I don't own the characters, they belong to J.K. Rowling.
Inspired by "HP: A Girl's Life" by nicky14 on DeviantArt
"I told you this was going to happen."
"Ron, just drop it," said Rose icily.
"I told you that it was going to end badly, but did anyone listen to me, no!"
"Ron, I told you to drop it."
"But I was right! The great Harry Potter was wrong, and Ron Weasley with right!"
Rose turned from the sink and gestured at Ron with the potato peeling in a threatening manner, "Ron, if you don't drop it, I'm going to pell you!"
"Okay, okay, I just want you to admit that I was right, do that, and I'll keep quiet."
"Alright Ron, you were right, I was wrong, and Draco's a jerk," said Rose. She then turned on her first friend, "Are you happy now?"
"No, but happier," said Ron with a smirk. "I'll be happy once we figure out to get revenge on Malfoy."
Rose rolled her eyes, "Just drop it Ron, I don't want to talk about it, and talking about revenge is still talking about it. I just want to enjoy Christmas in peace before I have to deal with Malfoy revealing my secret at the worst possible time."
"I still say you shouldn't have told him," said Ron. "I mean, it's bad enough to admit that you're enjoying yourself, but no bloke is going to be happy to find out that the bird he's been kissing for the last two months isn't a bird, but is instead a bloke."
Rose slammed the half peeled potato and peeler down on the counter, "One more word, Weasley, and I'm leaving these potatoes to you. One more word."
Ron gulped, fearing the prospect of the mountain of tubers before them.
"Are you going to be quiet?"
Ron nodded.
"Are you going to not speak about Draco, or my ill conceived relationship with him?"
Ron nodded again.
Rose smiled, "Good, now, let's take care of these potatoes."
Ron and Rose resumed peeling the potatoes in quiet.
At Hogwarts, Draco was mad. He was madder than he'd been in ages, and he was taking it out on the rest of the students who had stayed at the castle over the holidays. Two days before Christmas, his head of house pulled him into his office.
"Draco, we need to talk," said Professor Snape.
"About what?" snarled Draco.
"Calm down," instructed Snape menacingly.
Draco, realizing that, while as a sixth year he could bully most of the school into accepting his anger, his godfather and Head of House would not be so easily cowed. "Sorry Professor Snape."
"Good, now, why don't you tell me what's got you so angry."
"It's Potter."
Snape raised his eyebrow, "Potter? He hasn't been in the castle for months, how can he be the source of your recent insanity?"
Draco snapped, "Months? Months? He, or should I say she, left just two days ago!"
"Ah," said Snape, leaning back in his seat.
"Ah? Is that all you can say? He … she … Potter," and Draco snarled the name, "lied to me, and you let him … her … whatever!"
"I see that Rose told you her secret then," said Snape calmly.
"Rose Evans," snarled Draco. "I should have seen it from the start. She showed up the day after Potter disappeared, has the same eyes, and the same friends. Then, she goes and seduces me, and once I admit that I've changed for her, she goes and tell me that she's Potter, and that for the last three months I've been a bloody poofter!"
"I can see that this is troubling for you."
"Troubling? You knew and you let me!"
"Of course I knew. All of the professors knew. Why else would Slughorn try so hard to get Rose into his little collection?"
"You knew, and you let me get close to her? You even encouraged me!"
"Yes, I encouraged you to date a girl who would be good for you," said Snape. "She let you see beyond the prejudices that your parents raised you with. She let you see that following the Dark Lord is a mistake, and that you should do whatever you can do to not get tied to him."
"So, you're against the Dark Lord now? Is that why you're working for the Headmaster?"
"Of course I'm against the Dark Lord! Any same person would be. The only thing he did during his first reign of terror is destroy our society. Look at what we've become. A hundred years ago Hogwarts was turning away young witches and wizards from less deserving families, now we can't even use all of our classrooms. There's barely three hundred students in a school built for a thousand. And most of them are muggleborn or half-bloods. The only reason there's so many purebloods in your year is because they realized that they needed to breed to replace their losses. This is what the Dark Lord has brought our world to."
"You followed him once."
