Rose had a new appreciation for Professor Dalbert in the following classes. He just seemed so much cooler. He was a Marauder. He was an Auror and a journalist, and he could transform into an Alaskan Kodiak bear at will. Rose and Max both listened with more interest to Dalbert's classes. They knew he knew what he was teaching. Not that they didn't think he did before, but the spells they were casting felt stronger for some reason. Perhaps it was because she desperately wanted to impress a Marauder ("Well, more of a fifth wheel Marauder." As Dalbert had claimed.) or maybe it was because Dalbert seemed to be watching them closer.

The force she spit from her wand felt stronger and tickled her fingertips with its power. Every time she would successfully knock the chair from the table, she would grin up at Dalbert to see if he had seen. And every time, he would smile back. When he was watching, it was as though all the Marauders were watching.

Max didn't need to check for approval, everyone knew he was the best in the class. His spells had a power behind them that no one else could manage and sometimes, had a flicker of black. Something would change in Max's eyes when he was casting, and it wasn't the color. His face would be set to intense focus and he would become, quite frankly, scary. But whenever his spell was cast better than everyone else's, he would lower his wand and give a small smile to himself which was adorable.

It had been three days since the match and Rose was counting down to when the week without Stella was over. She knew it would be bitter sweet. She desperately wanted to get back on track with Sugamina and at least visit Stella again, but she also knew that Al would likely become unbearable and these few days they spent laughing in the gardens, splashing in the creek, and doing Astronomy on the roof every night because they were so far behind would be over.

She had become a great deal more popular since her bludger catch. It seemed to be the most daring move done by a female beater since Alexandrea Schumer who, during the tournament between Switzerland and Germany, rode a bludger to the ground having lost her broom. Louis, who had captured the entire match through his camera lens and spent the next two days developing them, had sent the photos to Mr. Creevey, head of the Weekly Post Department, who squeezed her catch on the third page of the Dailey Profit next to a section on talking animals. Rose's father had never been so proud and even sent a howler during breakfast to praise her. In some ways, this was worse than the usual scolding howlers as Rose's face was as red as her hair while the whole hall listened to Ron's quite enthusiastic commendation.

On the following day of the match, Rose had walked to the mirror in her bathroom to examine her bruise and decide what stage it's at given the color. To her astonishment, when she pulled open her blouse, nothing was there. The terrible purple and red bruise had completely vanished; her chest didn't even hurt. She pulled up her sleeves to find that the bruises across her arms were gone as well. But that's impossible! She knew that bruises can take days to heel, sometimes weeks. Albus' bruise from the night Stella saved him were still there and looking worse than ever. Al had told them about his break for the lake the previous day and how he had almost died. Rose had promptly begun hitting him with her breakfast tray as she shouted his stupidity, covering the person across the table with all the remaining food, Tyler.

Once discovering that she was miraculously healed, she did the first thing she always did when she had a question or a fear, she ran to Max. Forgetting that it was four in the morning, she had barged into his dormitory and tapped him repeatedly on the shoulder until he finally rolled over; he was an exceptionally heavy sleeper.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked worriedly, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Rose momentarily forgot what she had come in there for at her sudden amusement regarding his hair which was illuminated by the faint moon light as a bundle of curls tangled in his face. "Stop looking at my hair," he said.

"Right, right!" she remembered. "Look! Look at my bruise!"

"Lumos," he whispered and his wand tip illuminated.

"What's that light for?" a tired boy's voice groaned from the opposite bed. "It that Rose?"

"Rose, go back to bed, it's early."

"It's no use guys, just go to sleep."

"What am I looking at?" Max asked as his eyes slowly began to droop.

"Exactly!" Rose screeched. "Nothing's there!"

Max blinked at her, perplexed. "Okay, please tell me you didn't come up here just to wake me up and show me nothing or are you trying to give me riddles in which case, please don't."

"No, Max, the bruises, they're all gone! Not a trace!"

"Did you take something for them?"

Rose shook her head. "Why would I come all the way up her and wake you if I had taken something that was supposed to take away what I'm not showing you?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," he whispered rolling back over to sleep.

