Author's Note: For some reason, Rose's chapters have tended to be very short. Not her first chapter, that one was pretty long, but this one's so brief, and the next one of hers (which I just finished recently) is also quite short. One of these days she'll get a longer one, I'll throw some trauma at her. And good stuff too, of course.

Content Warning: Strong language, alcohol.

Chapter 13

Madam Puddifoot's

Double-Wow

Chocolate Cake

(Rose)

"Rosie, get your butt back in here!" June's voice sailed through the bathroom door. I finished off the braid on the left side of my head, then tried a few different smiles in the mirror. I grabbed the champagne glass, half full of effervescent liquid, and reeled out the door into the girls' dormitory. It was the Friday after the big Teagan fiasco, and it was also the day after Lacey's birthday, so June had decided to throw an all-girls party for them. Outside it was dark, whirlwinds of snowflakes constantly rushing past the windows. It was the dead middle of January, the icicles were at their hardest, the Whomping Willow at its most sluggish, and June's depression just seemed to be getting darker.

Not tonight though, tonight she had ensured the right amount of champagne and her laughter bubbled up from her throat just as exuberantly as the bubbles in the strawberry champagne that she held delicately in her hand. She was sitting cross-legged on one of the large beds, surrounded by Aura, Lacey, Aminta and Dima. On the other side of the room, Teagan, Amelia and Kaylee Hampshire were giggling maniacally.

I flopped onto the bed between Lacey and June, squealing as I almost spilled some of my beverage, then righting myself.

"Rose, you look so different lately," Dima noted, putting a hand to my face.

"Really?" I laughed. "How so?"

"You're glowing," she replied with raised eyebrows, "and you look a lot more dreamy than usual."

"Ooooh! Is Seth getting to you?" Minty asked.

"Who?" I frowned. Each of the girls gave me incredulous looks.

"Your...your boyfriend...?" Aura answered uncertainly.

"Oh! Gosh, of course! Seth, Seth, Seth! What a sweetheart. What a hunk of flaming sweetness."

"Rrr-ight," Aura responded, an eyebrow arched doubtfully. I giggled and smiled, eyes expanding somewhat.

"Oh, don't you worry about me. I've got everything under control. Tonight is about celebrating our beautiful cherub, Teagan!" I cried enthusiastically, raising my glass in a triumphant flourish. We beckoned the younger girls over and toasted Teagan, whose face was already flushed with drink. "And Lacey, of course!"

"Thanks, thankssss," Teagan slurred, "thanks for being so supportive guys. I don't know if I'd ever be able to face this school again if it weren't for you, and Rye of course."

"Oh, my goodness, yes! We need to toast that beautiful soul too!" I exclaimed, raising my glass another time. "To Riley for momentarily becoming Superman and blowing everyone's minds!"

"To Riley, that cute, curly son of a bitch," June added. We all drained our glasses, then Aura enchanted the bottle to do a refill round.

"Aren't you lucky, June," Lacey remarked. "I've noticed plenty of swooning over that boy since the Teagan debacle." This made June laugh, a lot, which was nice to see, and when she stopped, she simply grinned around at all of us, though I sensed that it was mostly aimed at Aura.

"We split, actually," she said at last, to shocked gasps and inquiries.

"What happened?" Aminta asked, to receive a pleasant shrug from June.

"We're just not right for each other," she replied. "Guess he figured that out on Tuesday. I think he figured a lot out on that day. He's way too sweet for me anyway. I always had a thing for the cocky badb-" she broke off, clapping a hand over her mouth.

"COCKY BADBOY! You said it!" I screamed, eyes bulging. "I can't believe you just said that!" I leapt to my feet and bounced ecstatically on the bed, causing everyone to vacate the springy surface but June, who joined me on her feet.

"No no no! I didn't mean to! It just slipped out!" she wailed in dismay, throwing her arms around me in an attempt to stop my frantic motions and giddy exclamations.

"You fancy James!" I squealed at long last, the magic words tumbling from my mouth for the whole room to hear. The expression on June's face was absolutely priceless. "June and James sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-eeeek!" June tackled me to the floor before I had time to belt out the remainder of the dreaded word. She held her hand over my mouth as she sat on me.

"You're crazy!" she yelled at my face, but it was too late. She was blushing madly. She looked around, to see every girl's eyes on her, then she hid her face in her hands. "This information does not leave this room, got it?" she demanded of everyone present. They all agreed, and June got off of me, still shooting daggers in my direction. I merely grinned at her.

"I knew it!" I hissed smugly in her ear, to receive a smack in return. It wasn't long until the others were wheedling girl-talk out of her. She was stubborn though.

"There's no way I'm talking about it," she stated firmly, even as Amelia filled her glass from over her shoulder.

"Oh, come on, just admit it: you've got the bug!" Dima teased. "The Potter bug."