"Yes, I did, but I was barely out of Hogwarts myself, and I'd been harassed all through school by so-called 'Light' wizards because of my House and my talents," admitted Severus. "Then his reign of terror threatened the only woman I ever loved, and I tried to make a deal with the devil. When the devil wouldn't deal, I turned to the Headmaster. He offered me protection and absolution, in exchange for helping him when the Dark Lord returned. Now he's dying, and I fear that when Albus dies, our world will follow him quickly."
"Why?" asked Draco.
"Come now, the very reason you're here in the first place. Rose is Potter, but the world believes that Harry Potter is being trained to fight the Dark Lord. She doesn't stand a chance, and once the Dark Lord kills her, he's going to destroy our world."
"You keep saying that, but why?"
"All the Dark Lord wants is power, it's all he's ever wanted. He's using the purebloods to get that power, but in the process he's killing anyone who doesn't agree with him. Eventually all that will be left is a small group of purebloods, and that's not sustainable."
"What do you mean?"
"Come now, even you can do the math. How many of your classmates are only children?"
"Most of them, I think Weasley, Greengrass, and the Patils are the only ones with siblings, though I could be wrong," said Draco.
"There's a few more, but they're all either half-bloods or muggleborn, and are thus targeted by the Dark Lord. If all of the purebloods only have one child, then the next generation will be half as large, and that's only if they all survive to marry. The next generation after that will be even smaller, the one after that smaller still, until there aren't any purebloods left in Britain." Snape sighed, "It's simple math, and any muggleborn could see it if they looked. Plus, while Rose's history was fake, many muggleborn and half-bloods did leave for the rest of the Commonwealth during the Dark Lord's first rise."
"So what should I do?"
"About what? The Dark Lord or Rose?" asked Snape.
"The Dark Lord?" asked Draco.
"Help Rose," said Snape with a sigh.
"But I thought you hated Potter?" asked Draco.
"Oh, I do hate Potter, but if you'll notice, Rose isn't a Potter. She's her mother's daughter, and if I have my way, that's who she'll remain. But eventually, she's going to need to fight the Dark Lord, since her secret will get out. She needs to fight the Dark Lord, and she's going to need to win."
"But how?" asked Draco. "How is a not even seventeen year old girl supposed to defeat the most powerful Dark Lord Britain's seen in centuries?"
"If you believe the Headmaster, it's supposed to be the 'Power of Love', but that's a load of shite," said Snape. "No, the power the Dark Lord knows not, what will defeat him, isn't Love, but friendship."
"Friendship? How's that better than love?"
"The Dark Lord doesn't have friends, he doesn't have allies, he has tools. You father, your mother, even you since he gave you your mission, are merely tools to him. It took me years to realize it, but when I did, I had hoped that he'd stay defeated long enough for you to escape his clutches, unfortunately, he came back too soon. And so, he's going to turn another generation of witches and wizards into sacrifices on his altar of power."
"So how would we defeat him with friendship?"
"It's 'we' now, is it?" asked Snape. "No matter, the way to defeat the Dark Lord is to attack his weakness. He's dependent on using others, the Death Eaters. Remove his tools, and while he's still powerful, he's less dangerous, since he can only be in one place at a time. Remove the tools he used to return from death, and he can finally be defeated completely. That's why friendship is key, friendship is what will allow Rose, allow Potter, to complete the prophesy and save our world from the destruction the Dark Lord will inflict upon us."
"So I need to be friends with Rose?" asked Draco.
"You don't have to be. You could, if you wanted, return to the life you led before knowing her. You can try to resume your relationship with Parkinson, or perhaps switch to Greengrass or one of the other witches in your year. You can keep Rose's secret, or you can share it, it is a choice that you can make, I will not tell you want you have to do."
"What should I do?" asked Draco with a sigh.
"Before you knew her secret, did you enjoy your time with Rose?" asked Snape.
Draco thought for a moment, then slowly nodded, "Yes, yes I did."
"Before you knew her secret, did you think that, perhaps, one day, you could see yourself marrying her?"
Draco thought for a bit longer, "It's possible. I mean, can she even have children?"