Rose glared for a moment though she wasn't angry, this was a better than expected reaction to be woken up at four in the morning. She lifted Max's illuminated wand from his bedside cabinet and was about to shut it off. Maybe it would be best to register this event when he was conscious. Though, Max's wand sliced her hand when she picked it up, not by magic. His wand had been pulled from the ground by Ollivander, therefore, his entire wand was the end root to a birch tree as the last three inches were spiraled out root. He often got splinters from it as did Rose tonight. She pulled the shard of wood from her finger and remembered something as a drop of crimson blood dangled from her cut. Her splinter from Max's bedpost. She examined where it had been, nothing was there it didn't even hurt after Max pulled it out. Max, pulled it out… Her bruises, impossibly gone the day after Max touched them. Max, touched them… Her salmonella which was supposed to last four to seven days was gone within twelve hours, the last two being spent in Max's arms as he held her to lessen her fever because she didn't want to be alone in the hospital wing and wasn't being warmed by the quilts Madam Pomfrey had given her. Max, had held her. And every time, she seemed to be better by morning. Madam Pomfrey had been beside herself when Rose asked to go to class the next day.

"But, that's impossible," she whispered to herself. Rose knew Max had healing powers but, was in possible, perhaps, that he could transfer them? There were a couple of ways to find out; Rose took the fastest.

"Max?" she said, bouncing onto his four-poster bed and crawling up to where he slept.

"Mmmrrph," he mumbled.

Rose thrust her hand under his pillow to retrieve what he called a "box cutter", though she had never seen him cut a box with it. Max was forced to sit up as she pulled flipped the pillow out from under his head.

"What are you-"

Rose took the blade and, without thinking to stop, sliced her palm open.

"Rose! Are you mad!" Max called, taking the knife from her and placing it rather far away. He took her gash and covered it with his own hand. "What'd you go and do that for?"

"It's okay," she said, trying to ignore the stinging which she felt now tingling. "It's be gone by tomorrow."

"What are you on about?"

"You can fix it, Max! You can heal other people!"

"That's ridiculous, of course, I can't!"

"Vlad, will you shut up?" one of the boys called. Rose thought it to be Ben.

Max jumped out of his bed and pulled Rose to the bathroom before closing the door and turning toward her.

"What's all this about?" he asked, taking her hand and a tie from the bathroom counter.

"Max, I've realized that every time I'm hurt, you touch my wound and it's healed usually within a couple of hours! Surely, you've noticed. There's no other explanation for my bruises being gone at least. I think you have the ability to transfer your powers!"

Max shook his head. "Rosie, as awesome as that would be, it's not possible. The magic stored in me only multiplies my leucocytes. Unless I somehow gave you my blood, it wasn't me that healed you."

"We know nothing about what Belladonna did to you," said Rose. "Who's to say that you only have multiplied white blood cells? You may have extraordinary gifts that you know nothing about."

Max looked up and gave her his trade-mark 'come on/apprehensive' face. He sighed and let go of her hand at last which she just realized was now wrapped in a red and gold tie to stop the bleeding.

"Well then answer me this," he started. "When I was attending to the patience in the hospital wing during detention in first year, how come David Newberrie's foot remained swollen for weeks after I wrapped it? If I could unknowingly transfer my powers, then how come he wasn't healed right away?"

Rose didn't respond, she was thinking. True, that wouldn't make sense. But neither is her bruises disappearing. Max is the only explanation for the phenomenon. Her silence must have made Max decide that he had won because he took her by the shoulders and led Rose from the bathroom and into the outside hall.

"You need to sleep, we have way too much on our plates to worry about me now. Go on." He pushed her gentle down the hall until she began walking on her own without looking back. She didn't hear Max close his door until she began her decent down the stairs. Rose pulled her bandaged hand closer to her chest and felt a tingling sensation as she had done with her splinter and her bruise. She smiled and knew that Max was wrong.

The next day, she confidently slid across the breakfast bench to lean against Max and wave her hand in front of his newspaper. The wound was now a thin pink line across her palm. Max had raised an eyebrow at her and she explained the tingling and only explanation. Max still didn't believe her.

"Good morning, Al!" Rose smiled present day as he and Scorpius made their way into the great hall for breakfast wearing their Quidditch uniforms and looking put-out. "Practice went over, huh? You guys are usually showered and ready by now."

"Keith really wants us to beat Ravenclaw," said Scorpius, falling onto the Gryffindor table as Olivia slid beside him and began buttering his pancakes.

"It's not just Ravenclaw," said Rocky, staring down at his newspaper and drinking coffee practically white with all the cream and sugar. "It's Madiline, the captain of the Ravenclaw team. They're dating now, she and Paul."

Al began laughing. "That explains a bit!"

"If it gets out and everyone starts making fun of him, tell 'em I told you," said Rocky, still not glancing up.

"Double potions today," said Olivia, sliding Scorpius' finished pancakes under his nose. "I heard Professor Killpii is going to try'n give us a pop quiz."

"What?" exclaimed Scorpius, finally sitting up.

