Early Sunday morning, just as the sun was rising over the horizon, Harry met her at a secret passage that let out near the Gryffindor common room. He pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his bag and she draped it over herself, whispering Softening Charms on the soles of her shoes. She followed him on silent feet as he led her to Gryffindor Tower, slipping in behind him before the portrait of the Fat Lady swung closed. The common room was, as expected, deserted. She tapped Harry's shoulder once to let him know she was going to the girl's dormitory and he pulled out a book, settling down near a window.

(there were so many memories in this room)

(that couch in the corner was where she, Ron, and Hermione had spent so many nights)

(that table over there was the one Fred and George had jumped on when advertising their products)

(she needed to do this quickly)

Rose crept up the stairs and into the room housing the first-year girls. She froze as the door creaked when she pushed it open – stupid, stupid mistake – and relaxed when she didn't hear any signs of movement.

Ginny hadn't pulled her curtains shut – it made it easy to find her trunk. She cast a number of detecting spells and found no wards or enchantments to prevent her from opening it, so she did and rummaged as quietly as she could but found no trace of the Diary.

Slowly, dread pooling in her stomach, she pulled back a corner of Ginny's pillow, dropping it quickly when that revealed nothing as well. She stared down at Ginny, trying not to feel like a creeper. The way her arms were curved, it was like …

Oh, fuck, Rose thought numbly. She lifted Ginny's blanket just enough to see the corner of a slim, black book.

Fuck.

She wrapped two pieces of acromantula silk around her hand in a makeshift mitten, making a mental note to ask Penny to sew it into gloves, and gave a gentle tug on the book.

Immediately, Ginny's grip tightened, and she shifted in her sleep.

… in her sleep.

Rose abruptly felt very, very stupid. Was she a witch or not?

Three whispered sleeping charms later, Rose pulled the Diary out of Ginny's grasp and dropped it into a bag, encasing it in ten layers of acromantula silk. She closed the door behind her, descending the spiraling staircase, and hurried to her brother. She tapped Harry twice on the shoulder. He got up, closing his book, and left the Gryffindor common room.

When they were safely tucked away in the Room of Requirement, Rose pulled off the Cloak.

"Did you get it?" Harry asked eagerly.

In response, Rose held up the bag and grinned. Harry beamed back.

"Brilliant! Now we just need – Penny!"

In front of them, the head house elf of Potter Manor appeared before them with an earsplitting crack. Private elves were allowed through the wards if called by their master, though were not permitted to remove living things, nor use magic beyond apparition.

(free elves, of course, had no such restrictions – Rose had a vague memory of Dobby blasting Lucius Malfoy down a corridor)

(of course, free elves also usually died in a year or two without a house's ambient magic to sustain it)

"Penny, take this to Sirius when he's alone or with Remus. Don't open it or touch anything inside." Rose told her. Penny nodded and disappeared. She reappeared a moment later, empty-handed.

"Master Sirius is saying that the snake is in the hole, sirs and madams!"

"Thank you, Penny," Harry said. "You may go."

"'The snake is in the hole'?" Rose burst out. "He's been watching too many muggle movies."

Harry grinned. "I thought it was clever."

"Of course, you would." She ruffled Harry's hair affectionately, ignoring his indignant yelp.

(she didn't relax, though – this had been far too easy)

They played around a bit with the Room of Requirement, Rose briefly bemoaning the fact that they only had one acromantula silk bag – one was needed for each horcrux, and the sheer amount of silk each bag required made it astronomically expensive. They'd planned to collect the diadem after Yule, but it still rankled to have a horcrux so close and unable to do anything about it.

She and Harry made a game of seeing what interesting things they could find in the Room of Hidden Things. They giggled at the odd socks and old-fashioned clothes before Harry found a copy of Magick Moste Evile. They stared at it for a moment, before sharing a look and calling for Penny. After the book had been given to Sirius with their request to please add it to the library, Harry and Rose began finding all the books they could.

The Room had, presumably, existed since the founding of Hogwarts a thousand years ago. Who knew what kind of knowledge lay here, books that'd been outlawed or forgotten? It was a heady thought.

So it was that they emerged from the Room several hours later, having gone through a small fraction of the things within. Rose vanished the dust on their robes with a quick evanesco. As they walked into the Great Hall, Rose caught sight of a head of dirty blonde hair and nearly staggered from shock.

