Chapter 7

Rose was lying on the floor of the bathroom, in a puddle of blood. Hermione ran out of the bathroom, screaming.

"Help! Someone help!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

A first year ran out of the common room, and McGonagall and Snape came running in.

"What is the problem, Granger?" asked Professor McGonagall, climbing up the stairs.

"It's Rose—she's—she's—" managed Hermione before breaking down in sobs.

Both professors ran the rest of the stairs, and into the girl's bathroom, and saw Rose. McGonagall's knees weakened and she sat on Lavender's bed. Snape bent over her.

"She's still alive," he said.

He lifted her off the floor, and McGonagall cleaned up the blood. Snape carried her out of the common room, and quickly to the Hospital Wing. Hermione, Ginny and McGonagall slowly made their way down the staircase where Harry and Ron were waiting.

"What was Sn—Professor Snape doing up here?" asked Harry, who had only seen him leave.

"Where's Rose?" asked Ron.

McGonagall swallowed.

"Professor Snape just took her to the Hospital Wing."

"Why?" asked Harry

"She's hurt," said Hermione, sitting in a chair.

"How?"

Ginny shrugged, and somehow they all made it down for dinner, but then immediately went up to the Hospital Wing.

"Madame Pomfrey?" said Hermione, walking into the Hospital Wing.

"What?" she said, she looked up. "Oh, it's you. Come on in, she'll be fine, but I'm not so sure how she's going to feel."

They looked at each other and went to sit next to her. Rose was sleeping with the same blood replenishing stuff Mr. Weasley had had at St Mungo's sitting next to her. Soon after they arrived, Dumbledore came into the Hospital Wing. He walked over to them. Malfoy was in the bed next to her complaining about food poisoning. ("You don't have food poisoning, Mr. Malfoy, it's the flu! There's a difference!" said Madame Pomfrey, shoving a spoonful of acid green liquid in his mouth.) Dumbledore smiled at Draco, then looked at Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny.

"What happened to her, sir?" asked Ginny.

"I do not know, only she does, and only she has the answers to her problems. And pretending to be asleep doesn't help, Miss Potter."

She sighed, opened her eyes and sat up. Her arms were wrapped in bandages, and she was very pale.

"You know, you really don't help when you do that 'I know everything' thing," said Rose.

He just smiled.

"You do realize that we must watch you at all times, now."

"Why bother? It just delays the inevitable."

"It will not be inevitable if I have anything to do with it."

"Then don't have anything to do with it."

He looked at her over his half moon spectacles.

"What would your mother say?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"Point taken, point taken."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny looked from one to the other, completely confused.

"Well, it's not your fault, but honestly! That wasn't the best question to ask me."

"What would Mrs. Weasley say, then?"

"You wouldn't! No, you can't tell her!"

He smiled.

"No, no I'll leave that duty to you, shall I?"

"Fine."

"You feel better, and I'll see you in the morning." He turned to walk out. "Get well, Mr. Malfoy," he said to Malfoy and then he walked out of the Hospital Wing.

"What was that about?" asked Harry.

"Nothing," said Rose.

"Well, it didn't look like nothing," said Hermione.

"And it didn't sound like it, either," said Ron.

"If I said it was nothing, then it was nothing," said Rose, finally.

"What happened in the bathroom, Rose? Was it You- Know- Who?" asked Ginny.

"No, Ginny, it wasn't Voldemort. Don't worry! See? I'm fine. No need to worry. You all go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"All right, but we'll be back after breakfast to see you," said Harry.

They got up, reluctantly and left. Rose looked over at Malfoy, who was smiling.

"What are you smiling about?" she snapped.

"Why didn't you tell them?" he asked.

"Tell them what?"

"What happened."

"What business of yours is it?"

"None, just wondering why you would lie to your friends, that's all."

She glared at him.

"I didn't lie to them"

"Sure, you didn't, and I should have been sorted in Hufflepuff."

"I didn't! I just didn't tell them the entire truth, so what? Why are you sticking your snobby nose into my business?"

"I was just thinking how you would have made a great Slytherin."

"No, I really wouldn't have."

She rolled over and went to sleep. Early the next morning, she woke up, the sun hadn't even risen yet.

"You should still be sleeping," said a voice to her left.

"I woke up."

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Professor McGonagall was sitting in a chair next to her bed.

"Professor Dumbledore told me what happened, but I want to hear it from your own lips," said the Transfiguration teacher, solemnly.

"Hear what? That I hate myself? That I've wanted to kill myself for quite some time? That I just want everything to stop? What tell me, what do you want to hear?"

Rose sat up, calmly, and looked at her teacher. McGonagall sighed.

