"Are you really alright?" Fred asked Rose the next day, as they walked in the park.
"I am, I didn't know I had such a weight on my shoulders, but I truly feel better, lighter." She replied with a smile.
"That woman didn't deserve you, or your forgiveness." He shook his head with a frown, hating the idea of anyone hurting his beloved.
"Don't think about it anymore. I won't." She told him before she distracted him with a kiss.
"Anyway, George and I found a great location for our store, we'll sign the paper and everything on the 5th of July, we're thinking that with a lot of hard work, we'll be able to open a couple of weeks later, maybe even just one week if we've got help." He informed her.
Of course they were also thinking of opening another store in Hogmeade, but they decided to wait a few months, make sure things went well for the first store.
"Well, we'll all help you, you know that." She smiled.
"Remus and Sirius already told me so. And Remus is taking care of recruiting werewolves that can be trusted. He'll also hire a couple of people to replace the werewolves on the full moons but if the shop goes well, maybe we'll open fewer hours on the full moons, we'll still work by correspondance so..." He informed her.
"You already started on production?" She asked him, curious.
"We did, yes. We have to since we're already selling by owl a few of our products. Remus is overseeing everything too. It's weird that he's working for us after having been our professor, but he likes it and he still has plenty of time to work for the order, so that's good." Fred replied.
As they walked, they crossed Harry and Ginny, from afar. It was a nice day out, even though it was cold, so a lot of people were outisde. Hermione and Draco were using this opportunity to play their roles of couple and Draco had even managed to convince his house mates so well that they didn't seem to complain too much when Hermione hung out with Draco near them. She wasn't called any bad names and even though she could tell that they were all being too fake, she didn't mind, it was to protect Draco.
Things went back to normal after that and a couple of weeks later, a note was posted, announcing that there would be a Hogsmeade's weekend on Valentine's day. Of course Fred immediately asked Rose if she wanted to go with him, which she agreed to of course. Harry also asked Ginny and Hermione came back telling them that Draco had asked her (because, of course, they had to keep pretending, though she assured Rose that nothing was going on, they were just friends).
Ron wasn't in a good mood though. He didn't want to go alone, especially since his best friends were pairing off and the idea of going with Seamus and Dean or Neville didn't make him feel any better. He wanted to act like his friends and brothers. Even George had a date with Angelina on that day!
"You still have a few weeks to figure things out, Ron." Rose reassured him.
"You could go with Luna, she's nice and would love to go with someone, anyone kind." Ginny suggested with an amused smile.
"No thanks." He frowned at his sister's suggestion.
"It doesn't have to be romantic, you could go with her as friends." Rose added as Ron frowned once more.
"Hey Ron!" Lavender greeted with a large smile as she walked past then, making Ron look up, surprised.
"Hey Lavender." He replied, wondering why she was suddenly speaking to him and looking at him like girls usually looked at Harry.
Ginny noticed and understood of course, but she decided not to explain things to Ron. If it was meant to happen, then it would happen but she wasn't going to help in for this.
"Anyway Rose, what is it you're working on?" Hermione asked her friend, seeing her taking note in her notebook.
She was taking notes from a potion book she had borrowed from the library and it seemed like she had already taken notes from other books earlier.
"It's a little side project, an idea... I'd rather not talk about it until I know it's done or not though." She replied with an apologetic smile.
"For Fred and George's shop?" Ron asked her, curious.
"I don't know... I mean, at first it was just an idea, in passing, to help girls... But if it works, I'm sure they'd love it." She nodded.
"We'll see when she's done." Fred smiled.
"Is this what you talked to professor Snape about?" Neville asked Rose, having heard the discussion.
"Yes, I needed his opinion on something and his permission to consult a book from the restricted section of the library. He approved, signed my authorization and said he'd like to see when I test my idea." She replied.
"If he's interested, it's got to be something good!" George stated.
"It is. Sirius knows what I'm working on as well and he, too, believes it's a great idea. he was with Snape when i asked hi, they were organizong detentions, deciding who would watch over which students to better punish them." She smiled before she went back to her studying.
.
While Rose worked on her secret project, the dueling clubs had started and they learned a lot of new spells that could be useful in a fight. They quickly found out that though he didn't look like much, the Headmaster's brother was tougher than he looked. He was also patient and surprisingly good at helping them out. He grew so popular among the students that they wondered why he never followed on his brother's footsteps and taught at Hogwarts.
Everyone was both having fun and progressing because he taught them new spells at every sessions, explaining them each time. Some were fun spells, some were truly defensive or offensive. It was much better than during their second year when Lockhart did it. You could tell that Aberforth actually knew what he was talking about, so did the other teachers.
"He kind of looks like the bartender of the Hogshead, doesn't he?" George asked Fred one evening once everyone was back in the common room, discussing and comparing the dueling club sessions they had all had this week.
"That's because it's him, he owns it." Hermione replied.
"How do you know that?" Ron asked her, imagining Hermione walking into such a place making him chuckle.
"I've read it somewhere before our first visit to the town, I wanted to be well prepared." she replied before she went back to studying.
.
Rose was done with her project, but she needed someone to test it on. She had brewed a potion that should be able, once spray on hair, to place a charm on them. She wanted to see if something could be created to help girls defend themselves if attacked without their knowledge. Spray the potion on your hair if they're long enough and they'll punch anyone who walks too close to you.
