I don't own the characters, they belong to J.K. Rowling.

Inspired by "HP: A Girl's Life" by nicky14 on DeviantArt


When Rose finally entered the Gryffindor common room she was greeted by most of the sixth years, with only Dean and Seamus having retired to their beds.

"Where have you been?" asked Hermione accusingly.

"I was studying," said Rose defensively, patting her satchel in explanation.

"It's fifteen minutes after curfew," pointed out Neville. "You could have gotten detention or lost points."

"I was escorted from the Library by a Prefect," explained Rose.

"Who?" asked Ron. "Was it Draco?"

"And what if it was?" asked Rose, a bit of her blush from the hug creeping back into her face.

"Did anything happen?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, did he kiss you?" asked Lavender.

Rose's blush reddened her face nearly to the color of Ron's hair, though still much lighter than her own auburn. She then lowered her head, and pushed past her fellow Gryffindors, answering with only a "Nothing happened" before rushing up the stairs to the girls dorms.

"Something totally happened," pointed out Lavender.

"Not a kiss though," observed Parvati.

"No, still too early for that, a hug maybe?" guessed Lavender.

"No matter, the gossip mill will provide," said Parvati. "Perhaps I can get something out of Tracey during Runes."

"Too bad Millicent and Pansy dislike Rose, or else I'd be able to get something juicy during Divination," sighed Lavender. Rose's newest female friends made their way up to their beds, following Rose at a much more sedate pace.

"She hugged him?" asked Ron.

"We can't be sure of that," offered Neville in Rose's defense. "It's just Lav and Pav gossiping."

"And they do so love to gossip," said Hermione with a sigh.

"So we're not going to do anything about it?" asked Ron.

"What can we do? She's her own witch, if she wants to hang out and be friends with Draco, that's her business," offered Neville.

"Nev, are you forgetting that we're talking about Harry here?" asked Ron. "You know, the bloke who shared our dorm for five years before getting cursed by the same snake you're now defending?"

"Ron, calm down," said Hermione. "And yes, we do realize that Rose is still Harry."

"I'm not sure that you do," said Ron. "I think you're just happy to have a friendly girl your own age for once."

"Unlike you, I've always been friends with Harry, and now that she's Rose, I'm still her friend," said Hermione angrily.

"is this about fourth year?" asked Ron.

"This isn't only about fourth year, this is also about first year, and that bloody troll!" shouted Hermione.

"Hermione, calm down," offered Neville, even while taking a step back from where he'd been standing between Ron and Hermione.

"Oh, so now it's about you then, is it? If you're such a good friend, why don't you share Harry's love of Quidditch?" asked Ron.

"I went to every practice and every game," countered Hermione.

"What about the last half of second year?" asked Ron. "Didn't see you at the practices or games after we snuck into Slytherin without you."

"I was polyjuiced into a cat!" shouted Hermione. "And then, after I got better, and just after I discovered that it was a basilisk, i got petrified! And if you'll notice, Harry visited me whenever he could!"

The argument lasted for another fifteen minutes, before a seventh year prefect came down and demanded that they go to sleep, since they all had classes in the morning. Neville lead Ron up to their dorm, while the prefect lead Hermione up to hers.


The next week served to strain friendships in both houses.

For the Lions, the fallout from the Monday-night argument between Hermione and Ron caused Rose to gravitate towards Lavender, Parvati, and Ginny, who, if not understanding her reasons, at least let her make her own decisions. Hermione was mainly worried about what danger befriending Draco, who not five weeks previous had paralyzed Harry and left him under the Invisibility Cloak on the Express, would have on Rose if the Slytherin found out. Ron, though, had a honestly selfish reason, he missed his friend, and with Harry gone, Ron had been pushed into a leadership role with the Quidditch team that he wasn't prepared for, not that he'd admit it.

"Hermione, I'll be fine," said Rose. "Draco doesn't suspect anything, and as long as I don't fall back and act like Harry, I'll be fine."

"But you are Harry," interrupted Ron.

"Ron, I know, but right now, I'm stuck as Rose," she admitted. "I can't be Harry, at least, not until Pomfrey and Snape find a counter, and so I need to make sure that I don't endanger myself, as Rose or Harry, by letting my enemies think I'm vulnerable."

"They why hang out with those enemies?" asked Ron.

"Draco might be Harry's enemy, but he's not Rose's," countered Hermione.

Ron continued to be obstinate as only he could by proclaiming, "But Rose is Harry!"

In the den of snakes, Pansy saw how much her so-called boyfriend was spending with Evans, as opposed to her, and resented Evans' encroachment, as well as Draco's abandonment of her. Realizing that the first Hogsmeade weekend was approaching, Pansy decided to make Draco choose once and for all.

"Draco," began Pansy during supper on Friday, "the first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up. Are you going to ask me to go with you?"

