Chapter 10

Rose soaked in the bathtub trying to relax,but after the day's events it was a miracle that she managed to stay still. She kept her eyes close trying to keep her breathing steady. A lethargic feeling flowed through her body. Her arms and legs and the rest of her body was now completely scar free. She felt her forehead and with a cynical sense of relief she could feel the small rough cut that would never heal. She knew she should feel more than pissed off that Damon had the nerve to go through her mind again, but she couldn't bring herself to. But on this night, Damon reminded her of a memory she had forgotten when she was in New York. She had been so confused when one minute she was riding her bike and the next she was lying on the front hood of someone's car with a broken arm, which ironically turned out to be Damon's blue Camaro.

However, any possible feelings of anger at the mischievous, lurking vampire disappeared at the sight of the girl that had her pinned to the car. There were two of them. One spoke french and her name was Isobel. The other on the other hand, she couldn't believe the sight. Apparently, Damon and Stefan were really not the first vampires she'd ever met. She couldn't believe it. It was like looking in a mirror.

How was this possible?

And then there was the other memory. That one... Rose didn't know what to do with. Why Damon had felt the need to compel her to forget when they had really met she didn't know.

'I guess he thought he was being clever.' She felt her face heat up. 'Telling me to go after what I wanted...'

When she heard the small gust of wind meeting a vampire that at first had intended to want to eat her until he saw her face... It was no wonder he had mistook her for Katherine.

The second Damon had released the missing memories Rose woke up startled by the change. After everything she'd been through with Voldemort she couldn't believe how easily overpowered she'd been by them.

'I guess I overestimated myself on that aspect,' she thought flicking a bubble away from her face.

She had pretended to stay asleep throughout Damon's horrified exploration of the missing memory. Not only had she seen his face, but she saw his feelings. The devastation and betrayal he must have felt shot through her. In that moment she had the urge to want to run up to Damon and take him in her arms in hopes of making him feel better, but she couldn't.

Not to mention. What the hell was a doppelgänger? Why was this vampire like an evil twin? A theory crossed her mind though.

It was a theory she didn't like. She didn't want to think about it. It was a theory that would make Hermione proud.

She desperately needed to call Hermione or Ron. She couldn't believe this.

But then her anger at Damon dissipated completely when she quietly took a peak into Damon's mind just before he tossed her off into Stefan's arms having told him to take her home.

Damon was sitting next to the quarry washing his bloodied shirt waiting for his brother to wake up from death. The two would then be in transition needing to feed on blood in order to live or they would pass on into the afterlife. The whole reason he had wanted to be a vampire was to stay with Katherine, the lady he'd fallen in love with. He would have done anything for her but she died. He just wished he hadn't had to share her with Stefan.

She died because his father found out she was a vampire.

She didn't make it so now he would end it as well. He would not complete the transition. Maybe they could be together in the afterlife.

But that was not the case... He had transitioned, not willingly mind, but the need for blood became too much when Stefan offered up a girl for him to drink from.

Rose saw a few minutes later a young maid that was also a witch approach Damon after he had proclaimed his hate towards his brother for making him transition. His naive brother telling their father that not all vampires were bad and to hopefully give them a chance to prove themselves.

"Lord Salvatore," Emily Bennett spoke softly from behind.

Damon turned around slowly after watching his brother leave. He sped over to the dark women and put a hand around her neck.

"Witch! Why didn't you help save her?"

"She-She's not-" she gasped for breath.

"Speak now witch! Before I present you to the witch hunters."

Before Damon could do or say anything else he felt hot white pins pierce his skull. His blood vessels popped bringing him to his knees.

"That would not be wise Lord Salvatore. Allow me to tell you that Katherine is not as dead as you believe," she spoke gently the sad fallen figure. "She's in the tomb waiting to be released."

Before Damon could say anymore Emily Bennett disappeared before his eyes.

Rose tossed her phone onto the bed. Neither Ron or Hermione had answered the phone.

