The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into a real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? people asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas.

Rose knew that the Weasley's, Hermione and Harry would be the only Gryffindor's remaining, and she also knew that Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Theodore Nott were the only Slytherin's staying. She understood Crabbe and Goyle's reason for staying; they always did anything Draco did. However, Draco's and Nott's motives still escaped her.

In honesty, she was glad that most people were leaving. She had been skirted around far too many times in the past week, and she was honestly sick of it. She knew Harry had it worse, she had witnessed the looked people gave him in the corridor, all the muttering, pointing, and hissing that was occurring would be maddening to her twin brother.

Fred and George, however, found this all maddeningly funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…."

Percy and Rose were deeply disapproving of this behavior.

"It is not a laughing matter," he said coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred. "Harry's in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," said George, chortling.

Ginny didn't find it amusing either.

"Oh, don't," she wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met.

She knew Harry didn't mind, and she noticed that the Weasley twins antics were having an effect on Draco and Nott too. She hummed thoughtfully, knowing Draco was bothered that someone was still able to have fun in this situation, but she had no idea why Nott was getting into a tizzy.

At last, the term ended, and a silence deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle. Rose found it peaceful, but rather gloomy, but she enjoyed that her friends had the run of Gryffindor Tower; which meant they could play Exploding Snap loudly without bothering anyone, and practice dueling in private. Rose already knew her fair share about dueling, so she often times didn't participate in those activities, instead focusing on transforming herself into her inner animal. So far, all she had accomplished was turning her normally red hair a few shades darker.

Christmas eve found Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Rose all making forts and snacks, laughing as they told stories about what had happened to them on Christmases past. They joked around and, as tradition said they would, asked each other personal (and sometimes not so personal) questions. They were all excited for Christmas to finally be here, but Rose knew that something else was going on with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. She wanted to question Hermione, knowing she was most likely to tell her the truth, but she didn't find time as she fell asleep in the heap that was all of them.

Christmas morning dawned, cold and white. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had disappeared before Rose and the twins woke up and they frowned at each other in confusion before shrugging and opening their presents.

Hagrid had sent her a large tin of treacle fudge, which she discovered was identical to the gift he gave Harry when she found his tin softening up by the fire. Ron had gotten her some Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and she shrugged her shoulder's, smiling ever so slightly about that. Hermione had gotten her a luxury falcon-feather quill. Fred and George had gone in together and gotten her three new charms for her bracelet. One was a Jaguar, one was a Coyote, and one was a wolf. She smiled and eagerly launched herself at them as thanks, before asking them for assistance putting them onto her bracelet.

Percy had gotten her a book called Basic Hexes For The Busy and Vexed which had made her laugh. Charlie had gotten her Book of Potions by Zygmunt Budge and she hummed thoughtfully as she pursued the pages for a moment. Ginny had gotten her some hair care potions made specifically for red-heads like them and she smiled at the thoughtfulness of her friend. The last present she received from a Weasley was a hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake.

Harry had gotten her a case of Butterbeer that she was now hoarding and hiding away from Fred and George. Sirius had gotten her something that she didn't think she would ever forget.

She had opened his letter first and read slowly.

Cubette,

I believe it's time to give this to you. Your mother used to wear it daily, and I believe you'll appreciate it too.

-You're Dogfather

Rose eagerly opened the small package and went wide eyed at what was inside. A ring that she had indeed noticed in every picture of her mother sat in front of her. The simple silver band still glistened as if brand new, and the miniature lily that came out of it felt soft and fragile, almost as if it were alive. She slipped the ring onto her pointer finger of her right hand and suddenly felt more in tune with her birth parents than she had ever dreamed of being.

Remus's gift, in turn, made her miss her family immensely.

Cubette,

My gift to you this year, is one of the few things that I have held onto of my mothers. Perhaps it is the time that you inherited it.

-Uncle Moony

The gift, once unwrapped, revealed itself to be Remus's mother's cookbook. Rose's eyes filled with tears for a moment before she held it close, promising mentally to cherish it always, and perhaps even start filling more pages.

Finally, Rose opened her last gift, which was from Victoria.

Rose,

This is a gift from Sarah and me. She had originally decided that she needed to get you a present and wouldn't rest until she found one perfect for you, but I convinced her that perhaps as she had only met you once she should just go in on a present with me. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy!

-Victoria

Rose opened it, very curious now and she raised a single eyebrow (not realizing that the motion was one she had seen Snape do many times) and opened the gift. Rose wasn't all that surprised when she saw loads of makeup inside the box. She had noticed that Lavender and Parvati were starting to wear makeup, and she was sure that it was considered normal for girls her age to start wearing it. She shrugged and set the box to the side, not really interested in makeup yet. As soon as the box was out of her lap she was being tackled by the excitable Weasley twins.

"What's that for?" she asked looking at them in confusion.

"We didn't get a present from you-" George started.

"Which means-" Fred continued.

"That you got us something really special!" they crowed together.

