Rose Potter sat in the window, watching the reddening sun as it set over the Scottish hillside.

She had found this spot in early October, on a particularly lonely Saturday. While she had already humbled Draco Malfoy, she had not yet opened up to Daphne Greengrass. And despite the moment on the train when the five realized that they were speaking to one another, rather than overhearing each other's thoughts, the link was still new - she had not yet fully trusted it. Her first two months at Hogwarts had been lonely ones.

It was not until she and Daphne subdued the Dark Lord that their friendship truly began. Tracy followed shortly, then a still-tentative Hermione. Susan Bones had come later, but - to everyone's surprise - the Hufflepuff got along well with the snakes.

Taking Seeker's overtures to his Daphne as an example, Rose had even reached out to a very nervous Neville Longbottom, who had politely chatted with her for a few minutes during lunch. He had agreed that she should write to his gran, if only to build on what remained of their alliance. Another project for summer, she had replied - which led the Gryffindor to talk about his projects, and then about his greenhouses.

Perhaps she would visit, Rose had said. There were few Gryffindors who would be seen talking to a snake, any snake - disappointing, for the house of the courageous. That Neville was open to the possibility of a friend wearing green would have been astonishing, had she not heard from others about how well a confident Neville might do for himself.

For Chaser, Neville had been a lifelong friend, almost raised alongside himself and Susan Bones. She had been surprised to learn that a dizzy spell when she was eight was actually Chaser falling off a broom, after trying to catch Neville in mid-air. The boys had snuck out of Potter Manor on their shared birthday weekend for an evening flight.

Marigold, meanwhile, had basically been adopted by Madam Longbottom. Whether due to a sense of obligation to the Potters, anger at her muggle relatives, or for Neville's sake, the result was a standing invitation to Longbottom Hall for the summer. Floo access will make that easier, thought Rose. If Petunia lets us use it, came the bitter caveat.

As the sky grew redder still, Rose heard footsteps approaching. They sounded tentative, as if the person did not actually expect to find her. She reached down and patted her left boot, finding the small knife tucked inside. Just in case. I wonder who it is?

When she turned and looked at the visitor, she found Ron Weasley standing there. She knew that Seeker and Chaser were both friendly with him, as was Marigold to a lesser degree. All three said that he was a good friend, if a bit rough around the edges. For Seeker, Ron had been his first friend. Until this moment, however, Rose could not recall having ever interacted with the boy.

She nodded to him. "Mister Weasley," she said, before turning back to the window. "My apologies, but I don't want to miss this."

"Miss what?" He said, walking closer. He did not see her shoulders tense as he came closer.

"In the entire castle," she began, "This is the best spot to watch the sunset." She gestured at the window, and the sun that had now touched the tips of the trees. "If you want to see the sunrise, on the other hand, you'll want the little alcove between Ravenclaw tower and Professor Flitwick's office."

The boy shook his head. "Too early for me. No thanks." He kept watching, however, his eyes glued to the sky. "It is pretty, though."

"That it is."

As the light outside dimmed, she got a better look at Ron in his reflection on the window. He seemed anxious, as if he had something to do but didn't know how. If he was just nervous around a Slytherin, then he would not have approached the window. Rose let him squirm for a few minutes, before moving the conversation along.

"You had a question for me, I think." She offered. Then she smiled a small, half-smile as his eyes grew wide.

"I mean, I don't understand. And I feel like I need to." Ron stumbled over his words, as if he had prepared a speech and forgotten it in the moment.

Rose chuckled. "I'm not sure I can help with that. But let's begin at the beginning. What don't you understand?"

Ron took a deep breath. "Your parents were both Gryffindors, and they fought against you-know-who. And they both died fighting him. And if you take a list of your housemates, and set it next to a list of death eaters, you'll see a lot of the same names." He pointed at the Slytherin crest on her robes. "Those snakes did everything they could to kill you. So how could you join them?"

Rose thought about how to respond, but Ron wasn't done. "I mean, I know the girl-who-lived stories are rubbish, but not all of it. Not the parts where you're supposed to lead the light." He looks really upset, she thought. "There are kids all over the wizarding world who think of Rose Potter and say 'That's who I want to be when I get older.' My sister is like that. She wanted to be just like you. But then you joined the snakes." He looked her in the eye. "And I have to know why. I needed to ask you."

"Why?" She said.

"Why you would turn your back on everything that your parents stood for."

Rose looked at him, blinking. Then she smiled. "Well, let's take that a bit at a time, Mister Weasley." She moved her legs from the window sill, indicating that he should sit down. He looked unsure, but took the seat anyway.

"First things first - I learned about magic a month and a day before I got on the Hogwarts Express." She ignored his face of shock. "All those stories you grew up with, that your sister grew up with? Never heard of them. Still haven't, honestly." Though that didn't stop Astoria from teasing me about them, she thought.

