Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks. There was a flurry of rumor about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays because of course everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face.

Harry and Ron visited her each evening, and when term started they brought her each day's homework. Often times, though, they had to borrow Rose's notes because they never took their own notes.

Meanwhile, Rose and the Weasley twins were very busy. They were working very hard and seemed incapable of making any progress on their transformations. They could change very small facets about themselves; for instance, George turned his hair a grayish brown, Fred managed to make his fingernails get longer, and Rose was still stuck on her hair turning darker. They didn't understand where they were going wrong, but when Rose checked all of the materials they could find they all said they were actually doing really well, no matter how frustrating it was.

Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less, and fur-free, at the beginning of February. On her first evening back Rose approached her, Harry, and Ron to find them crowded around a blank book.

"Ummm… That parchment looks like it's at least fifty years old, so I'm going to assume it isn't any of yours. What is it?" Rose questioned.

"It's the diary of T. M. Riddle. It's completely blank, the revealer didn't work, and the ink isn't invisible. But yet, someone tried to get rid of it. Any idea of what it could be?" Harry asked.

Rose made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat and stared at the diary. She didn't think that anyone would get rid of a truly blank diary, so it was probably heavily warded. And perhaps T. M. Riddle wasn't even the person's real name, they just came up with it when they had detention and put it on the diary to throw people off of the scent. She said as much to Harry, but he just shook his head, determined that there had to be more.

Soon enough the sun was beginning to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, and Professor Sprout was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning they were fast leaving childhood.

"The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for repotting again," Rose heard her telling Flich kindly one afternoon. "And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. You'll have Mrs. Norris back in no time."

Life for Harry hadn't been getting any better, though, even with the attacks stopping. Many people think that they had only stopped because he had given himself away at the Dueling club, and Peeves was happy to sing many songs about how terrible he was.

Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think that he had made the attacks stop. Rose overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration.

"I don't think they'll be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber of Secrets has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him.

"You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of the last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing…"

He tapped his nose again and strode off.

Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fourteenth. Rose had walked into the Great Hall with the twins and Lee, and for a second thought that they had somehow managed to get lost in the large castle.

The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Rose went to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Lee, feeling as if her whole world had just toppled over. She brushed some confetti off of her pancakes and made a face.

"What happened here?" she practically growled at the twins.

Fred, seemingly too disgusted to speak pointed at the teachers' table, where his eyes had yet to leave. Rose looked up to see Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations. Rose groaned when he winked in her direction and put her head on the table. Not too long after Harry came into the Great Hall and sat with Ron and Hermione. This seemed to trigger something in Lockhart and he started waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where she sat, Rose could see a muscle going in McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all- and it doesn't end here!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

Naturally, the twins were the two who decided to ask him. They both lost Gryffindor twenty points before they could even blink.

All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver Valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Harry.

"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.

Rose laughed out loud as her twin tried to escape, likely to avoid embarrassment in front of the horde of first years, which also happened to include Ginny. The dwarf wouldn't let him, though, he cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twining his harp in a threatening sort of way.

"Not here," Harry hissed, trying to escape.

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging.

With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything.

Rose started helping her scrambling brother to pick up all the stuff before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" came Draco's drawling voice. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away. Rose just backed up, almost backing into Draco as she sat back to watch the show.

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy arrived.

Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

"Right," he said, sitting on Harry's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,

His hair is as dark as a blackboard.

I wish he was mine, he's really divine,

The hero who conquered the Dark Lord

Part of Rose was insulted, and the other part of her was glad that she hadn't been on the receiving end of something so terrible. Everyone was laughing, and Harry attempted to laugh too. Percy did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.

"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away.

"And you Malfoy-"

Rose noticed Draco bend and grab something. Draco leered and showed it to Crabbe and Goyle while Rose and Harry realized it was Riddle's diary.

"Give that back," said Harry quietly.