"No, I don't! We're changing the subject," June grumbled.

"So, Lacey, I saw you hanging out with Eve the other day," I said abruptly. "Coulda sworn you hated each other." She had stopped awkwardly in the middle of a sip, and her eyes darted around the room for a moment until they landed on me once more.

"Yeah...she's nice...actually," she replied softly, the corner of her mouth turned up just a bit. There was something in her eyes though, just for a moment, that didn't completely agree with her own statement. But I could just be seeing things; I do that quite frequently, really, if you think about it. "And besides...she just always says 'Oh my God, let's hang out!' so I say sure. And, sometimes, I don't even say yes. She forces me." She shrugged.

"Right, that sounds like Eve," I remarked. "I'm sure Scorp's happy about that."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Rose!"

Wait...

"You just..." June muttered, "you just said...'Scorp'..."

"Huh...hrghh." I made a strange noise. How did that even happen? How had that thought even come into my mind? And why 'Scorp' for Merlin's sake? Why not 'Dogface'?

I felt a swimming sensation in my head which may or may not have been linked to the alcohol. A quick, energetic beat had started up in my head. Electronic. Under normal circumstances, I would have felt the need to dance, but at this moment, I felt submerged, in something like a soap bubble perhaps, and the repetitive, yet endlessly fresh and remarkably rich and multifaceted, was up too loud. I felt like I was going to be sick, sick from saying a name, apparently. I placed three fingers over my mouth absently as I stood up.

"Rosie?" I faintly heard girl-voices. "You all right?" I didn't have the voice to reply, so I didn't. I left the room. Not into the bathroom, but out of the dorm entirely. It seemed the most logical thing to do.

The common room was at half capacity when I walked through it. James was being loud on one end of the room, enthusiastically telling a story of some kind that seemed to me to be about intergalactic ninja dinosaurs scaling skyscrapers in New York City. Yo, try saying that five times fast. I wonder if intergalactic ninja dinosaurs would have laser guns? Hold up; what kind of a question is that? They definitely fucking would.

Lucas was just barely managing to keep out of the way of James' spastic motions. Riley sat sedately, in conversation with Jade while Henry tried to capture the attention of Marcy, who was far too focused on James as he raised a hand to his floppy hair, looking sidelong at her and flexing, not-so-subtly. I had a feeling that as soon as James finished his story, he would settle back down on the couch beside Marcy and get showered in kisses. That boy was like that oh-so-decadent slice of double-wow chocolatey-moussey-fudgey-fluffy cake, with its violent pink icing and ornate structure of chocolate-drizzled, powdered creampuffs on top. The famous dessert specialty of Madam Puddifoot's. Goodness, I just had a mini-spasm there. What I'm saying is that he's just titillating to the hormonal masses of Hogwarts. They're like putty in his hands. And so, I mused with a tiny smirk, was June.

I made it out of the common room without any trouble, and when I at last entered the dark and chilly hallway, I was feeling mostly better. Still a bit queasy, and also still a lot drunk. The music was still playing. So, I started walking.

I didn't pay attention to where I was going, but I wasn't surprised in the least when my feet brought me to the corridor that led to Matilda and Fidelio's room. I walked down it, slower than before. I wasn't quite walking straight either. I trailed my fingers along the wall. It was completely black at the end of the corridor, but there was a tiny wisp of light at the lower corner of the door, evidently its only crack. My breath seemed to catch in my throat as I put a hand on the doorknob.

There was a swish! of air as I opened the door, and the yellow light was extinguished. When the darkness fell, so did an intense silence. It was even silent in my head. I knew that there was someone in the room, sharing the darkness with me. And I thought I knew who it was.

"Sorry..." I breathed at last, just a shiver of air. A pregnant pause.

"Matilda?" No more than a whisper.

"Fidelio?" Another pause. I closed the door behind me. I heard a bump and a stagger as he must have been coming toward me. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I drew in a sharp breath of surprise, then our hands found each other in the dark.

"The torch went out," Fidelio said lamely.

"Do you have your wand?" I asked. We were still whispering.

"No. Do you?"

"No."

A silence of about 10 seconds, then:

"I'm drunk."

"Me too," I replied. More silence. Silent handholding in the dark. I could feel that he was taller than me, a lot taller. His hand was nice and big and warm. And that smell. It overwhelmed me, it filled my head. Without knowing I was doing it I had rested my head against his chest. He put his arms around me.

His heart was racing beneath his shirt, against my cheek. It kept time with my own frenzied pulse. For some reason neither of us felt the need to mention the fact that we had no idea who the other was. But it didn't seem to matter. It was like nothing that happened in that room actually really happened in the real world. Like it was just a bubble of reality.

That being said, I looked up and cautiously found his lips with my own. And it was kind of fucking fantastic.

And then I realized that I had found my double-wow cake.