Rose blinked and smiled slightly, "Yeah, I suppose I did. I got all of you Weasley's 'something special' but I suppose yours would be considered the most special," Rose pushed them off of her and stretched for a moment, missing their glance at each other, and put a finger to her chin as if thinking. "Let's see. I got Percy a present that no one can know about," that easily got even more of the twins attention on her, "I got Ginny a Snitch to play with. I got Charlie a book about how not to become Dragon food. I got Bill a curse-breaking guide. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley will surely yell at me for my gift to them soon enough, but what did I get for you two?"

The twins were practically bouncing as they stared at her, knowing that this was going to be good.

"Well… Oh, yes! It was based off of something Malfoy said," this had alarm bells going off in their head, but they pushed them aside as they often did, "and I thought you'd really appreciate it…"

"Just spit it out!" they both yelled.

Rose laughed and smiled at the two impatient boys, "Fine, fine," going underneath the tree again, Rose came out with two long boxes and handed one to each of them.

The wrapping paper was being torn off of the boxes almost before they were out of her hands. The twins looked at each other and peaked under the lids before slamming them shut and staring at each other with wide eyes. Slowly they opened the boxes again before throwing the lids off and staring at what lay inside absolutely mesmerized.
"She didn't, did she?" Fred asked dazedly.

"I think she might have," came George's equally dazed answer.

Slowly, and reverently, they pulled their brand new Nimbs 2000's out of the boxes. They stared in fascination at the Nimbus 2000 logo on the handle, and they seemed to swoon when they saw their names in the gold lettering too.

"I think I'm in love," Fred said with a hand on his heart.

"I love her more!" George said as he tackled Rose with a gigantic hug and practically squeezed the life out of Rose. Then when he released her Rose took a deep breath, thinking she had a moment to recover. She was wrong, though, and was soon being smothered by Fred too.

Rose finally laughed and got out of his grip, running to her dorm room so she could change.

Rose slipped on her Weasley sweater and smiled broadly as she slipped on a pair of jeans. Taking a quick trip into her room in her trunk Rose grabbed a pair of shoes (thankfully not her school shoes) and put on her trainers. Making her way back out of the room Rose contemplated putting her hair up but she decided it was pointless for right now. She walked down to the common room where Fred and George were obviously waiting for her.

The rest of the day was spent laughing and gallivanting through the castle and on the snow filled grounds. They created Igloo's (sort of, if you touched one the wrong way they collapsed) and had snowball fights. They laughed and played, talked to Hagrid for a bit, and even got some of their work for school done.

And of course, no one could fail to enjoy Christmas dinner at Hogwarts.

The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, and enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who thankfully hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read "Pin-head," kept asking them all what they were sniggering at. Rose didn't even care about Theodore Nott's loud, snide remarks about their new sweaters from the Slytherin table.

Rose ignored it when Hermione, Ron, and Harry left the Great Hall, and just continued having a good time with the twins until she felt a presence behind her. Looking around in confusion she saw Draco standing behind her. She smiled slightly, "Yes, Draco?"

"I wanted to talk about the possibility of dueling with you more. You seemed to not be totally incompetent," he said smoothly, knowing that others were listening to their conversation.

Rose nodded and excused herself from the table, as they walked away Draco couldn't help but smirk and call to Percy as he walked away from him, "Nice badge, Weasley."

There was a commotion behind them and they laughed as they walked out of the Great Hall.

"What did you get me this year?" Rose asked, her face shining with excitement as soon as the doors were shut.

"Hold your hippogriffs, Rose. Just give me a moment," Draco said, pulling something from his robes pocket at the same time that Rose did.

"On the count of three?" Rose asked as they exchanged gifts.

Draco nodded, "Three," he drawled.

"Two!" Rose said.

"One!" they said together as they tore the wrapping paper and opened the gifts.

Rose looked at the little keychain and at first recognized that it was the symbol of Gryffindor. But then she looked closer, and saw that instead of Gryffindor, it read Gryffinclaw, and the lion had wings and eagle feet. She blushed, knowing Draco had put a lot of thought into this gift, and he had spent a fair penny on it too.

She then looked up and saw Draco looking at the snitch in his hands in confusion. It's wings fluttered helplessly, wanting to fly away but only able to hover. He looked over at Rose for an answer, and Rose laughed.

"It's not a real snitch, Draco. It's a pocket watch. See, you touch here," she motioned to a little device on the top of the snitch, "and it'll open up and show you the time. You can even ask it what time it is, and it'll just tell you!" Rose was smiling broadly as she watched Draco slowly start to smile.

"That's brilliant, Rose! Thank you!" he said as he pulled her into a hug.

"No problem! Thank you so much for the keychain, it looks lovely."

Draco blushed a bit, "It needed to look as lovely as you do."

Now it was Rose's turn to blush, although hers was much more red than the light pink that Draco had turned.

They hugged each other once more before going their separate ways to their own common rooms.