Rose sighed and started walking away, used to her brother and her friend's bickering. The only reason she stopped was seeing Ginny's horrified face.

Rose turned around and swiftly took the diary from Draco.

"Hey, what-"

"This," Rose said, dangling the book from her fingers, "is not yours. Nor is it Harry's. I will have you know that it's mine, and I'd prefer you didn't look through it. And you, Harry," Rose said, turning her attention to her twin, "are no longer holding onto it for me. I can see that you don't even have a good enough bag for it."

With that Rose walked away, Harry and Ron following her.

It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Rose noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary. All Harry's other books had been drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was all clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. She and Harry shared a look, but she returned the book to him.

That night Rose was not saved from her own poem. She had been so happy to not receive anything, but as she pulled out her books she blinked owlishly at the parchment that fell from her bag. She didn't notice the two sets of eyes watching her as she picked it up, she also didn't notice the look the eyes shared as they settled in to watch her.

Rose looked down at the parchment in front of her and found that she didn't recognize the handwriting at all, blushing and glancing around she started reading the poem that the parchment held.

Heads will turn to look and stare

At the girl with long red hair.

With skin so pale and very fair

Look at the girl with the long red hair.

She enters a room, all are aware.

And watch the girl with long red hair.

Envious eyes that look and desire

The girl with hair like raging fire,

You may look and you may eye

And you may stare as she goes by,

For she has beauty beyond compare

And I love the girl with the long red hair.

Rose couldn't help the giggle that escaped her lips as her face lit up in a blush. Someone said they loved her! She held the parchment to her chest for a moment before blushing even more and shoving the parchment into her bag when she saw the approach of George and Fred.

"Oh, look, it's a pretty little Rose," hummed Fred as he sat on her right side.

"Mmmm, and such a pretty pink, too!" George said as he leaned forward and stroked her left cheek gently.

Rose's face felt as if it were on fire. George's eyes were boring into hers, and she could feel Fred's eyes on her too. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes breaking the spell they were under.

"So, I had a question about our nicknames," she started, hoping bringing up their animagus transformations in public would sufficiently distract them.

"Yeah, I guess we did too," George hummed, pulling her Charms book from the table and flipping through the pages as he finally sat on Rose's left side.

"Well, I just-" Rose started.

"-wanted to know what your name is, yeah, we know," they both said.

They looked at each other before leaning close to her, their breath tickling her neck and face.

"We thought-" Fred started.

"-that maybe-" George continued.

"You'd be called Spots," they both said together, leaning away again and crossing their arms.

"Spots?"

"Yeah, or Inkspot. Maybe we should all have inconspicuous names like that, because once you think about it, having names like Wormtail or Padfoot make it seem sort of obvious that they were what they were, you know what we mean?" Fred muttered.

Rose stared at them for a moment before her face split into a grin, "But then why bother being animagi at all? I mean, we only started this because-"

"You wanted to," the twins said. "That makes anything worth it."

Rose's face turned a pretty pink again and she coughed uncertainty, "Yes, well, we're just going to come up with inconspicuous nicknames?"

"Yours will be at least," George said with a shrug. "We can handle getting in trouble for doing something like this. You, on the other hand, can't. You're a bloody hero, Rose, and if you got caught you'd be looked down upon."

Rose groaned and snatched her charms book from him, sudden irritation filling her, "Yes, yes, we all know that Rose is a bloody hero. We all know that Rose and Harry destroyed Lord Voldemort, you don't need to remind me."

They held their hands up in surrender, "We're sorry," they chorused.

She rolled her eyes and huffed, before continuing on like nothing happened, "Perhaps our nicknames be strictly for the map? And maybe those could be our passwords? Make it voice and code activated, where you have to add other people's voices into it?"

Fred and George stared at her, looking as if she was an angel descended from heaven.

"What?" she asked self-consciously.

They shook their heads and smiled at her, "Brilliant! Bloody brilliant!"

"Well… Maybe you two come up with one for me? I'll come up with one's for you guys."