"I've done it! I just need someone to test it on now!" Rose exclaimed, rushing into the Great Hall for dinner.
She was late for dinner of course, because everyone was already sitting down.
Her friends looked at her and she saw Professor Snape stand, she nodded his way eagerly and he motioned for Sirius to follow him. This, seeing the two professors walk to her, got everyone's attention and discussions around the room slowly died down.
"What does it do?" Neville asked her worriedly.
"It's a surprise!" She shook her head and professor Snape walked to her, along with Sirius who knew what she was trying to do.
"Rose?" Sirius asked.
"Professor Snape, can I have your authorization to test it out now? I can't wait until I'm back in the common room and you did say that you wanted to be present for the first try!" She immediately asked and, with a wicked smile, Snape replied:
"Of course, miss Potter, please do." he nodded, taking a few steps back.
Rose took out her spray bottle and sprayed a good portion of the product on her hair.
"Nothing's happening..." Fred frowned, thinking that she had failed.
"Of course not, it's not visible. Now, I need a volunteer. Who's brave enough to come up behind me when I'm not looking and punch me in the shoulder?" Rose asked in a louder voice.
"You're not serious?" Harry and Fred asked together, not liking her idea.
"Don't worry." She reassured them and Fred was about to volunteer when Sirius shook his head.
"It won't work, you're too close to her, I don't think it would work with you." Sirius stated and Severus agreed.
"Maybe a member of my house, mister Goyle, come here, let's see if this works. Come on, you'd earn 20 points to your house." Snape offered and Goyle arrived.
Rose turned her back and pretended to be interested in Hermione's plate when Goyle arrived.
Everyone was watching with great attention as the Slytherin was about to punch Rose in the back but her hair, seemingly taking a life of their own, punched him and rolled around his hand, making him punch himself. His fist hadn't had the time to touch her at all.
Everyone clapped and cheered, even the Slytherin's. Even Goyle, who had just punched himself, seemed impressed.
"I can't believe this worked so well! I did it!" She exclaimed happily.
"Good work indeed. What was your motivation, Miss Potter?" Dumbledore asked her in a loud voice from his seat.
"I just wanted to find something for girls to defend themselves in case they found themselves alone with someone stronger, something to give us a few more seconds... I know some girls here don't feel comfortable walking around the castle on their own some times, this could help. It's limited though, you have to have long hair... Though it should work on a beard..." She replied tauntingly and the headmaster immediately asked Sirius to bring him the spray bottle she was offering.
Smiling like a child about to pull a prank, under the watchful eye of the students and fellow professors, the Headmaster sprayed the potion on his long white hair and on his long beard, then he asked a 7th year student to come and try to punch him.
The student did, though shyly, and ended up tangled in Dumbledore's hair and beard.
"Splendid!" Albus exclaimed once the student had been untangled and went back to his seat, having earned 20 points for his house.
"50 points to Gryffindor for this marvelous invention! Will you sell it?" The headmaster asked her while some girls were saying they needed to grow their hair a bit.
"I wanted to, but I have a cauldron full and I think everyone should have access to it, so I'll just ask whoever wants some enough money to cover the cost of the ingredients I think." Rose replied.
Then he asked her if he could keep the bottle and she nodded.
After that, everyone went back to their dinner, congratulating Rose whenever they saw her. After dinner, a line formed in front of Rose, asking for a bottle of potion. Promising to make more soon, Rose wrote down the orders and decided to give it first to those who could pay more, so she'd be able to buy more ingredients and in turn give it for free to those who couldn't pay at all. However, it soon showed that some girls were willing to pay way more than she asked to have some, so Rose decided to serve them first and to donate the left over money to an association that helped werewolves.
Even Neville bought a bottle from her, which he decided to send to his grandmother as a gift. She did have very long hair and he wanted her to be safe. Rose found it touching that he cared so much.
"I can't believe you gave that girl a bottle for free!" Ron frowned as he walked with her.
He had volunteered to carry the bottles she was supposed to give out that day.
"She can't afford it. Everything she has comes from second hand stores. Her father died when she was a kid and her mother never remarried and has a hard time finding a stable job, she has a younger sibling her mother needs to care for too. She needs it." Rose shrugged her shoulders.
"You're not looking to become rich out of this idea, are you?" He asked her.
"I already am, and I'll have plenty of time in the future to get richer if I want to. This is something useful, some girls tend to feel unsafe, walking alone around the castle, this will help them." Rose explained.
The day after this discussion with Ron, Fred came to see Rose with George, and they offered to produce her spray along their products, and to sell it in their shop, at the price she chose. They promised to do as she did, donate the profit to the same association, and give it for free if a woman seemed to need it but was unable to afford it. And of course to protect her formula until she decided to share it, which they were sure she'd do some day. They even suggested making smaller bottles they'd give out as a free sample to every customer interested, a sample that would hold enough spray to protect the person 1 time.
Of course she agreed, this way she wouldn't have to spend all of her free time, which was already very limited, doing this potion for all the people who wanted it.
What do you think of Rose's invention?
I just loved making Dumbledore try the spray, feels like something he'd do.
Lorelei Candice Black