"I didn't want you to tell me that," she whispered.

"Then I'm happy! I love life! I want to live forever!"

Tears swelled in Rose's eyes.

"Why didn't you ask for help?"

"What's the point? To get attention? To have people make life out to be the best? To have people tell me that everything in my life's just fucking fine, when I still know it's not? To cover up all the bad parts with sugar to keep me from doing anything? I'm not stupid, I've gone through all this before, and quite obviously, it didn't help!"

Tears rolled down Rose's cheeks, and her voice was higher than usual. McGonagall looked at her.

"What about those of us you'd leave behind?"

"You lived without me before, just think about it as me going back."

"But we don't want you anywhere but here."

"How do you know? I can name quite a number of people who would pay to watch me die."

"Don't let him do this to you."

"Who?"

"V—V—Voldemort."

"He's not doing it, I've just finally lost it!"

"He does those things to you and Harry hoping you would destroy yourselves, and you're letting him win!"

"I'll take one for the team!"

Draco sat up.

"There are those of us who are trying to sleep, you know," he said.

Rose turned on him.

"Shut your trap, lie down, roll over and pretend to be asleep," she growled.

He rolled his eyes and laid back down. Rose looked back at McGonagall.

"I thought you were stronger than this," she whispered.

"Well, you thought wrong."

Rose rolled over on her side and fell back to sleep. She woke up around lunchtime to see Malfoy whining to Pansy Parkinson and Crabbe and Goyle. Rose rolled her eyes and sat up. There was something on the table next to her. She picked up the bit of parchment next to the roses, and read.

'Rose, please, don't do that again. Remember you can always talk to us.'

She didn't recognize the handwriting, but she knew none of the professors would care to write to her, if they wanted they'd come and talk to her. She looked over at Malfoy, who might as well have been swooning, for as pathetic as he tried to look.

"Hey, Malfoy, did you see who brought this?" she asked.

"No, Madame Pomfrey said that you were sleeping and shouldn't be disturbed, although I think it's a bit late, and she brought them and put them there, but I didn't see who got them for you."

"Thanks."

The Slytherins looked at her as though she'd gone insane. She stared at the flowers until the bell rang and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny came in.

"Oh! Those are lovely!" said Hermione.

"Do you know who brought them? The card doesn't say," said Rose, handing her the card.

"No, I don't know, but there were a few people I didn't know today at lunch," said Ginny, handing the card to Harry.

A number of people walked in.

"Is she awake?" asked one of them.

"Yes, yes, but she can't handle more than a few visitors at a time," they heard Madame Pomfrey say.

Since it was only Rose and Malfoy in the Hospital Wing, Rose assumed that she was the 'she' they were referring to.

"I think I'm just fine to handle visitors, Madame Pomfrey!" Rose called to her.

Madame Pomfrey sighed, and let them in. Ron looked at the card, then at Rose.

"I wonder who wrote this, 'cause it wasn't us."

Rose looked at him and shrugged as the group of people stopped at the end of her bed.

"I wrote it."

Rose looked up.

"Paxton! Tony! Josh! Greg!"

They all hugged her.

"How are you feeling?" asked Tony.

"All right, what the Hell are you all doing here?"

"Well, we got a letter—" began Paxton.

"Carried by an owl," said Greg.

"That told us that you were in need for friends from America, and we came," finished Josh.

Rose smiled.

"How did you all receive an owl? Not many people know much about me before I came here," said Rose.

Josh sat down at the end of the bed, his blond hair in its usual stationary style. Tony smiled at her, his brown hair the same as she remembered. Paxton stood tall and muscular as ever. Josh, sat on the chair on her left. Greg stood there, arms crossed.

"Well, it was addressed to the JV and Varsity Football teams and sent to the school. It said that someone needed some friends," said Tony.

"And you four came? Why? I don't think I'm important enough to drop everything and just go to England for me."

Paxton laughed, and reached over and hugged her.

"You are important. I ran, well, not literally, home and began packing. Mom didn't want me to go anywhere until I told her what was going on. She'd heard me muttering something about you, and she wanted to come, so she came too," said Paxton.

Rose laughed.

"I love your mother." The four guys laughed. "Oh! I'm sorry. Guys these are my friends Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Ron Weasley, and this is my brother, Harry Potter. These are my friends from American Football: Josh Gibbons, Tony Matthews, Greg Lams, and Paxton Ridder."

"We were wondering when you'd remember your manners," said Hermione.

"Don't make me feel worse. At least this time you didn't remind me, like I'm a child."

"You are a child."

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Who's that?" asked Greg, looking over at Malfoy.

"No one important," said Rose.

