Now, Rose thought shakily, it's time to face my uncle…
That night, Rose received one of the worst beatings of her life. Her uncle had used her own belt against her, something he hadn't done in over 3 years. Her back felt like it was on fire, each path the belt had taken on her skin creating its own angry red line. Thankfully, she didn't feel it break the skin, though Rose could still tell that there were welts forming. Eventually, her uncle ceded in his punishment, and locked her back in the cupboard.
She sat down on her makeshift bed, waiting for the aching of her skin to die down. And as Rose lay there on her cot, she could feel her magic washing over her back, reducing the swelling and lessening the pain.
Rose's last month with her relatives was an absolute living Hell. Her chore list seemed to have doubled, something she had not thought possible. And, instead of talking to her, Aunt Petunia just wrote everything down on a pad of paper and shoved it at Rose each morning.
She was still locked in her cupboard each night, which was smaller with her filled trunk also stuffed into it. The collapsible owl cage had been put into her trunk, along with her robes, textbooks, and other equipment. Rose had let her owl, whom she named Hedwig, out of the cage so that she could nest in the backyard.
It was about a week before the school term began when Rose approached her uncle on how to get to Hogwarts.
"Uncle Vernon?" she asked.
"What do you want now, girl?" was his angry response.
"Could you drive me to King's Cross Station next week?"
"Why would a freak like you need to be at a train station?"
Rose bit her lip, "That's how I get to school."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! I REFUSE TO LET YOU GO TO THAT… THAT FREAK SCHOOL!"
"I've already been accepted, Uncle. They'll come and look for me if I don't show up on the train."
The fat man seemed to consider this for a minute. Rose knew that in her uncle's eyes, it was kind of a lose-lose situation. On one hand, it meant that she would be happy and hanging out with other 'weirdos,' but her relatives also wouldn't have to deal with her 'foolishness.' On the other hand, if she stayed, they had to put up with her 'nonsense' and 'ungratefulness,' but they still had someone to do their chores. And if she didn't show up at all, the teachers would come and find out about how they treated her.
After a few minutes of deliberation, it seemed her uncle had reached a decision. "Fine, go to your school. Just don't expect us to waste our time with that foolishness and have to drive you to London."
Rose nodded and walked back to her cupboard. Honestly, she hadn't expected for her uncle to give in that easily.
It was the evening of August 31st, and Rose had just finished making dinner for her relatives. As the Dursleys sat down to eat, she went back to her cupboard, spending the next few hours listening as her aunt and uncle retired to bed after watching the telly.
Uncle Vernon had forgotten to lock her cupboard that night, as she had snuck in early. And so, trying to make as little noise as possible, Rose grabbed her trunk and crept out of the cupboard to call out quietly to her owl outside. "Hedwig, girl, can you come down here please? I need to put you in the cage, but after tomorrow you'll be able to fly free again," Rose said into the open air of the backyard.
Immediately, the snowy owl flew down from the makeshift nest she had made. She clicked a bit going into the cage, nipping Rose's shoulder slightly.
"You're practically human, you know that Hedwig? Except much smarter," Rose cooed softly to her bird, who seemed to soak up all the praise as she puffed her chest out.
The green eyed girl dragged her trunk and cage out of the driveway, and down the street. Once she was finally at the park, she sat down on a bench, panting slightly. It was tiring to carry the heavy trunk, especially with her skinny body. After a few minutes, she stood back up, walking to the curb.
Rose withdrew her holly wand from within her pants' pocket and flung it outwards in a long motion. Immediately, the violet triple decker bus popped into existence. A young man who looked to be in his twenties hopped off the bus as soon as the door opened.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. I'm John Dingle, and I will be your conductor for this evening. We have a flat fee of 11 sickles. You can add hot chocolate for an additional 2 sickles, or a hot water bottle and toothbrush for 4 additional sickles," the man informed her.
Rose reached for her money bag and pulled out 11 sickles.
"Can you take me to the Leaky Cauldron?" she asked as she handed the coins to the man.
"Of course," was his response.
"Thank you. Would you mind giving me a hand with my trunk?" Her words -caught by the conductor- caused him to step onto the grass and pick up the heavy trunk in one swift motion. He carried it onto the bus and set it next to an unoccupied bed. Rose followed, and saw that none of the furniture was bolted down (as it probably should have been on a large bus such as this one), and most of it was in disarray.
Just as she sat down on the edge of the brass bed, the conductor called out to the driver: "Take it away, Ernie!"
After a turbulent ride, Rose found herself standing on Charing Cross Road.
She dragged her trunk and owl cage through the door of the pub, and was met by raucous laughter from the bar area. Standing behind it, cleaning a class, was an old man with graying hair and a couple missing teeth. Seeing Rose, he set down the glass and walked across the room to her.
"What can I do for ya, missy? We usually don't get young girls here by themselves," asked the old man.
"I would like to board here for the night, if you have an open room," Rose responded.
"Where are your parents?"