"Yeah, I heard it from an elf who was (Hyperion, eat) stirring our fire. It's supposed to be on the difference between brewing a stretching draft as a potion vs. concoction. He's been hinting at it for weeks."

Scorpius and the Merik boys groaned. "It's not hard, guys," said Al, looking completely relaxed about the quiz. "The difference between potion vs. concoction is a matter of logic; it's a trick question because-"

"We're going to be late!" Olivia interrupted loudly, standing with her watch raised.

"We still have fifteen minutes," said Max, finally folding his paper.

"I can not be tardy!" Olivia called before grabbing Scorpius by the wrist and hauling him out like a dog on a leash.

"Wait, no!" Scorpius called. "I want to know the difference between potion and concoction!"

"THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE!" Al called after him, but Olivia had already drug him around the corner. "EXCEPT FOR THE DOUBLE NEGATIVE IN-"

"Al, Albus, stop," said Rose. "He can't hear you."

Al sighed. "He's going to fail that test. Professor Killpii always separates us during tests."

"How come Olivia always drags him everywhere?" asked Max, finishing up his pancakes.

"Because he lets her lead," said Owen Merik from across the table. "She's a leader and has never been allowed to be in charge; she has four brothers the same age after all. Your friend there is one of the first to care about what she has to say. But, uh, do tell us, Al, what's the difference between potion and concoction?"

Professor Killpii knew them a little too well. He separated the four quite effectively. Rose was in the left corner of the dungeon classroom, Max in the right, Al in the back, and Scorpius was front and center. But Killpii's mistake was allowing Scor to sit by Olivia, the "honorable" student who would never help another student cheat.

Rose started at her test.

Question 1-

In what circumstance is it wise to brew a lightened led potion under the full moon in a copper base cauldron with the diameter of sixty-four centimeters?

She thought for a moment. What had Professor Killpii said? She had taken notes. Oh yes!

Whenever togel has been applied to every other centimeter of the copper cauldron under the third full moon of the year and after the led has been melted fully and kissed by a gilda fly.

Question 2-

Between what sun position does hepradiez simmer best?

Rose twiddled Max's quill between her fingers. She scribbled down and answer that she remembered when reviewing her notes titled 'Hepradiez.' She looked around the room. Albus was in the back, his head propped lazily on his arm and looked to be on the third sheet of parchment. Scorpius was tapping his head with his fingers seemingly trying to knock the answer further to the front. Olivia was on her second page and trying to glance at Scorpius' to see where he was. Max was laying on his desk with a mint leave in his mouth. Where he gets these leaves was beyond Rose; they weren't even brewing today and he had somehow got ahold of one. It didn't look as though he had even touched his quiz. Poppy Parkinson was drooling on her paper and the Merik boys looked to be in tears. They were allowed to work together as their knowledge for potions together equaled a regular understanding of the subject for a single person. Though Rose felt sorry for how scared they were, she thought they deserved it. She always told them to stop fooling around in class and listen and perhaps study once classes are over.

She peered back at her parchment and had to wait for her eyes to adjust to the low light before she started back.

Yes

No

B, D, A, T

Bah, blah, blah

False

Only if you spit

Blah, blah, blah

"Alright class, turn in your quiz," Professor Killpii said, though he always used his wand to sweep the papers away from the students rather than having them turn it in.

The class watched with bated breath as Killpii shuffled through the work to see how far the students had gotten. Rose had ripped the edge from hers so that she would know when he passed it. Luckily, he didn't stop to remark as her quiz was examined. However, he did pause on the one directly after. It had taken a moment before he said anything.

"Mr. Everard," he started, flipping the paper around for the class to snigger at. Over the test was a rather exaggerated drawing cartoon of Professor Killpii. Over the following pages were more doodles, most of which were fun and cartooned, unlike Al's realistic ones. "You didn't even try."

"I did Professor," said Max. "I read the entire test but didn't know any of the answers. You don't like any blank spaces even if we have to guess, so I made use of the space and my time."

Rose shook her head disapproving but trying to conceal a smile. Max twiddled his thumbs together innocently as he waited for his fate.

"You know," Killpii started. "I'm starting to think you like detention."

"I'm just excepting it, Sir," said Max.

Rose, Al, Scor, and Olivia waited outside the dungeon classroom for Max to receive his fate.

"I think Killpii's right," said Olivia. "Max really does seem to like detention."

"He's usually assigned to the owlery because not even the elves will clean it," said Rose. "He likes the owls."

"NO, PLEASE PROFESSOR! GIVE ME A SECOND CHANCE! I'LL DO THE WORK!"

Rose jumped and pressed her ear to the door. That was Max pleading. What in the world could Professor Killpii be doing to make a boy like Max plead?

"No, Everard! I've had it with your antics! You will learn to listen and not disrespect me! Maybe things will change after this."

"PROFESSOR! I'LL DO ANYTHING!"

"Let go, Everard! I have a nap to take."

The door swung open suddenly making Olivia pull Rose back before she was hit.

Professor Killpii came striding out looking rather pleased with himself. He caught sight of the group and cleared his throat. "You may want to help him up. I fear he'll try to lock himself in there." Killpii swept away in his turquoise robes muttering, "That'll put that boy straight."

Rose ran into the dungeon followed by her friends. Max was on his knees in front of the teacher's desk looking utterly defeated.

"Maddox!" Rose called skidding to a holt on her knees in front of him. "What is it! What terrible thing is he making you do?"

"He's-" Max croaked. He swallowed and glanced up at her. "He's making me clean windows all night."

…

"Is that it?" asked Scorpius sounding apprehensive.

"With, with Danielle Daniels."

Al began to laugh. "How did he know?"

"Their relationship is not a secret," said Rose, impressed by Killpii's method but pitying Max.

He looked as though he had just been expelled, completely helpless in what is to come and white-faced. Rose reckoned he would straighten up a bit in studies after this. Danielle had done nothing to deserve detention. Killpii simply asked if she wanted to clean windows all night with Max and she cried she was so happy. Olivia had told them this. She always seemed to be around to overhear these random conversations and only gossiped with the four friends.

"What time?" Rose asked as she and Max sat at a table in the Gryffindor common room, doodling as they have both finished their homework for the night.

"Nine," he mumbled then dropped his head on the table.

Rose rubbed his shoulder compassionately. He was truly dreading detention for the first time.

"I'm going to see Yoman," said Max, standing to his feet and throwing away his drawing. "Are you coming?"

She glanced at Danielle near the fireplace. "Uh, no. Tell him I said hi."

Max nodded before retreating from the portrait hole.

Rose looked back at Danielle. She had her blonde curly hair in a bun atop her head and her tongue between her teeth as she scribbled frivolously in her yellow flowered diary. Rose thought for a moment, then started toward her roommate.

"Danielle?" said Rose, sitting on the arm of her chair.

Danielle pulled her diary to her chest as though she thought Rose was trying to read the swirly writing.

"Yeah?"

"I thought I should tell you because Max is embarrassed and won't mention it, I'm sure," she started, improvising as she went. "Max, he has pink eye. Now, you can't really tell because he can hide it with his metamorphmagus…stuff. But I would keep clear of him if I were you. Give him his bubble. Pink eye is very contagious."

Danielle stared up at Rose for a moment, contemplating, then she laughed slightly and with a hint of annoyance it seemed.

"I know what your problem is," she said sniffy, placing her diary on the side table beside her chair.

"My problem?" Rose blinked, standing from the arm of the chair and crossing her arms with her eyebrows raised.

"Yes, and it won't work."

"I'm not playing at anything," Rose lied, liking Danielle less and less.

"You don't want me around your man," Danielle snapped like an uneducated middle school teen.

"My man?" Rose barked.

"You're terribly slow aren't you, Weasley? Yes, everyone knows you have a think for Max."

"I do not!" said Rose, blushing red.

"Don't lie, Weasley! You hang onto him like a lost child! You. Like. Him." Danielle poked her hard in the chest with the last three words. Rose slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch me! I'm just trying to help my friend out! He doesn't like you in that way!" Rose growled. A few heads were looking up from their homework and watching the scene.

"I know that, but that's just because I haven't had a chance for him to really get to know me," Danielle closed her eyes and crossed her arms pompously.

"Believe me, you're not his type," Rose muttered, becoming red in the face and trying to keep her temper level.

"Ugh, and you think you are?" Danielle barked.

"This isn't about me!"

"You think he likes clingy book worms with an overbearing family?"

At the jab toward her family, Rose felt her ears redden.

"I have studied Max closer than you could imagine. I know exactly what he likes, and I will become that."

"See, that's creepy Daniels," said Rose. "You're a stalker, and it's really freaking him out."

"Well whatever I'm doing works," she sneered. "Because if you care to remember, he was my Valentine last year, not yours."

"That was a mistake, Daniels!" Rose barked. "Couldn't you tell how miserable he was? He doesn't like you touching him and that's all you do! You cling to him like a magnet and he's not a touchy guy in the first place, didn't you notice that through all your studying?"

"I have my methods! He will love me because I will be everything he wants and when we're married, you won't be invited to the wedding!" At this, Danielle stood from her chair and shoved Rose back so that she hit Tyler's cauldron causing a great clank and the potion to splatter all over the floor and poor Tyler's shirt.