"Really? You must not like him then. You better watch out if that one doesn't like you, she'll take her grudge to the grave," said Tony.

"Not necessarily!"

"What about Trey?" asked Josh.

"That was an uncalled for comment. I may not have been as much a part of the team as the rest of you, but I worked my ass off."

"And such a nice ass it was," said Paxton.

"WAS?!"

Rose hit him with a pillow, laughing.

"IS! IS! IS!"

The bell rang.

"We have to go," said Ginny.

"But we'll be back later, promise," said Harry.

"All right. If Umbridge asks, I'm still hiding in the library!" Rose called behind them.

They laughed in response. Greg and Paxton sat in the seats that Ron and Hermione had been sitting in.

"It isn't just us," said Paxton.

"What are you talking about?" asked Rose, looking from one to the other.

They grinned and Josh stood up and walked out of the room, then came back a minute later, with others behind him. Rose looked at all of them.

"What da Hell do you think you're doin'?" asked an older man.

Rose smiled sweetly.

"Don't you give us that, missy," said a guy with brown hair and blue eyes.

"I haven't been doing anything, Coach Ceirce, and whatever do you mean, Ben?" said Rose, innocently.

"Th' Hell you haven't. What're you doin' in here, then?" Coach replied.

"Relaxing, hiding from Umbridge, she's still sore from October, and she kicked my brother off the Quidditch team, that was NOT a nice thing to do, but hey! I'm beater, but Fred and George are better than me," rambled Rose.

"Quidditch?" asked a tall brown haired guy with a huge afro..

"It's our sport, Dan."

"Oh."

"We have a match coming up, you should watch."

"When is it?" asked Paxton's mom, Mrs. Ridder.

"I don't really know. Angelina does though. She's our captain."

Draco coughed. They all looked at him.

"Who's that?" asked one of the Smitty twins.

"No one, important, Rob, no one important."

Draco glared at her.

"At least Slytherin can win," said Draco, humming a verse of Weasley is our King.

"Only by cheating! You knew PERFECTLY well that Umbridge would ban Harry, Fred and George if they came at you! I think I should have attacked you, she's all ready got me in detention for the rest of my life, why not afterward, too?"

"Why is it that you hang around with filth like the Weasley's and not us?"

Rose grabbed her pitcher of water and threw it at Malfoy, but it stopped half way to him.

"What the—"

"Don't you finish that sentence," warned one of the other coaches.

"Sorry, Coach.Michael," said Rose.

Dumbledore walked in.

"You really need to learn to control your temper, Miss Potter," said Dumbledore, stopping at the end of her bed.

She sighed.

"Sorry, Professor, it's just—Mrs. Weasley has all but adopted Harry and me, so she might as well be our mum, so... when Malfoy insults the Weasley's, we react the same way as if he said something about Mum."

Dumbledore looked at her over his spectacles.

"Patience and kindness is the answer. I came down to see how you were reacting to the guests."

"I'm surprised. They're Muggles, but how—"

"I have allowed them, but Professor Umbridge need not know they're Muggles."

Rose grinned.

"Professor, I really do know a few people who could knock her off, and no one could ever figure out who did it."

A few of her friends looked a little worried.

"That will not be necessary."

"Please! Please! Please!"

He laughed.

"No murders will me committed or even conceived in this castle."

Rose sighed.

"Fine." He laughed and left. Malfoy was looking at her. "Don't worry, I've all ready sent a few of them out on your dad, it'll be quick."

His eyes widened, and she grinned, then burst out laughing.

"Are you serious? Prof--"

"No, I'm not. I'd rather do it myself. Did he tell you we met in the lift at the Ministry?"

"Yes, he said you hit on him."

She cracked up laughing, it took her a minute or two to calm down.

"Hate to break it to you, Junior, but I believe he's the one you pinched my ass."

"Did you report him?" demanded Mrs. D'Anto, mother of one of the sets of twin guys who were present, too, although they did not play football..

"No, I can't! All summer they've been saying that Harry's a liar, Dumbledore's insane, and I'm a sleep- about, so they'd think that I was hinting at it, and crap like that."

"Aww, honey," said Mrs. Ridder, hugging her.

Rose smiled.

"Thank you, but why did all of you come?"

"We told you—" started Greg.

"No, that's how you came to know, but WHY did you come here?"

One of the D'Anto twins walked over to him, he had darker features than his brother.

"Because we love you," he said, pinching her cheek.

"Uh huh," she said sarcastically. "Anthony, please let go of my face."

He released her cheek, and she rubbed the spot his fingers had been.

"We came because one of our team was hurt and—" Travis, the shortest guy on the team, stopped at Rose's 'You are so full of it' look.