Draco froze, he hadn't realized that time was passing so quickly, and that plans he'd made months ago were coming to fruition. Unfortunately, Pansy only saw this as him thinking up an excuse, "Um … well … you see …"

"You're going to take Evans, aren't you?" accused Pansy. "You'd choose some tart you've known for three weeks over your girlfriend?"

Draco sputtered, "Girlfriend?"

"What, you're dumping me?" asked Pansy. She then stood, and shouted loud enough for everyone in the Great Hall to hear, "You can't dump me, Malfoy, because I'm dumping you!" With that she slapped him across the face, turned, and fled from the Great Hall. Nearly a minute of silence lapsed before Millicent stood, excusing herself, and calmly followed after her friend, breaking the silence and letting the Great Hall flood with new rumors.


Rose and Draco had made a point of not discussing Pansy's outburst during their study session, though they also had not made mention of the hug that Draco had given Rose four nights previous. They made sure that they kept track of time, and after testing out the Half-Blood Prince's Levicorpus on each other in a deserted classroom (from when the Hogwarts population hadn't been limited by two successive wars encouraging witches and wizards not to have children), Rose had returned to the Gryffindor common room with fifteen minutes to spare before curfew.


It was a shout that awoke the sixth years on Rose's fourth Saturday, three weeks since her transformation from the Boy Who Lived into Just Rose.

"What's wrong?" asked Hermione, who's bed was closest to Rose's.

Rose came out of the loo, her face pale in horror, "I think something's wrong."

"What happened?" asked Hermione, rushing around to embrace her friend and comfort her.

"Blood," mumbled Rose.

"Blood?" asked Hermione.

"Knickers," added Rose.

Hermione was confused, but then smiled, and chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked Rose in confusion, though she was still in one of her best friends' 'Hermi-Hugs'.

Hermione stepped back, though kept her arms on Rose's shoulders, "It's just, well, it's official."

"What's official?" asked a tired Parvati from her bed.

"Rose is officially a woman," said Hermione with pride.

"A won…" began Lavender before she realized what it meant. "Really?"

"Well, it has been three weeks," observed Hermione. "It was bound to happen any day now."

"What happened?" asked Rose, still not understanding.

"Well, I guess it's best to take you down to see Pomfrey," said Parvati. "I mean, that's what I did when I had my first back in second year."

"I was lucky, it happened summer after first year," said Hermione.

"So this is normal?" asked Rose.

"It's perfectly normal, you're just a few years late because of your more recent assent to maidenhood," noted Lavender.

"Come, let's head down to the Hospital Wing, Pomfrey will want to give you a checkup, plus there's a few charms that you'll want to know," said Parvati.

"More?" asked Rose. "You've already taught me hair care charms, and cosmetic charms, and sewing charms."

"Well, I didn't know most of those either," noted Hermione.

"Sorry about that, we'd just assumed you didn't care, not that you didn't know," said Lavender with a blush.

"It's just something that our mothers taught us, and since we learned it as soon as we got our wands," offered Parvati.

"No, no, it's fine. I mean, you did help me with my hair for the Yule Ball two years ago, I should have realized that I didn't know the right charms then," noted Hermione.

"So, um, this is nice and all, but shouldn't we be getting to the Hospital Wing? I mean, I did find blood in my knickers," said Rose.

The other three girls all giggled, which surprised Rose, since it was really the first time she'd even seen Hermione giggle.


After Madam Pomfrey informed Rose that it was just her period, nothing major, the Gryffindor sixth year girls stayed in the Hospital Wing while the nurse not only educated Rose about her new monthly visitor, including the charms to relieve cramps, clean knickers, and 'freshen up', but also gave the three-weeks witched Rose a through check-up. That surprised Rose, since it was actually the first check-up that's she'd ever gotten at Hogwarts, though she didn't mention her observation aloud.

Even with the charms to relieve the cramps, Rose spent most of the weekend after leaving the Hospital Wing in her bed.


"Rose, could I ask you a question?" asked Draco on Monday night, near the end of their study time together.

"Well, you just did, but sure, go ahead," replied Rose with a smile. Luckily most of her cramps had finished, and what hadn't were relieved by the charms. Draco had inquired about her absence over the weekend, but had stopped when Rose, as encouraged by her friends, and from personal experience as Harry from the other side, mentioned "feminine problems".

"Are you planning on going to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Rose was about to say something, but stopped, thinking. "Well, I guess so. I think Ron and Hermione said something about showing me around."

"Oh, well, in that case…" said Draco dejectedly.

"Well, unless you want to show me around," offered Rose. "I think Ron and Hermione are still competing over who can be a better friend, so I'm not sure if that would be the best experience for my first time."

Draco brightened, "Of course I'll show you around."

"As friends, of course," demanded Rose. "I don't want Pansy to curse me because she thought I stole you from her."

"Of course, as friends," said Draco quickly. "Wouldn't think of it, since we're just friends."

Rose smiled, and then packed up her books, "It's a date, then."

Draco was left reeling in the Library as Rose made her way back to Gryffindor Tower, though as a Prefect he didn't have to worry.