The weather began to turn terribly cold.
The ground was covered in frost every morning and the mountains that surrounded the castle turned gray. The lake had frozen solid, like a sheet of steel. November meant Quidditch, and the season would be starting on Saturday and although Hufflepuff wouldn't be playing yet (the match was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin) Rose was excited to see her first match.
She'd checked out a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages to read up on the game. It was a recommendation from Harry during lunch one day when she'd expressed interest. It was a very good read. The news that Harry was playing Seeker leaked out and spread like wildfire. Opinions were varied on how he'd do but personally Rose thought he'd do fine. He'd managed to become the youngest seeker in a century so he must have talent.
In her final potions class, the Friday morning before the game, Professor Snape seemed to be in a particularly foul mood. Rose noticed had a distinct limp as he stalked around the dungeons criticizing everyone, judging their work rather harshly.
"He's a jerk," Rose grumbled in an undertone to Susan as they left the class. Rose felt distinctly ruffled by the lesson since Snape had taken five points off her for an extremely simple mistake.
"Don't sweat it, Rose," Susan said reassuringly, "you'll earn those points back in no time next Charms lesson."
Rose had become quite adept at Charms, it was her best subject. That encouragement made her feel better and she went through the rest of the morning's classes in much higher spirits.
That afternoon at break time Rose decided to slip off to the piano room for a while to decompress after her rough day. Draco wasn't there and Rose found herself feeling somewhat disappointed. She dropped her bag beside the piano and played for a while, a calming tune rather than anything too fast. Something to help her destress. Just before she left she got an idea. She took out a quill, ink and parchment and sat on the couch to scrawl a little note.
Hope to see you again soon.
Next week, sometime maybe, it'd be nice to catch up.
She signed the note by scrawling a little drawing of a rose underneath it and left it on the piano before she headed back to the common room to begrudgingly finish a History of Magic essay.
The next morning everyone was buzzing with excitement for the Quidditch match. Rose dropped by to wish Harry good luck. He acknowledged her with a stiff nod. He looked tense and he wasn't eating anything. Rose gave him a quick pat on the shoulder and then left for the Hufflepuff table.
At eleven o'clock the entire school headed towards the Quidditch stadium, all talking excitedly. Many of them, Rose included, had brought binoculars so that they could better see what was going on.
"This is gonna be great!" Rose said to Susan and Cedric as they found seats in the Hufflepuff section of the stands.
"Sure will be," Cedric replied, "I'm interested to see how Potter turns out...He's only a first year after all."
"Well he managed to make the team so that's something," Susan pointed out.
"Yeah," Rose agreed, "I'm sure he's gonna do just fine."
Madame Hooch was the referee, the two teams walked out onto the field and met her in the middle of the pitch to loud cheers and a fair few boos for the Gryffindors from the Slytherin stands. After a few instructions for the teams Madame Hooch gave a sharp blast on her whistle and the game began.
"And they're off. Quaffle is taken by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor. She's an excellent Chaser and quite attractive, too."
"JORDAN."
"Sorry, Professor."
Rose gave an amused chuckle and took a quick look at the commentator. It was a tall boy with dreadlocks who Cedric told her was a Gryffindor third year called Lee Jordan, and he was being closely monitored by Professor McGonagall. The boy continued to commentate as the Quaffle was passed from Angelina to a girl named Alicia Spinnet who passed it back before the Slytherin captain, Flint, managed to take possession. It looked as if Flint was going to score but he was blocked by Wood, the Gryffindor keeper. Rose kept one eye open for the snitch as she watched the action but so far it hadn't shown up.
After Wood's block a girl named Katie from Gryffindor got the Quaffle and sped down the pitch with it but she was stopped short of a goal when a bludger hit her in the back of the head. Ouch, that looked like it hurt.
"That's a rough one," Rose said, staring at Katie who was looking slightly stunned by the hit.