"I live with muggles. They aren't able to take me to Platform 9¾ tomorrow, so they decided to let me stay here tonight and get to Kings Cross by myself." Rose was surprised at how easily the lie slipped off her tongue. She generally tried not to lie to the Dursleys, not that she had much to lie about. They wouldn't have believed her anyway.
The man nodded his head, "Ah, I see. Well I guess you can stay in room 9. I assume you'll only be here for tonight?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very well, then."
At that, the barkeeper whipped out his wand, and waved it over her trunk and cage. They began to levitate, and followed him neatly as he led Rose through the pub.
Rose set herself up in the room, and after an hour, finally fell asleep.
Rose was currently pushing a trolley through Kings Cross Station. Earlier that morning she had left the Leaky Cauldron and hailed a cab to take her to the station.
The girl had already seen several poorly disguised wizard families pass through the station. She was honestly surprised there were no Aurors around charging people with breaking the statute.
Glancing around to make sure that no muggles were paying attention, Rose hurtled herself through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, passing straight through.
Immediately, a scarlet steam engine billowing smoke filled her sight line. She stared at it in awe for a few moments, before remembering herself and pushing the trolley towards the train. Up and down the platform, parents and younger siblings were saying their last goodbyes to the students, with many mothers shedding a few tears whilst hugging their children.
I wonder if that's what my parents would've done for me. Would Uncle Sirius be there too? Maybe I'd have younger siblings.
Rose couldn't stop the thoughts from entering her brain. Every day she questioned what if? But it was dangerous for her to get lost in those thoughts and lose sense of reality.
Steeling herself, Rose walked closer to the train, trying to look through the windows for an empty compartment. Eventually she found one near the end of the train.
First she took the owl cage with Hedwig inside and set it on a booth. Next, she tried to drag her trunk up the stairs to the compartment. Key word being tried.
After her fifth attempt, a boy walked by, and, seeing her struggle, came over to help.
"Do you need a hand with that?" the boy asked. He looked to be about 13, with chestnut hair and steel gray eyes. (Any guesses as to who that handsome Hufflepuff is?)
"Please, if you don't mind," she responded gratefully to the boy. Instead of helping her pick up the luggage though, the wizard pulled out his wand, and pointed it at the trunk.
"Locomotor Trunk," he commanded. Instantly, the luggage began to hover about a foot off the ground, compelled by the words. It was slowly drifting up the steps towards the compartment, and completely without either Rose or the boy to lift it.
With the direction from his wand, Rose's trunk floated safely onto the overhead rack.
"Thank you so much…," Rose smiled, looking to learn his name.
"Cedric. Cedric Diggory."
That name was somewhat familiar to Rose… Diggory… Diggory…. Ah yes, Amos Diggory was on the Marauder hit list. Apparently he had tried to make some moves on her mum, which meant her dad had to 'defend her honor.'
"Nice to meet you. I'm Rose. Rose Potter."
His eyes widened almost comically, before he tried to school his expression.
"Uh… it's nice to meet you, too. Well, I've got to be off now. I guess I'll see you around?"
Rose nodded and Cedric stepped out of the compartment.
Once she was sure he was gone, Rose stepped onto the seat of the compartment and tried to reach her trunk. After a little while of feeling around for the right way to unlatch the buckles, she managed to pop the top of it off and grab a couple books.
The raven haired girl was reading Mind Magicks by the time she felt the train roll out of the station. No one had stopped in her compartment, and she hoped that it would stay that way. She wasn't exactly anti-social (not that she had ever had many friends with Dudley around to scare them off), but she didn't want to be gawked at because of her scar.
Curling into the seat, Rose studied the thick tome.
Legilimency is the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings. Some may equate this to the art of Muggle mind-reading, though learned Legilimens would beg to differ. The human mind is a complex thing. It is many layered, and is not open for one to peruse at leisure. Practiced Legilimens know that what you find may not always be true, or not contain the full truth. It is up to them to interpret the findings correctly.
Now, there are different forms and strengths of Legilimency. There is active Legilimency, which generally requires the Legilimens to use their wand and say an incantation. The other form is passive, which usually requires years of practice and is essential both wandless and nonverbal. As for the different strengths, it depends on how much the Legilimency wants to see. It is possible to skim the surface thoughts of non-Occlumens without their noticing. Other times, mostly when using a wand, the victim of the spell will see exactly what the caster is seeing. Generally it is their memories that are on view, unless the caster is looking for a specific memory.
It is possible for wizards or witches to be born with innate passive Legilimency skills, though it is quite rare. Most times these magicals are not aware of their powers, and do not seek to further their training. Natural-born passive Legilimens, however, have limited control without a wand. They are generally able to tell if someone is lying, or possible skim the thought of a person. Though anyone with basic Occlumency training will be able to keep the passive Legilimens out of their minds, or at least be able to sense their presence.
Rose sat and read her book for the next few hours. And only after her large session of analyzing her copy of Mind Magicks did she realize that she must have been born with natural Legilimency. Before, she had thought that she was just good at reading people's faces, though now -with the information of the book- she knew otherwise. However it did trouble her some that she had been going through people's minds without their consent.
Just then, a plump, kind-faced witch put her head through the door. "Anything off the trolley, dear?"