"The curse you used on Potter, the Maiden's Blessing, was meant to allow pureblood families without daughters to lay with each other, to allow children to solidify an alliance. So, yes, Rose can have children. If you take what Nurse Pomfrey says, she's quite healthy and likely fertile, since the curse was meant to invigorate pureblood lines."
"So you know the curse?"
"I was tasked with finding a counter by the Headmaster," admitted Snape. "I have yet to find a counter that I can perform."
"Ah, so, you think I should get back with Rose?" asked Draco.
"I believe that you and Rose would make powerful allies against the Dark Lord, and once he's defeated, in repairing the damage done to our society. Whether that is as friends, or as more, is not for me to say."
Christmas arrived a few days later, and Rose had nearly recovered from her breakup with Draco.
Molly Weasley had quickly adopted Rose into her family when she'd been told by Dumbledore about the curse, and treated the sixth year witch as her second daughter, rather than the seventh son she'd treated Harry as.
"Thanks again for the presents," said Rose, pulling her knit jumper over her head. It was dark green with a pink 'R', and made Rose remember the first jumper she'd gotten her first year, and how it felt good to have people who cared about her, even if they weren't actually family.
"It's the least we could do, after all that's happened to you," said Molly. "First you lose your parents, and now you've lost your identity. Hopefully they'll be able to find a counter before the end of next term."
Rose looked confused, as she'd quietly hoped that she'd be able to finish her time at Hogwarts as Rose, as someone normal, before returning to Harry to fight Riddle. "Why?"
"Your relatives won't exactly be understanding, would they?" asked Arthur.
"It'd be a month between end of term and my seventeenth birthday, and when I become an adult. I've already got a home in Sirius' old house. I'll just live there until I go back to Hogwarts for seventh year, and then, once I'm done with my NEWTs, then it'll be safe to return to being Harry."
"You'd stay a girl that long?" asked Ron.
"It's already been three months, I've already gotten used to my period," said Rose. Ron blanched. "Plus, I like being normal for once. Sure, I'm a girl, but I'm a normal girl. I'd rather be a normal girl than a famous 'Boy-Who-Lived' any day of the week."
"But you're famous!" said Ron.
"Exactly," said Rose with a sigh. "When I was Harry, all anyone ever saw was their image of the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. They never saw 'just Harry'. Even from my first trip to Diagon Alley, my life in the magical world was defined by something that happened when I was fifteen months old, and that killed the only family I ever had. I'd trade the fame and fortune for family any day of the week, and twice on Sundays."
"But … fame … fortune … how could you give that up?" asked Ron.
Rose looked to Ron's parents, and then back to her first friend. "Ron, I never wanted fame, I never wanted fortune. I understand that you're the sixth child, and your brothers have all gone on to do great things. Bill is a curse breaker and now he's engaged to marry a Veela. Charlie works with dragons. Even Percy the Prat works closely with the Minister of Magic and he's only been out of Hogwarts for two and a half years. The Twins are successful with their owl-order pranks. You see the success your brothers have, and you assume that fame and fortune are the only ways you'll distinguish yourself. Your'e a good Keeper, perhaps one day you'll even be a great Keeper, and lead some Quidditch team, like the Canons, to victory, and thus gain fame and fortune your way."
"All I ever wanted was a family. You look at me, and you see everything you've ever wanted. I look at you, and see everything I ever wanted," said Rose.
After that, the Burrow was quiet for a few minutes.
The silence was broken by a light tapping at the window, as Hedwig was waiting to get in.
"Hedwig?" asked Rose, getting up from the floor. She walked over and let her familiar in. She knew that Hedwig hadn't gotten much use this year, what with her cover as Rose being easily broken if Hedwig were to come down and deliver a letter. Rose had gone up to the Owlery every week to greet her real first friend, delivering a plate of bacon on Saturday mornings before heading out to the Pitch to watch one or another team practice.
The snowy owl alighted on one of the seat back around the Weasley supper table, though it was otherwise empty as the family had gathered in another room for presents. Hedwig stuck out her leg, presenting a letter for Rose.
"Thanks girl," said Rose, petting the owl in a stroke down her back, before untying the strong and removing the envelope. It was a fine linen envelope, and written on one side, and familiar scripts was the intended recipient.
"Rose. Potter"