The twins looked at each other before shrugging and saying, "Gentle Heart."

Rose raised her eyebrow but didn't argue.

"That was quick. But to be honest I've been thinking for a lot longer than today," she pointed at Fred, "Rough Coat," she pointed at George, "Soft Paw."

The twins raised their eyebrows and glanced at each other before shrugging and nodding, "Works."

Slowly time passed, and Rose noticed her brother and his friends sending what they thought were inconspicuous glances in Hagrid's direction. She shrugged it off, though, as she was growing hopeful. Each day passed without a whisper from the disembodied voice, and it was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified. Nearly everyone seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Peeves had finally gotten bored of his "Oh, Potter, you rotter" song, Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three.

"The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature," she told everyone. "Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing."

The second years were given something new to think about during their Easter holidays. The time had come to choose their subjects for the third year, a matter that Hermione and Rose took very seriously.

"It could affect our whole future," Hermione had told Harry and Ron as the four of them pored over lists of new subjects, marking them with checks.

"I just want to give up Potions," said Harry.

"Yes, and then give up your dreams of being an Auror," Rose said with a glare.

"We can't give up our old subjects, or I'd've ditched DADA," said Ron gloomily.

"But that's very important!" said Hermione and Rose.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," said Ron. "I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose."

Neville had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in his family, all giving him different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, he sat reading the subject lists with his tongue sticking out, asking people whether they thought Arithmancy sounded more difficult than the study of Ancient Runes. Dean Thomas, who had grown up with Muggled ended up closing his eyes and jabbing his wand at the list, then picking the subjects it landed on. Hermione took nobody's advice but signed up for everything.

Rose, being smart, sent a letter to Remus. She knew he would be a brilliant teacher if he didn't have his condition, and he knew her very well, so it was quite logical that he would know the best course of action for her. She told him what the other students had done, and that she didn't know what she would do.

Finally, she got her letter back, and quickly read it over,

"Dear Cubette," Rose read to the Weasley twins, who were trying to assist her in choosing her classes, "I see no reason for you to worry about what classes you take. You'll excel at anything you put your mind to- Oh, that's rubbish!" she glanced at the twins amused faces before shaking her head and reading on. "But my personal advice is that you should take Care of Magical Creatures as you already have an affinity for the subject. Might I also suggest that you avoid Divination at all costs, it's impossible to be taught the sight, so you cannot learn from the teacher about the future. Arithmancy is a good class for you if you think that you like muggle math, but honestly, I don't believe that should be one of your choices. Ancient Runes, on the other hand, should be to your liking. It's a good class, fairly difficult, but as I know the twins are learning it too I'm sure you could all create your own runes together- that's brilliant! We should definitely do that! - then there is Muggle Studies. While I believe you would excel at the class I also believe it would bore you. I recommend not taking it," Rose read the rest of the letter silently and hummed thoughtfully.

"Well, what are you thinking?" The twins asked.

"Well, I'm thinking that really was good advice. However, I'm going to choose Arithmancy too. Personally, I'd like to do them all, besides Divination. It's all so fascinating!"

Fred shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair, "Yeah, it is, isn't it? Although I think I'd much rather study you."

Rose's face turned as red as her hair and she sputtered for a moment, unable to look away from Fred's piercing blue gaze. Thankfully George was there to break it up.

"Oi, don't leave me out of this!" he said with a pout as Rose jumped and immediately looked at him.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened!"

"It's obvious, you think I'm handsome," Fred said with a smirk. "Don't worry, though, no one can overshadow your beauty."

Rose hid her crimson face, knowing the blush was traveling down her neck too, "Stop!" she whined.

Fred shrugged his shoulders as George got up and wrapped an arm around Rose's back, pulling her face first into his chest.

"Don't worry," he said in a whisper, "I won't let the big bad Fred get you."

"Oi!"

Rose laughed and shook her head, marking down her classes for next year, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach.