February 14th, 1993
Gryffindor Girls Dormitory
8:30am
It was Friday, but also Valentine's day and Roxana couldn't care any less. Hermione along with Ginny and woken up extra early to get "ready." For what exactly, she didn't know. Valentine's day had always come and passed without any notice at Hogwarts in previous years. So, Roxana got up at eight as usual, did her normal makeup, put on her school robes and walked out of the Gryffindor Common Room with only one thought on her mind: coffee.
Therefore, when she stepped into the Great Hall, she stopped dead in her tracks, a look of disgust clear on her face.
The once ancient looking stone walls were covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse, heart-shaped confetti was falling from a pale blue ceiling. Roxana hurriedly went over to the Gryffindor table where her friends were.
"What in Merlin's name is this?" She snapped placing her hands on her hips.
"We swear we didn't do it. It's Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster." Fred tilted his head over to the awful Defense teacher that was wearing pink robes. Roxana narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the table.
"He even said that Snape would love to show us how to, 'whip up a Love Potion,' you should have seen Snape's face." Ron chuckled and tried mimicking said face; failing miserably.
Funny as that was, Roxana was still extremely annoyed with the amount of pink around her. She detested the color, it gave her headaches. The other, more normal, reason that she was annoyed was due to the pile of letters, flowers and Morgana knows what else, lying on the table in front of her seat. Everyone knew where their personal spot was in the Great Hall this late into the school year.
"Where am I supposed to sit?" Roxana huffed and held the bridge of her nose.
"Here." Fred patted her seat as though it were the most obvious thing.
She frowned, "But…" She motioned to the pile of random pink and purple items.
"Those are all yours. It was another of Lockhart's ideas. 'Secret valentine.' He's having dwarves wear wings and deliver gifts throughout the day." George picked up a scary looking teddy bear by the leg, grimacing, before dropping it unceremoniously.
Roxana sat down a look of confusion on her face. She moved the pile around frowning when she saw familiar names. There were chocolates and candy that she knew to stay away from, for they were probably laced with love potion. Roxana's frown deepened when she found a Gryffindor Quidditch jersey. As she was about to turn it around in order to inspect the number, a voice echoed through the Great Hall.
"Why I think my record of forty-six valentines has been beaten by…" Roxana's eyes widened and she prayed that it wouldn't be her, "Miss Constantin."
Damn.
The Hall went silent and she felt everyone's eyes on her. Are they waiting for a speech or something? What to do, what to do, Roxana worried her lip before an idea popped into her head. She stood from her seat and took out her wand.
"Evanesco." Roxana muttered over the pile of gaudy, useless things and watched as it all disappeared in the blink of an eye. She sat down, aware of all the stares she was earning and reached for the coffee pot.
"Why'd you do that?" Professor Lockhart asked in a crystalline voice, most likely without thinking.
Roxana stirred her cup and turned towards the teachers table. All of them seemed proud of the display, especially her Head of House. Even Professor Snape wasn't frowning as he usually did, which was saying plenty.
"I don't like this 'holiday," Roxana put air quotations over the word, and stood up from table holding her steaming beverage, bag over her left shoulder. "Love shouldn't be bought. And I really don't like the color pink." She glanced at the twins with a devious glint in her eyes, looked for a second at their hair and smirked before turning around.
Fred and George got her message completely because a few moments later the horrid pink flowers turned into beautiful red roses and the confetti turned into golden stars. Someone from the teachers table started clapping, but Roxana didn't turn around, though she could have bet a thousand galleons it was Professor McGonagall. Thank god, she didn't have Defense on Fridays.
Potions Classroom
For some reason, even after Roxana's little stunt in the Great Hall that showed her views of Valentine's day perfectly, the gifts didn't stop coming. Not only that, but it seemed as though she was getting more than all the other girls in her class.
It was embarrassing, annoying and it made her self conscious and even more certain that the whole thing was an elaborate prank organized by the boys of Hogwarts who forgot to include the twins. Fred and George were also seething for some motive she couldn't pinpoint. Maybe they'd wanted to prank her on Valentine's day themselves?
Whatever the cause, no one was as annoyed as Professor Snape. Whenever a dwarf would saunter in without a care in the bloody world, his jaw would clench and his eyes would twitch. Roxana was surprised that the twins were upset enough to not make fun of their favorite teacher.
The door opened and almost everyone groaned. As expected, a dwarf came in holding a large bouquet of violet roses tied together with a yellow ribbon. Roxana almost lost it when the tiny man stopped in front of her.
"Are you Constantin?"
She had the sudden urge to say no, but instead she laid her head on the desk and groaned in an unladylike manner.
"These are yours." The roses were thrown onto the table by an irate sounding dwarf.
"The dude said to tell you, that he made sure the flowers weren't pink."
Roxana rolled her eyes as she sat up. "How thoughtful," She drawled sarcastically.
The dwarf shrugged and left the room. "Evanesco." She whispered waving her wand over the roses.
"We are so pranking, Lockhart." Fred muttered for her and George to hear. George nodded once and Roxana scribbled an of course, on her notebook.
Great Hall
6:00 pm
As the sun set and the moon rose, things at Hogwarts were finally becoming less chaotic. Throughout the day more and more people began receiving gifts. Almost everyone, except the Hufflepuffs and a few first years, were in a bad mood by lunch time. Even Professor Lockhart seemed as though he regretted his fabulous plan.
Roxana, after being presented with more than seven bouquets of flowers, started feeling bad for making them all disappear, so she passed the flowers onto a few first year girls. It was anonymous, of course, but at least the beautiful roses weren't going to waste and capable of making someone else's day special.
The seven Gryffindor friends were all seated in their normal seats. Roxana, between Fred and George, Ginny, who was in a much better mood holding a bouquet of white roses, was next to George and across from Hermione, that sat next to Harry and Ron.
They were discussing what occurred when Professor McGonagall had been given a bouquet of scarlet red roses wrapped in gold foil in the middle of teaching a second year class that the trio so happened to be in.
"Did she like them?" Fred questioned his younger brother, smirking evilly as he did so.
"It was you three?!" Ron asked in a fierce whisper, attracting the attention of his two friends.
"Just Fred and George. I was in Arithmancy doing my work." Roxana eyed the twins before smirking herself. "So you two sent the roses to McGonagall." It wasn't a question. She was already certain the famed roses, that were the talk of the school, were sent by the twins.
George nodded with a sly grin, "We signed our names on the card, it's not like she doesn't know we sent them."
"That's probably why she didn't throw them away." Hermione pointed out to Harry and Ron.
"What did you actually write on the card? Professor McGonagall was honestly chuckling for a few good moments." Harry asked looking towards the teachers table for a second.
The twins shared embarrassed glances before Fred cleared his throat and answered.
"Dear Minnie, you are our favorite professor… like ever. We must admit that theses stunning roses, that are certainly not as beautiful as you, were meant for Constantin. However, we sent this bouquet to your majesty because Roxana would probably vanish them before even reading the card. We're very glad that you're our Head of House, Minnie, instead of Snape. Honestly, he would be dead by now. You, though, are completely capable of putting up with us because you're a tough cookie and a badass chick with killer animagus skills. We implore (Roxana taught us that word) you to not give us detention. This is from Fred and George, but you probably already knew that. We love you Minnie!"
"Oh my Crice." Roxana's eyes were widened with amusement. They even memorized it. Weirdos. Ginny, Harry and Ron were chuckling and shaking their heads while Hermione was wrinkling her nose and pursing her lips.
"You called our Head of House a… badass?" Hermione squeaked and her frown deepened.
"She is quite badass." George grinned and turned his head to look over at the woman in question.
"Did you just… wink at her?!" Hermione cried in shock, Ginny leaned back and peered over to the teachers table.
Roxana chuckled, "They're just teasing her, Hermione."
"Yup, just like we tease Ana." Fred reassured the second year girl, but Hermione did not appear to be swayed and turned her attention to her meal.
As Roxana was about to return to her own plate, she felt a tug on her school robe and turned around in her seat.