"Damn. I guess they're busy," she speculated.

Katherine's image crossed her mind and the scary theory that came through her mind came back, but there was no way. Her entire family except Petunia and Vernon was dead. They were DEAD.

She opened her Hogwarts trunk that contained all her spell books. One book she was looking for contained her family history. The majority of it being about the Potter line. She found a page that contained a spell.

DNA Spell.

The instructions said to prick her finger and allow a drop of blood to touch the page. It would reveal the Evans' line. All the branches of the Evans' line would show themselves as long as she was truly from the line and not an impersonator. She grabbed a small knife from the kitchen. She gently tapped her forefinger on the sharp edge. Rose gave a gentle wince. She saw a few dribbles of blood slide down her hand. She wasn't entirely fond of blood magic, but there was no other way.

She turned the page wrote down the name of Lilian Evans Potter and gently pressed her finger onto the page. She cleaned her hand in the bathroom allowing the book to work its magic on her mother's side of the family. She sighed with dread and went back to the book. She knew that no matter how much she prayed that Katherine was not her relative, the book was the deciding factor.

She closed her eye thinking of the final memory that she had found in Damon's mind. The reason Damon made Caroline his plaything. As much as it made Rose want to scoff and roll her eyes by the man's actions for what he did. He needed some pendent that had belonged to Emily Bennett that would open the tomb, but as he had discovered Katherine was not in the tomb, rendering his efforts unnecessary. She had sounded so cold when she saw the car, her sneer giving making Malfoy Sr. appear childlike in comparison.

She looked down at the book with bated breath. She saw with a sinking heart that she was right. Katherine Petrova was related to her with the status of Vampire next to it. It also shows that before she had become a vampire, she had child out of wedlock. Named Nadia Petrova also a with a vampire status. The line ran all the way to her mother connecting with her was her sister Petunia. She frowned. There was...

Another sister?

Isobel Evans- Runaway -

adopted- new name- Isobel Flemming.

Marital Status- Separated from Alaric Saltzman

Status: Vampire

She had another aunt which according to the memory Damon unlocked had obviously known about her. She went to lie on her bed facing away from the door.

For the second time within the same day tears ran down her face.

A brief knock came to the door and it opened without waiting for Rose's response. However, she quickly managed to hide any evidence of magic. It was Jeremy.

"I'm going out with Vicki tonight. Don't wait up."

Rose hid her face not wanting Jeremy to see her.

"Yeah whatever," she said waving a hand.

Jeremy was startled by Rose's nonchalance.

"Really? No bitching about who I hang out with, huh? Are you sick?"

Rose sat up and angrily threw her pillow at Jeremy.

"Just go already! I'm not in the mood to argue with you about your stupid choices!"

Jeremy caught the pillow. This was not how things normally went. Jeremy announces that he's going out to Vicki. Rose bitches about his choice in girlfriend. Jeremy rolls his eyes and ignores Rose's opinion and goes out anyway. He makes out with Vicki, well when she's not thinking about Tyler Lockwood. Possibly have sex with Vicki. Then after that she would provide some white powder to get high.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing you need to bother with. It's just a bad dream." she spoke turning back over. 'One that never seems to end,'

Jeremy sighed. "Fine see you later then."

"Yeah. See you later."

Jeremy closed the door behind him. Rose put her pillow back on the bed and she flopped down on it and held it tightly. What was she going to do? She could not very well do nothing. Not after what her very own ancestor had put Damon and Stefan through. She looked towards her trunk and grudgingly got up. No she would not do nothing.

She needed to train her magic hard. Harder than she ever pushed herself. She went to her trunk and reopened it. She needed to fix things. Fix herself. Whatever was happening or was about to happen, she had to get stronger both physically and magically. In a few days it would be Halloween. Hopefully, she would improve somewhat by then.

