella." Rose always thought her name would sound better with '-ella' tacked on the end.

Scorpius smiled. "Well, it's nice to officially meet you, Ella."

"Likewise," Rose replied.

They fell into a semi-awkward silence before Rose cleared her throat and said, "Erm, I should probably go."

"Right, of course," Scorpius said. Rose thought she imagined it, she fancied she heard a touch of disappointment in his voice. Scorpius stepped aside so she could pass.

As she was disappearing around the corner, Scorpius called out, "And Ella! Do try to keep from running into anymore strange men tonight."

Rose blinked once and turned to look at him to see him turning away, a cheeky grin on his face.

"I'll see what I can do," she called back to his retreating form. Shaking her head, Rose turned back around and resumed her trek back to Gryffindor Tower.

Rose couldn't believe she had just talked to Scorpius Malfoy after all this time. And he had recognized her, he just didn't remember her. Rose guessed that was sort of a good thing. Although, she told herself, he probably wouldn't give their encounter a second thought. He would go right back to forgetting her just like he did before.

Unbeknownst to Rose, however, a certain Scorpius Malfoy couldn't get the image of a cute red-haired girl stuttering in his arms out of his head all night. He tossed and turned, trying to place her name with a memory, for he just knew that Ella wasn't being completely truthful with him about where or when they had met before.

Deciding he would ask Al about it in the morning, Scorpius turned over and went to sleep. He dreamed of his childhood crush/best friend, Rose Weasley, for the first time in a long time.