She was more than surprised to find herself looking down, instead of up, at a very tired and annoyed dwarf holding a single flower. Ten minutes ago, the Headmaster had announced that the Valentine's day celebrations were over and since then no one had been presented with a single thing.
There was no note attached to it and the dwarf hardly looked keen on saying a word. Roxana stood involuntarily, her eyes focused intently on the flower. It was a black rose with the darkest green stem she'd ever seen. The petals seemed to be sparkling with emeralds and the stem had the most alluring green crystal thorns.
It was eerily beautiful and Roxana found herself reaching out to take it.
Nearly everyone in the Great Hall was occupied talking or eating, therefore not a one person noticed when Roxana stood. They were also not aware of how mesmerized she was by the rose. Only as Roxana's hand was millimeters from the stem did four professors look up.
Professor Sprout was on her feet in less than a second, her shout causing the Great Hall to go silent. While Professor McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore had pulled out their wands without thought, sending stunning spells towards the dwarf.
Though they were all too late. In the sole moment Roxana's left hand grasped the rose, did it dawn on her that the whole stem was covered in those entrancing crystal thorns. A sharp pain spread from her hand, to her arm, to her whole body in a matter of seconds.
Her scream was so high pitched empty glasses shattered into millions pieces and the room stood still at the sound. Tears that began falling from her eyes dropped to the stone ground with no delay and even though Roxana's fingers were covered in blood, she found herself unable to let the rose go.
Only when her second scream echoed through the hall did everyone come to their senses.
The twins scrambled up from their seats, looking beyond worried for their friend who had gone as pale as snow.
"Do not touch her!" It was probably the first time any of the students had ever heard or seen their Headmaster so distressed and angry. To no surprise, the twins took more than a few steps away from her.
Roxana began feeling light headed from the blood loss and the pain that had not ceased. For the first time since seeing the flower, Roxana looked down. There was a pool of blood on her near left, from her hand, however there were also fifteen drops or so drops of blood right in front of her.
Trembling, she raised her right hand to her nose, wincing at the ripples of pain the small movement sent through her body. Staring at the dark red on her fingertips, her gaze lifted ahead and focused on a single candle that lit the podium. Everything dimmed before the world went dark. Sounds were muted and she found herself falling and falling without anything to grab onto.
Roxana was with Harry and Ron under the invisibility cloak walking briskly to Professor Lockhart's classroom. Hours before, the students had been ordered to go to their dorm rooms, but the three of them were on their way back from the infirmary. They'd visited Hermione, who'd been petrified. This time however they had found the missing piece of the puzzle; a scrap of paper clutched in Hermione's hand about the Basilisk. Roxana explained how it made perfect sense that the monster inside the Chamber of Secrets was in fact a Basilisk. Spiders fled from it, Hagrid's roosters had been killed and none of the people petrified had looked the monster directly in the eyes. They had also surmised that the Chamber's entrance was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Roxana planned on telling Professor McGonagall the second they'd found out, but then they discovered Ginny had been taken into the Chamber and everything went downhill. After sitting anxiously in the Gryffindor common room they had no other plan than to go tell Lockhart about the Basilisk.
Ginny Weasley was safe in the infirmary surrounded by her family and her friends. Harry was the hero of the school and currently speaking to Professor Dumbledore about what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets. The mandrake drought was finished, soon Hermione would be back to normal.
Roxana was in a dark, cold cell. When she'd move a bone would crack from stiffness and a gasp would leave her throat. Screams echoed through the silent prison, only disturbed by the sound of delusional laughing. Each time Roxana would try escaping into her dreams a dementor would come and take her happiness away, replacing it with hopelessness and depression. After the first few hours, she transformed into her animagus and closed her eyes.
The Daily Prophet was in her hands and she was grasping it tightly. The man who had murdered twelve muggles, twelve years ago, had escaped Azkaban. The fact that this man had broken out of the most guarded and secure prison on Earth, left the Ministry in awe and in fear. Even the muggle world had been warned that he was carrying a gun and extremely dangerous. The headline read: Black Still at Large.
A/N: Any guesses on who sent the rose?
Thanks for reading!