"Yes please," Rose responded as she grabbed a couple sickles from her pouch and proceeded to buy a handful of sweets off the trolly. She bought several chocolate frogs, a couple boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, some Licorice Wands, and a Cauldron Cake. Rose didn't plan on eating it all, however, and she actually stored most of it in her trunk.
A few minutes later, a teary-eyed boy with a round, chubby face and short brown hair walked into her solitary compartment.
"Excuse me, but I was wondering if you've seen a toad?" the boy asked desperately.
Rose shook her head, "No, sorry I haven't. Though I will keep an eye out for it."
The boy sniffed, "Okay, thanks anyway." But just as he was leaving, Rose called back out to him.
"Wait, hold on. Maybe we can ask an older student to summon him for you," Rose proposed.
The boy shook his head nervously, "Uh, no thank you, I'd rather not be a bother."
"Don't worry, we'll just ask a prefect. It's in their job description to do stuff like this."
"I guess we can try."
Rose stood up from her seat, and headed out of the compartment with the boy. They walked down the length of the train, stopping in every compartment in search of a prefect.
Finally they found one. He had flaming red hair, and sat by three younger boys who wore the same on their heads. Rose assumed they were brothers, or at least related.
"Excuse me, but are you a prefect?" Rose asked. She could hear two of the younger boys groan. At a closer look, they seemed to be twins.
"Why yes, I am a prefect," the boy said with a pretentious drawl, as if he were the most important man in the world.
"Well, you see, my friend here lost his toad, and we were wondering if you could summon it for us," Rose explained.
"Of course I can. What's the toad's name?"
The brown haired boy spoke up for the first time. The word "T-Trevor" stumbled from his mouth.
"Accio Trevor the toad," the prefect spoke with a wave of his wand.
A minute later, a green and brown toad zoomed through the open door, getting caught in the prefect's outstretched hand.
"There you go. Now, may I ask, what are your names?" The prefect asked them.
"Neville Longbottom," the brown haired boy said.
Rose's eyes widened at the statement. The name was familiar, too familiar. This was her (sort of) long-lost godbrother. Oh, she had to talk with him later.
"Rose," was her response to the prefect's question.
The youngest redhead, whom Rose assumed to be a first year like them, spoke up, "What's your surname?"
Rose bit her lip and mumbled out, "Potter."
Immediately all five boys' eyes widened in awe.
The prefect stuck out his hand towards the girl, "My name's Percy Weasley. It's an honor to meet the Girl-Who-Lived."
This was what Rose had been afraid of. She was looking decidedly uncomfortable, something they all noticed.
"Yeah, uh, it's nice to meet you too. I need to go now," she breathed. And with that, she grabbed Neville by the hand and dragged him back to her compartment.
Once there, she threw her arms around him and gave him a huge hug, speaking to him over his shoulder, "Oh Neville, it's wonderful to see you again."
Neville looked at her warily, "I'm sorry, but do I even know you?"
Rose laughed a little nervously. "Well, you probably wouldn't remember this, but you and I are godsiblings. Your mum is my godmother, and my mum was yours."
"Wow, Gran never told me I had a godsister. It's nice to meet you, Rose."
"It's great to see you again. You know, we used to have play dates together all the time when we were babies. You liked to play with my hair."
Neville blushed, though Rose didn't really understand why. "Uh, thanks. I don't really remember much about my childhood before I went to live with Gran."
"Why do you live with your Gran? Did something happen to Auntie Alice and Uncle Frank?"
Neville was now staring down at the table. "I-Uh…...I've never told anyone this before. My Gran only told me the full story a few months ago. Mum and Dad are in the Permanent Spell Damage Ward of St. Mungo's. A few days after, well, you know what, a couple Death Eaters came and attacked my parents. They-they tortured them. For hours and hours. Sometimes I remember hearing their screams…," Neville had to look away to wipe the dampness from his eyes. Tears were also silently streaming down Rose's face. "The Death Eaters held the Cruciatus for so long… they were tortured into insanity. My parents… their minds are gone. They don't even remember me, or my Gran."
Rose moved over to Neville and started hugging him again. Her arms were wrapped around him tightly, and she could feel the back of her shirt getting slightly wet, but she didn't care.
"Oh Neville, I'm so sorry. I wouldn't have asked had I known…," she let her sentence hang off. They both understood what she meant.
At that point, her arms wrapped around him in comfort, Rose and Neville bonded. Maybe it was their similar pasts, maybe it was the familial tie, or maybe they just realized they were perfect together.
(A/N) Well, I tried to end on a sappy note. It didn't work out too well. And when I say perfect together, I mean as like, best friends. Definitely not romantically, with the Westermarck Effect and all that. Also, from here on out, I will most likely be posting every three weeks, especially depending on how far I diverge from canon. Many thanks to all those who have followed and favorited and reviewed. I've had over 700 views on this story, yet only three reviews. I don't care if you're just gonna flame me, please review.
Also, I have recently acquired a beta, so many thanks to ZriptideZ. I will probably be reposting previous chapters, this time actually edited by a competent person.