She grabbed her animagus training book, books on protective spells, and the dark magic book with the purple diamond on it. She especially needed to make sure her occlumency skills were as perfect as Severus Snape, if not better. She wanted to know what animal she could become. Given how much power she had it shouldn't be too hard. She was pretty sure she remembered reading something about vampires in the diamond book. Rose then decided that this kind of magic would be too dangerous to practice inside the house. She needed to go out tomorrow.

'The forest should be good enough,' She contemplated.

Rose wanted... No needed to be ready for when Katherine, her creepy, mirror image, look-alike ever came back to Mystic Falls. She wouldn't let her get away with what she has done. What she put the Salvatore brothers through.

Ginny walked down the empty street of Hogsmead. It was close to midnight and she was technically not supposed to be out of the castle after hours. She could of course get into a ton of trouble with Prof- Headmistress McGonagal, but things were just not the same anymore. It was great how safe things were now these days, but she missed Rose and Hermione, as well as Ron she supposed. She was only glad that she had Luna and Neville to hang around, but-

"Is the plan ready?" Someone's voice came from behind a building.

Apparently the village wasn't as asleep as she thought.

"We're all set to head out to America anytime. Lady Bellatrix just needs to give the order. We'll be ready to help get rid of that Potter nuisance."

"The tracking spell found her in a backwater little town called Mystic Falls in the state of Virginia. Filled with muggles."

'I have to go warn Rose before Bellatrix finds her.' Ginny thought, her shoulders tensed preparing to apparate to Hogwarts Entrance. She needed to hurry and pack her clothes.

She had to go. She wouldn't let her friends get hurt if she could help it.

"So you mean to tell me," Stefan began, pacing the room. "Rose, my friend, whom you are now decidedly attracted to, is a witch. She's seen nearly as much death as we have. And Katherine is?"

"Katherine Pierce whom we thought was at first dead, which turned out to not be true. I was told by Emily that she was trapped under Fell's Church, which turns out, again, is not true."

"I need a drink," Stefan went over to the bar.

"Way ahead of you brother." Damon spoke gently waved his stiff glass of bourbon.

Stefan grabbed the bottle and poured himself a glass as well.

"And you say that Rose met her."

"Met her, retroactively destroying my car as well."

"Which Rose fixed," Stefan remembered.

Damon nodded taking another big chug of the drink.

"Then what happened?"

"Katherine had her pinned and told her to come here."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't have a damn clue what goes through that bitch's mind."

Stefan looked at his brother looking for any signs of a lash out. When he had returned confused from taking Rose home he had expected to find a trail of bodies of college girls, or anyone rather, all around the house. To say that Damon's show of restraint was both confusing and somewhat remarkable was very sudden. While Stefan was beyond annoyed with his brother that he had killed their nephew Zach, it wasn't like there was much he could do anyhow. Finding out that Zach had shot Rose though had been astonishing, but nothing compared to finding out that Katherine and Rose met.

"So, there is nothing we can do about Katherine?"

"At least not until she shows herself."

Stefan wondered how it was that Damon had calmed down so fast. Damon looked like he had been ready to lash out on anything that was able to breathe at any given moment, but he didn't.

He just sat in his armchair with his bourbon in hand.

"So now what? Are you staying or leaving?" Stefan asked his brother.

Damon's mouth twitched in thought, twisting his wrist looking at his newly emptied glass. Moving to refill it he looked and briefly looked at his brother, he spoke, "Whatever the hell Katherine has planned, we can't let her have Rose."

Stefan grimaced. "I take it that means your staying."

"Your brotherly love is underwhelming Stefan," Damon rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Stefan sighed, "Fine. Just don't terrorize anyone at the town Halloween dance."

"Oh Stefan don't give me such good ideas then."

"I mean it Damon."

"Fine, fine. Maybe I'll dress up like the Grim Reaper."

"Damon!"

"Have a little faith in me brother," Damon fake pouted.

This time it was Stefan's turn to roll his eyes and took a very large drink of alcohol. Thank god for alcohol.