"I'm fine," said Rose.

The other D'Anto twin, Mike, walked over to Rose, and held out her wrist where everyone could see the blood on the gauze wrapped around her arm.

"This doesn't look 'fine' to me," he said.

She pulled her arm back.

"Mike, that wasn't nice," said Rose, looking up at him, with tears in her eyes. She refused to cry, not in front of all of them. Malfoy laughed. She jerked her head toward him so quickly, he stopped laughing, mid- guffaw. She glared at him. "What is so funny, Malfoy?"

"You, Potter, you want to look all innocent and sweet, when really you're evil, and a bitch!" he said.

"I know."

"So you admit it!"

"Admit what?"

"That you're a whore."

"No! I'm not! I admitted I was a bitch, I said nothing about being a hoe."

"What about Diggory?"

"What about Cedric?"

"Everyone knows you two—"

"He was hesitant to kiss."

"Oh! Is Cedric your boyfriend! Can we meet hi—" started Mrs. Lams.

"No, he's not my boyfriend, not anymore."

"Why, did he dump you?" joked Tony, elbowing her.

"No, he was murdered."

The Hospital Wing fell silent.

"Who would do such a thing?" asked Mrs. Ridder.

Rose looked at Malfoy who was ecstatic at her sorrow.

"No one believed me when it happened, why should anyone believe me now?"

"Was it You- Know- Who?" asked Mrs. D'Anto.

Rose looked at her, her eyes wide.

"How did you—"

"Mike went to school here."

Rose looked at Mike.

"What House?"

"The best!" said Mike.

"Sly—" began Malfoy, proudly.

"GRYFFINDOR!" said Mike, not even realizing Malfoy had opened his mouth.

Rose smiled.

"I'm in Gryffindor," said Rose, laughing.

"How do you like, McGonagall?"

"She's wonderful, and the one who decides how well I do here, I'd better like her."

"Who's your favorite teacher?"

"McGonagall, Hagrid, Flitwick, and Sprout."

"Hagrid? What's he teach?"

"Care of Magical Creatures. He's a bit on the interesting side when it comes to taste of animals, but that's what makes the class exciting. He thinks dragons are cute." Malfoy muttered something about hippogriffs. "Well, that was your fault, and it was only a scratch, didn't even leave a scar. Hagrid was just trying to make a good impression. You were being a jerk, and decided to ruin it, and try to get Buckbeak killed!"

"How did you know—"

"Hello! My brother and his two best friends tell me everything. They've filled me in on all three years I wasn't here."

"Oh."

"A hippogriff?" asked Mike.

"Yea, but I never got to see one. I wasn't here."

"Is Snape still mean?"

"Especially to me and Harry, he knew our parents."

"I'm guessing they didn't get along."

"Does Snape get along with anyone? He hates Harry more than he hates me. Harry looks just like Dad, and Snape didn't like him. No one will say anything, all we know is that they didn't get along. For all we know Dad could have hung him upside down over the giant squid or something, or Snape tried to kiss Mum, and Dad got jealous, how are we supposed to know? Snape's always saying Dad was arrogant, big- headed, and he thought he was better than everyone else, well how do we know if he was really like that, or if Snape's anger towards my father just makes everything about him bad?"

Rose saw someone out of the corner of her eye, and looked.

"You don't know, do you?" said Snape, handing Malfoy his assignments.

"Nope. And I never will, so it seems."

They were looking in each other's eyes, determined not to blink.

"And whose fault is that?"

"Are you blaming me for my parents deaths?"

"Did I say that?"

"No, but you implied it."

"You know nothing about your parents—"

"Didn't I JUST say that?"

"She did," said Mike.

Snape snapped his head toward Mike.

"Stay out of this," hissed Snape.

"You can't tell him what to do."

"Why am I arguing with a child?"

Snape rolled his eyes and left.

"God! I hate that man!"

"Why?" asked Will, the other Smitty twin.

"Because he's really mean, and he's bitter because NO ONE LIKES HIM!" she shouted after him. "And, I think he's still a virgin." They laughed.

"Probably," said Mike.

Rose smiled.

"You all didn't have to come."

"Yes we did," said Mrs. D'Anto.

"Why?"

"Because something happened to you, and you need our support," said Dan.

Rose laughed.

"I haven't seen you all for..." Rose counted on her fingers, "Nearly three years, why come to a letter that SAID I was hurt, or whatever it said."

"It sent along the picture of all of us, too," said Josh.

"Oh."

"Well, we came to see you anyways," said Paxton.

They talked for a while longer, and then they went home, and Rose was left in the Hospital Wing with Malfoy.