As soon as Rose had gotten to her dorm room she had attached the keychain to her bag and she smiled, her eyes gaining a soft quality. She had truly been touched by Draco's thoughtfulness, and she somehow knew that this wouldn't be the last time.

She walked down to the common room, a huge smile on her face.

"Oi, George, look at that. It's a beautiful Rose," Fred said with a smirk as she approached them. Rose blushed, still very unused to being flirted with.

"It'd be a shame if someone were to… pick her," George said before getting up and picking her up swinging her around. She squealed and grabbed onto him.

"George! Put me down!" Rose yelled, hitting him unashamedly.

He laughed and put her down, kissing her cheek, "All you had to do was ask."

Rose rolled her eyes and sat in between the two of them, humming happily, they immediately took notice of her elated mood.

"So, what happened with Malfoy?" George questioned.

"Yeah, we noticed he hadn't given you any gift or anything," Fred muttered.

"Oh, we exchanged presents. It's easier that way, no one questions us. He knows that I don't like being alone on holidays or anything."

They nodded and dropped it. Although they still didn't really approve of her being friends with Malfoy they weren't going to tell her she couldn't be friends with him; it wasn't as if she was theirs. Even if she were theirs they wouldn't try to control her. She was, after all, her own person.

They played exploding snap for awhile, George beating them unashamedly. Rose was about to start pouting when Harry and Ron came in a bit pale. Rose frowned and stood, quickly attempting to access her twins mind.

Harry blocked her out and sighed, "Hermione's in the hospital wing. No," he commented quickly, noting their fear, "she wasn't petrified. She… Something else happened."

Rose glared at him and started advancing on the two, who quickly retreated until their backs hit the wall, "You didn't make that stupid potion, did you?"

They were silent and Rose practically grew with her rage, "How could you?! You're already so close to expulsion, how could you do this? I hope your precious information was worth your educations!"

With that she stormed into her dorm room, knowing that it was unfair to leave the twins, but she also knew that they would understand.

Rose sat down on her bed and frowned, needing to do something but unsure of what to do. She knew if she attempted her animagus transformation she'd get stuck (this was thanks to a little note that Sirius had made in the manual of how to make the transformation) and Rose realized that she had never written anything down before. She'd never written out her life, and she decided that today would be the day to try.

Rose grabbed the journal that Remus had given her exactly a year ago and flipped to the first page. She grabbed a quill and inkwell and thought herself foolish for a moment before shaking it off and starting to write.

December 25th, 1992

Dear diary/journal/thing,

Hello there! I'm Rose Potter. You've obviously never heard of me, you've never heard of anyone that I haven't mentioned, and this is the first time that I've even written in you. It's been a year since I received you as a gift from Remus, so I suppose I've been neglecting you.

Rose paused and looked at the parchment in front of her. Perhaps writing things out wasn't as helpful as she had thought it would be. She felt incredibly awkward, and that was with a book for Merlin's sake! Rose would not be deterred, though, and she dipped her quill in ink again before continuing to write.

I was told that I should write down everything that happens in here. But, on the account that you may fall into the wrong hands, I don't think I will. I will, however, tell you some facts.

I'm Rose Potter. The-girl-who-lived, twin sister of Harry Potter (look, you've learned another name!), and a resident of Gryffindor house. I'm best friends with the Weasley twins and I feel like I'm a part of the Weasley family, and I'm pretty sure they feel the same.

I grew up without my mother and father (Lily and James Potter) because they were killed in front of Harry and I by an evil man who calls himself Lord Voldemort. I hardly believe that he's a lord, but I digress. They both died protecting Harry and I, and sometimes I feel guilty about it. Sometimes I doubt that I was worth it.

Lord Voldemort has shaped my life and in terrible ways. He killed my parents, and attempted to kill Harry and I. He created a following, called Death Eaters, and they make my godfather, Sirius, life hell, even if they have stopped being active. They also shaped another friend of mine's life. Who is this other friend? you may ask, but I won't tell you, for his safety and mine.

And I guess, that's where my story began, Diary. I am known by every wizarding family in Britain. I am a hero in some, a menace in others. I am, well… I don't know what I am. I think that I wish I had just gotten a chance to be Rose Potter the girl, not Rose Potter the-girl-who-lived. I wish I had gotten a chance to be who I wanted to be, not who I was expected to be. I wish my brother didn't have a reason to be protective of me, I wish that I could go home on the Holidays to play with my little siblings. I wish I had a chance to be more than I am now, but somehow I know I would also be less. I know from my mother's journals that my father could be arrogant, so I am glad that I didn't have a chance to pick up on that trait. Sort of.

There, I've started writing about my life. Perhaps I'll continue on a later date, but I need sleep.

Goodnight, diary/journal/thing.

Rose put the diary in her nightstand and yawned as she put on pajamas. She really was tired, and Maple purring contentedly next to her while she had been writing wasn't helping at all either. She slipped into her bed, only disturbing Maple enough so she 'decided' to move to avoid further pestering. Rose slowly fell asleep, happy that she had had a good Christmas, but still livid at her brother and his friends.