"All I knew about James and Lily Potter, when I got sorted, was that they had gone here in the seventies, and that they were in Gryffindor. That they fought against Voldemort, that they fought for the light, that the light was even a thing - I knew none of it."

"Ron, I didn't even know what a death eater was until a prefect explained them to me - and why some of the older slytherins were giving me looks." She smiled again. "Half of them figured that I was a spy for the Headmaster, before I knocked Draco Malfoy arse over teakettle on the first night."

A look of glee spread across Ron's face. "You didn't."

Rose nodded. "He said that I didn't belong, and that the other first years wouldn't let me stay. So I put him on the ground." She chuckled. "Funny, he hasn't really bothered me since."

Ron got a serious look again. "But, Slytherins are dark." He said it with the conviction of a true believer, taught from birth.

"Some, probably." She agreed. "But it's like I said. Light, Dark, and everything in between - I knew nothing about them. The hat looked at my past, and it is not a happy past, I assure you, and said that I would find my true friends in Slytherin." She shrugged. "And I did."

"Some of the Gryffindors figure that you confunded Susan Bones to join your dark coven." He said, without thinking.

She raised an eyebrow. "Dark coven? That's a new one. We just called it our study group." She chuckled again. "Let me put it this way, how many Ravenclaws do you speak to, normally?"

Ron shook his head. "None."

Rose nodded. "Hufflepuffs?" Ron, again, shook his head. "Well, Daphne Greengrass and I became friends after Halloween, and shortly after that she introduced me to Tracy Davis. And after that, we looked around at the rest of the idiots in our house, the ones who wouldn't talk to you unless your ancestors could do magic and you wore green. And we decided that if they were going to crawl into the dungeons and tell each other how great they were, we would prove them wrong."

"So we got together with Hermione Granger. You know her, she's in Ravenclaw. And a muggleborn, I should note." Ron nodded; he knew her, and they didn't get along. "And then after Christmas, Susan came around to see what the fuss was about."

"So we have purebloods, half bloods, and muggleborn, from three out of the four houses, all working together to get better grades and keep Hermione from going insane from over-studying." She said this last with a smile. "Hardly a dark coven, Mister Weasley."

He looked thoughtful. She continued on. "And as for how it worked? Well, I'm meeting with Snape in half an hour or so, to go over my grades. I'll bet the five of us are near the top of our year."

Ron considered this, or seemed to be. He'd been told all his life that the girl-who-lived would be a lion, just like his brothers and his parents. Just like her parents.

"I still think you could have been in Gryffindor." He finally said.

"I could have been," She agreed, to his surprise. "And I'd have probably done just fine there. But would I have been friends with Daphne and Hermione? Probably not."

"You could have been friends with me." Ron said, quietly. Aha.

Rose stood up, at that. It was a long walk to the dungeons, after all. "Mister Weasley, I've been very careful to read every rule there is about being a student at Hogwarts. And do you know what I found?"

"What?"

"There isn't a single rule that says that a Gryffindor can't be friends with a Slytherin."

Ron stood up as well, but continued to look at her as if she was speaking in ancient Greek. "My parents always told me not to trust the snakes."

"Ah." Rose looked behind him, down the corridor. Then she turned and looked the other way. "Do you know what else I know about your parents, Mister Weasley?"

Ron looked dubious. "What?"

Leaning close, Rose whispered theatrically. "They're not here."

Ron chuckled at that. "Maybe, but they'd go spare if they knew."

"Well," she said, picking up her bag. "If you were in Slytherin or Ravenclaw, you'd probably say that I was your spy among the snakes. If you were in Hufflepuff, you'd get angry and defend your decision, because friendship."

Ron shouldered his bag, still grinning. "And if I were in Gryffindor?"

"Mom, how can we show her the way to the light if we don't talk to her first?" Rose said, in a passable Ron Weasley voice. That got her another laugh. "I really do have to go. What do you say to starting over?" She held out her hand.

Ron looked at it, then shook it. "Ron Weasley."

She smiled. "Rose Potter."

oOoOoOoOo

"Ah, Miss Potter, come in."

Rose walked into Professor Snape's office, surprised to see that it was, by all appearances, a normal-looking office. Shelves of books, a rack of rolled parchment, and so forth. The certificate that proved he had attained his Mastery was displayed prominently, the only clue to his chosen field as a Potions Master.

As she sat down across the desk from her head of house, she saw a table of the first year students - and realized that he had the rankings for their class. All of the grades, save for exams, would have been turned in by now, and this last week would focus on revising the material.

But at this point, if you were relying on the exam to get a higher placement in the class, you were probably out of luck. Not in first year, at any rate.