Bonnie leaned back against the couch breathing deeply from the display of magic she released. Her Grams was teaching her how to levitate feathers. This was so weird for her. She'd always thought that her Grams was just bazaar when she was drunk, but it was the truth. When she meant the family had a history of witches in the family it was not folklore as she had believed. It was not just an interesting story to pass onto generations just to make their family seem like it had an interesting pass for others to talk about.

"This is real." She spoke allowed.

"It is."

"I guess Rose was right. I should have just come sooner."

Sheila looked at her granddaughter.

"What about Rose?"

"I don't know. I mean she seemed just as convinced as you were that I am a witch. You were both right, but I still can't believe it."

Grams smiled. "It will take some getting used to, I'll admit. So tell me about your friend. I don't think you've ever mentioned anyone by the name of Rose before."

"She lives at the Gilbert House. She used to live in England before she moved here."

Grams brows furrowed in thought. "England, what brought her here?"

"She said a change in scenery was in order."

"I met her during the summer. I helped her study with History. When I told her about our family's line of witches she was surprisingly cool about it."

"Oh, is she the girl you went to dinner with a little while ago? Sounds like a friend you should keep close. Not everyone is very accepting of what they don't understand."

Bonnie nodded. This felt like a surreal dream which is partly why she hasn't been able to confess this to Caroline who is supposed to be one of her best friends. Yet, she confessed to Rose after a few minutes.. odd. She Bonnie Bennett had magic. Bonnie pulled out her cell phone.

"Want to see a picture?"

Grams nodded her consent. Bonnie handed the phone to her Grams to see the picture of her friend. Grams took the phone and felt a sense of having seen her before for some reason. It was a photo of Rose letting Bonnie lean against her with a hand on her shoulder. She had hair so dark it would blend in with the night sky. Eyes so green, emeralds would be jealous. Her hair had looked slightly windswept in the picture. The elderly lady saw a strange red line on the girl's forehead. Curious by the mark she zoomed in and saw a closer look.

Just barely peaking out between her bangs was a mark on her forehead. It looked like a lightening bolt.

'From England, enthused with magic.'

"What's the girl's name again."

"Rose Potter. Why?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"Rose... Potter," Grams spoke slowly.

"Yeah why?" Bonnie asked slightly annoyed.

"Oh my God..."

"What!"

Stefan went to school, and all day he looked around the school. He saw everyone. The excited air of Halloween was on everyone's mind which so happened to be tomorrow. They talked about the costumes they would wear. What seemed to be on everyone's mind was the town Halloween Party. A large percentage of the people were looking forward to the dancing and potential hook ups from the sexy costumes that will no doubt appear for the occasion. Around the school decorations were displayed all over the walls. Some fake decapitated arms hung out of lockers. Spider webs with fake spiders were hung against the walls.

He looked around and checked his watch. With a furrowed brow he noticed that Rose seemed to be running late. Yesterday, she had not turned up for school at all. He had hoped that it wasn't due to the previous days events, but it probably was. If she was absent again he would go looking for her. Stefan got out his phone to text her. After everything that Damon told him he wanted to talk to her. Make sure she was okay.

"Hurry up. You're late." He pressed send on his touch screen.

He sighed and put his phone away after a few minutes no answer came. As Stefan expected Rose did not turn up to school. By the time it finally ended Stefan went to The Grill where he suspected Damon would be drinking and hitting on the waitresses. It is what he usually did especially when he was bored.

'Well at least he appears to be restraining himself,' Stefan thought sarcastically.

Stefan clenched his teeth when he felt the familiar animalistic hunger well up inside him. At this point he needed to hurry, get Damon, drag him out by his hair if he had to, go hunt a few animals and then go search out Rose.

"What do you want?" Damon spoke between tequila shots.

Damon was about to take the bottle to refill his glass thanks to the compelled bartender giving it to him for free, oh so generously. Stefan gave a short look behind him to make sure no one was listening.

"You need to come with me."