"Sure was," Cedric agreed. The match continued as a Slytherin chaser, Pucey, gained the Quaffle and headed for the goal posts but he, too, was stopped by a bludger that had been hit his way by one of the twins. Angelina regained the Quaffle and did some quite impressive flying to score the first goal of the game. Gryffindor cheers filled the air and Rose couldn't help but join in: the atmosphere was infectious.
Not too much later, the snitch was spotted. Rose saw the little speck of gold fluttering around Pucey's ear. He dropped the Quaffle because he was too busy looking over his shoulder at the snitch when it passed. Rose turned her binoculars on Harry to see if he'd spotted it. From the look she could see on his face, he had. Harry went into a steep dive. Terence Higgs, the Slytherin seeker, had spotted it, too. He and Harry were neck and neck but Harry began to pull ahead. He almost had the snitch and–
BAM!
There was a roar of rage from the Gryffindor supporters. Marcus Flint had flown in and deliberately blocked Harry. He spun off course, clinging to his broom for dear life.
"That was dangerous!" Susan snapped angrily
"It was a cheap move," Cedric said. "Flint could have taken Potter right out of the air."
The Gryffindors called four a foul and Madame Hooch spoke angrily to Flint before ordering a free shot at the goal posts for Gryffindor but in all the confusion the snitch had vanished again.
Lee Jordan was having trouble remaining unbiased.
"So after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating–"
"Jordan," growled Professor McGonagall.
"I mean, after that open and revolting foul–"
"Jordan I'm warning you…"
"Alright, alright. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor seeker which could happen to anyone I'm sure, so it's a penalty shot for Gryffindor taken by Spinnet. She puts it away no problem and we resume play."
Rose couldn't help but laugh at Lee's commentary as she watched the match continue. The Slytherins got a goal in and Rose booed a bit along with the Gryffindors. Nobody liked cheaters. Rose turned her binoculars to Harry again to see if he may have spotted the snitch and let out a shocked gasp. Harry's broom was rolling over and over in mid air. It looked like he could fall off at any second.
"What's going on with Harry?" Rose asked.
"I dunno. Looks like he's lost control of the broom…but that shouldn't be possible," Cedric said, looking unnerved. Susan said nothing, she was gripping onto the sleeve of Rose's robes and staring at the sky.
The three of them watched as the Weasley twins attempted to pull Harry onto one of their brooms but were unsuccessful and dropped lower, circling around to catch him if he fell. Nobody was paying attention to the game anymore except Flint who grabbed the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing or caring.
The atmosphere in the stadium grew even tenser as with one wild jerk Harry was unseated and dangling from his broom by one hand. Rose let out a frightened yelp. A fall from that height would be very, very bad. Suddenly though, Harry's broom stopped acting oddly and he was able to climb back onto it. He sped towards the ground, collapsed onto the pitch and clapped his hands over his mouth like he was going to be sick. He coughed and then:
"I've got the Snitch!" Harry yelled, holding up the tiny gold ball for everyone to see and Rose clapped and cheered along with everyone except the Slytherins as the game ended in complete confusion. That had been absolutely brilliant.
Although Flint argued that the capture was unfair for a solid twenty minutes it didn't change the result. The Gryffindors had won.
Rose wanted to find Harry and congratulate him but couldn't see him anywhere so she instead headed back to the castle with Cedric and Susan, still excitedly discussing the match. After seeing a game live in action Rose was more determined than ever that she would play one day. She also wondered what had gone on with Harry's broom. What could have done that? And why had it stopped so suddenly?
Sunday passed with Rose finishing some homework, getting Cedric's help with some of it, and hanging out around the common room with Susan and Megan who were teaching her how to play wizard chess and exploding snap.
Monday afternoon at lunchtime Rose escaped to the piano room. As she sat down to play she noticed her note was still there but it had been added to.
Wednesday afternoon at lunch would be good for me. See you then.
A tiny dragon had been drawn under the second note and Rose couldn't help but smile at it.
It wouldn't be long until she talked to her secret friend again.