"Miss Potter, I've been asked to give you fifteen points for promoting inter-house cooperation, for your little study group." said Snape. He tapped the class listing. "All five members are at or near the top of your year. And the only class where one of you is not the top student is herbology, where Mister Longbottom somehow surpassed you all."

She did not see his usual sneer, nor was she hearing sarcasm. Was it possible that Professor Snape was actually…. complimenting her?

"Thank you, sir. That was one of our goals, of course."

He raised an eyebrow. "What were your other goals, Miss Potter?"

She sat back in her chair, considering her response. "We, of all the houses, know how real the divide between Slytherin and the rest of the school can be. We, of all the houses, know how the rivalry between the snakes and the lions can turn into curses fired in the corridors, and cauldrons sabotaged and blown to bits." She kept her eyes on the Professor, judging his reaction. She was rewarded with a small nod.

"Well, if I were a Gryffindor, I would say that the house divide is garbage, and I'm just going to ignore it because bravery or something, and I do what I want." She shrugged. "And I'd look like an idiot."

"You will not be surprised to learn that there were many who expected you to wear red and gold." Snape said. "However obvious it is now that you belong in green."

"Just so, Professor." She agreed. "The hat had its reasons for sorting me as it did, and this year has shown that it probably knew what it was doing."

"So what reasons would a Slytherin offer for your little club?" Snape asked, curious.

Rose smiled. "It is impossible to gather a full picture of the goings-on in the school without sources of intelligence in all houses." She waved her hand at the grades. "Besides, no one runs a study session like Hermione Granger, sir."

"Yes, I can imagine so." Snape said, thoughtfully. "Do you have plans for the summer, Miss Potter?"

Rose did not consider mentioning the work being done on the Dursley's house. Yes, actually, I'm having the wards on my relative's house, that I happen to own, redone so that the Headmaster's piss-poor hackjob of a blood ward scheme doesn't get me murdered this summer. Should be fun.

"I plan to spend quite a bit of time at Greengrass Manor, at the request of the Lady Greengrass." She said, formally. "She knew my mother, apparently, and is eager to know her daughter."

Snape nodded, though Rose noticed his expression change subtly at the mention of her mother. "Did you know her, sir? My mother, I mean?"

The mask went up, so suddenly that Rose would have never noticed had she not been watching for it. Snape's expression went immediately to something that could only be 'Carefully Neutral'.

"We attended Hogwarts together, in our youth." Snape said, quietly. "She was gifted in charms and runes, as it happens. But we grew apart, as children do from time to time." His voice hinted at there being more to the story, but his demeanor made clear that the topic was closed, for now.

"I see. Thank you, sir." She replied. They looked at each other for a moment, then Snape began shuffling papers.

"Well, Miss Potter, it seems you have had an adequate first year." He was back in Professor mode, a transition that could only be more obvious if he referred to someone as a dunderhead. "Ensure that you complete your summer assignments, or I will not be pleased."

Rising, she nodded. "Of course, Professor. Thank you, sir." She turned and left the office.

Snape watched her leave, shaking his head. He had been fully prepared to hate the girl, for he knew she would remind him daily of James Potter. And then she had been sorted into his house. Not only the daughter of a blood traitor, but the girl-who-lived herself! He had watched the common room, from a dark corner, to see how the house reacted. His godson did not disappoint, mouthing off almost immediately.

Rose Potter laid him out, almost instantly. Then helped the boy to his feet and walked away.

She didn't need to demonstrate her power, or her magic. She already had. If there was a perfectly Slytherin option for such a situation, she had taken it - she won that battle and the ones to follow, all with one bold move. Her housemates had been impressed, to say the least - none of them bothered her in that way again.

The study group was another bold move, for who could question the pursuit of academic excellence? Such ambition was worthy of a Slytherin.

Rose Potter continued to confound every expectation he had had - and those of the Headmaster, as well.

The next years would prove interesting, he thought.


A/N: An interesting counterpoint to Seeker and Daphne, here. I understand, but have no interest in, a Ron Weasley who shrieks "But they're Slimy SNAAAAAAKES" whenever a character wearing green enters the room. Here, Ron had an idea of who Rose was, and that idea was shattered during the sorting. He doesn't reject her out of hand, as sometimes happens, but actively decides to seek her out and talk about it. This isn't the beginnings of Rose/Ron, thank you very much, but she knows he's a friend worth having from Seeker and Chaser and Marigold. So, like Seeker taking a chance on his Daphne (after Rose's endorsement), Rose decides to take a chance on her world's Ron.

I've left Snape by the wayside this year, even with Rose. That will change as we move forward - he's her Head of House, and a far different one from McGonagall. Besides which, I enjoy a good "I can't even" moment from the Potions Master.

Feedback, as always, is welcome.