"I don't need to do anything, until you tell me why."

Damon rolled his eyes, not sparing his brother an glance.

"Let me guess. You're worried that Rose is upset with you for going into her memories without asking, aren't you," Stefan continued.

"Don't you have homework to do high school boy?"

"Deflection, then I'm right. Your go-to tactic when you don't want others to see how you're feeling" Stefan spoke with hidden triumph, but it didn't last long."Rose hasn't shown up to school in the last few days. We need to look for her. Now either help me find her or I suspect you won't be getting her attention anytime soon."

Damon finished his last shot before standing up and heading out the door.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go."

When Damon found out that Stefan needed to feed first he slumped against a tree in the forest near the old Lockwood property.

"Is this another hilarious attempt in getting me to reconsider animal blood again because that brother is never going to happen. That ship as long since sailed."

Stefan made a face at Damon's comment. "No, just wait here. I'll be done quickly. Then we can search."

"You know if you'd just listen to me. Human blood is so much better." Damon spoke with a smirk.

"Oh shut up Damon."

Before Stefan had a chance to leave the two Vampires heard a twig snap a small distance away. A rabbit came running out of the wood, as if running for it's life.

"Hmm. Wonder why it's running, you haven't started hunting it yet." Damon continued with his quippy comments.

"Other animals need to eat too."

"No kidding."

Just a second later a large black cat came running out of the trees and launched itself on top of the rabbit.

"Just don't steal it from the Panther or it might get angry at you." Damon snickered.

They both watched as the Panther caught the small life and wrapped it's jaws around it's neck. It held the rabbit not relenting until became still obviously now dead. Stefan walked closer about to pass the panther to search for his own rabbit to take blood from, but he had apparently gotten too close when the Panther sent a warning growl. Stefan backed off a little not wanting to alarm it. When the Panther was satisfied with the distance it continued to eat.

Stefan couldn't help but watch the cat strangely.

"What? Thinking about eating the cat instead?" Damon asked.

"No. Since when are there Panthers near here?"

The panther's ears perked up.

Damon shrugged. "How should I know? This one obviously is."

The panther looked up at the two vampires. They could see it had green eyes with a white patch of fur showing vibrantly against the dark shade of the rest of its body. It stood up and shook its body out. Then suddenly it started to act very strangely. It stood there staring at them for a minute before it gave another gentle growl and rushed away when it heard something in the woods. Less than a minute later it returned with another rabbit. It then strangely approached Stefan and dropped the rabbit in front of him.

"What's it doing?" Damon asked sitting down on a tree stump. The panther pushed the dead rabbit with its nose closer to Stefan so he would get the hint.

"Um..." Stefan started baffled. "I think the cat just hunted a rabbit for me."

"Well, that's... weird."

The panther zeroed in on Damon after noticing him sitting down and walked towards him. The cat then placed it's head on his knee. Damon quickly got the hint when he realized that it was not going to attack him and placed a hand on its head and gently stroked it. A soft noise emitted from the cat, obviously liking the attention.

"Good boy," came Damon's rare compliment.

The panther growled.

"Girl! uh... you're a girl."

The panther did something neither Damon or Stefan expected. She tilted her head down once as if in understanding. Next the panther had obviously been feeling mischievous because it then gave a small hop with it's front legs on Damon's legs and gave his face a lick all the way from his chin, up the side of his face and stopped making part of Damon's already somewhat messy hair stand on end.

"The hell?" Damon sputtered. It was not easy making Damon sound funny when he spoke.

AN: I realize that it probably would have been better to have a Halloween chapter on Halloween, but it's just the way the cookie crumbled.

If you'd like to, I would greatly appreciate costume ideas. Since Damon is going to give Rose her costume, I'm thinking it should be sexy. Let me clarify that I do NOT mean slutty. I personally think there is a difference between sexy and slutty. So feel free to leave a link address in your reviews if you would like me to look.

Small edits

Thanks so much!

Princess of Red