(she'd forgotten Luna)

She switched directions immediately, Harry giving her an exasperated smile as she left. Rose was planning to set up a schedule – dinner Friday with the Slytherins, breakfast Saturday with the Gryffindors, and breakfast Sunday with the Ravenclaws.

(it had been just her in the beginning last year, but Harry had begun to join her and with him their friends)

(she was looking forward to the day their Slytherin friends joined them at the Gryffindor table. It was going to be explosive)

Rose waved a hello to her yearmates and sat down resolutely next to Luna.

The younger girl turned to her, fixing her with surprisingly focused grey eyes.

"I'm glad you're not alone, Rose Potter," she said dreamily. "You've been alone for so long."

"I'm glad I'm not alone too," Rose smiled back. "But one can never have too many friends. I'd be much obliged if you would be my friend, Miss Lovegood."

"Oh," Luna said softly. "That would be nice." The blonde gave her a small, uncertain smile. "I've never had friends before."

"I intend to be a lifelong friend, Luna," Rose said firmly. "You're not going to get rid of me even if you want to."

"You've surprisingly few wrackspurts."

"Is that a good thing?"

"It is, they make your brain go all fuzzy. You must be very clear-headed."

"Thank you, Luna. Do warn me if they ever start multiplying, would you?"

A thought occurring to her, she glanced under the table.

"… Luna, where are your shoes?"

"The nargles took them, but it's alright. They'll come back eventually."

"Nothing wrong with hurrying them along though, is there? Could you point out what those nargles looked like for me?"

Under the Invisibility Cloak, Rose walked into Ravenclaw Tower. She found the beds of Marietta Edgecomb, Patricia Stimpson, and Cho Chang (and didn't that hurt, knowing her old crush was a bully?), spelling every bit of parchment she could fine to be replaced with the words Leave Luna alone, or I won't stick to your homework next time.

As it was, she cursed their pillows to burn the sixth time they lay down – she wanted to create a subtle link between the two events.

The enormous library table Rose had claimed last year now boasted the vast majority of their non-Slytherin yearmates. There wasn't really a regular schedule – one of them would sit at the table as an implicit invitation, and anyone who passed by was welcome to join. She'd yet to add a Slytherin, but the Badger Holers' (eventually) warm reception to Blaise and Daphne had encouraged her. Rose had proposed the idea last Friday evening and asked everyone to please speak up in their defence if things got nasty – she'd clued them in to her Anti-Prejudice campaign, but since she was still working on ingratiating herself with the Slytherins, she could only work from the other end at the moment.

So, Saturday morning, when Blaise, Theo, and Daphne walked by their table, Rose made a point of waving to them and calling them over. Hermione seemed to genuinely perk up at the sight of Daphne, pulling her bag off the chair next to her and telling her she'd saved her a seat. Blaise feigned offense, caught the quill Rose tossed at him, and grinned as she patted the seat next to her.

Everyone else was… less welcoming. Ernie kept giving them suspicious glances, though Justin relaxed when he noticed Daphne and Hermione's friendly conversation. Lisa Turpin gave Rose a wide-eyed look, to which Rose responded with pleading eyes. Lisa wrinkled her nose and seemed to say ugh, fine, but I don't like it. That seemed to be the general consensus, though after a week had passed, Rose noticed Sophie Roper chatting with Daphne and Oliver Rivers leaning over to ask Blaise a question about history. Unfortunately, Rose had been near enough to hear both the question and Blaise's answer, and had been appalled. They'd gotten into another of their (now infamous) arguments and had gotten their group kicked out of the library for the nth time. Rose smiled guiltily at the looks everyone gave her.

"I'll talk with Professor Sprout at our next meeting to see if she can find us a better place," she promised.

"What meeting?" Lavender Brown asked.

(Rose very carefully did not look at her)

"Apparently," Hermione huffed. "Every House but Gryffindor gets regular check-in meetings with their Head."

Michael Corner looked appalled. "You mean Gryffindor doesn't?"

Terry snickered. "That explains a lot, actually."

"Oi!" Dean said, grinning. "Not our fault."

"McGonagall does have three jobs," Neville sighed. "I suppose she just doesn't have time for it."

"Well, maybe she shouldn't if she can't do them properly," Hermione frowned, before promptly looking horrified at her own audacity.

"Questioning figures of authority?" Daphne tsked. "We've been a bad influence on you, Granger."