"Whoa, okay girls, just calm down," Watson started, striding forward with his arms out.

"You're a lunatic, Daniels!" Rose hollered, pushing herself up and slapping Danielle's hand away as she looked to have been trying to push her back down. Her temper had given.

"Girls!" Watson tried again.

"Hold up there, Trout," Rocky pushed forward. "This'll get interesting."

"He will never love you!" Danielle hissed. "He's mine!"

"He is not a prize!" Rose shoved Danielle back into the chair. "You stay away from him!"

A sudden blow struck Rose hard across the face. She ducked down, holding her cheek and blinked sparks from her eyes. She had hit a nerve in Danielle causing the girl to strike her. Was she really in a fight? No, she wouldn't. Rose glared up at Danielle who sprung toward her. In an act of careful thought and instinct, she caught Danielle's arm and grappled her to the floor, a move she had learned from Fred. Danielle tumbled hard against a table. Rose wasn't going to fight, not until something caught her by the hair and yanked her head back. Mary Pye had joined the party.

"Stay away from her!" Mary yelled.

Rose hit the floor, unable to bend as far as Mary was pulling her. Danielle started up from the floor and toward Rose. Rose kicked out to block Danielle, but something red and fiery hit her attacker in the ribs with a sizzling sound. Hugo was at the front of the crowd and opened his mouth in shock as his peculiar wand released sparks.

"I didn't mean-!" Hugo started, but Danielle swung around, her bun lopsided, and with a dull thud, caught Hugo in the stomach. Rose's brother doubled over and coughed as Obadiah slid to his friend's aid.

Something clicked out of place in Rose's chest and standing, she saw as though in slow motion, her arm swing into frame and like Danielle's head was a bludger and Rose's arm was a bat, contact was made, knocking Danielle to the ground. She brought her elbow back and caught Mary in the stomach. Rose stood now, with both girls on the ground, feeling like a monster. Her mother would be so disappointed, but she felt her father's fiery spirit alight inside her. A faint hissing escaped the two girls who unexpectedly pounced like wolverines. Before she knew it, Rose was on the ground, being hit repeatedly.

Blurs came from all sides to pry Danielle and Mary off. Rose fought but felt helpless as her arms were pinned to the ground. It was a terrible feeling. The breath was knocked from her so she couldn't even gasp for air or swing. Muffled shouts were heard. James took Rose by the elbow and tried to pull her out, but couldn't manage through the crowd Quidditch players who had the other two girls around the waist. Both were swinging back as well and the crowds had to dodge the fists. Rose laid on the ground and though instance pain shot through her at the end of every blow, she didn't feel it right away. It was surreal. She couldn't distinguish faces or voices or even what was going on.

It felt like an eternity though she couldn't have been on the ground for more than six seconds before a thick yellow wind ripped through the air with the sound of agonizing screams. The wind choked everyone it swept through causing Mary and Danielle to fall back and Rose to gasp her first breath since the fall. Everyone looked up with their hands over their ears, shocked and confused, as Max dropped his wand and the screams stopped. He took Rose under the arms and swept her up to be pulled close to his chest.

She breathed in the mint and outdoor smell of his shirt and sighed as tears rolled from her eyes and stung whatever wounds she had on her face. Max shouted something though she heard only ringing in her ears. He pulled her from his shirt and stared into her face, looking both terrified and furious. His eyes were gold.

"My God," he mumbled, then pulled his friend back into a tighter hug. Her knees gave and she fell though his arms ensured that she didn't hit the floor again. Through the gab in his arms, Rose saw Danielle scowl darkly with a swollen eye. Mary was being held back by prefect Jack Wilkins. Rose's eyes wandered up to the large clock over the game table.

8:52 pm

"Go," she whispered and found that her throat hurt.

"What?" Max asked pulled her from his shirt again. She saw that her face had left stains of tears and blood on his white button up and she imagined how terrible she must look now.

"Detention, you'll be expelled if you don't go," she said.

"I'm not leaving with her now!" he shook his head angrily.

"It's okay," said Fred Weasley as he took Rose into his arms which smelled of a camp fire mixed with chemicals. "We've got her, go."

Max scowled at Danielle who blushed red. He tore through the portrait hole once again as Danielle stumbled after him.

Rose spent the next two hours being tended to by her house mates. Mary had limped to the hospital wing alone. Ortho had conjured her a wet rag which Cian Garner used to clean the cuts. Madison Nolly braided Rose's hair from her face though they had never spoken to each other formally before. Micah Merlia brought her water, blushing crimson. Fred and James were having a serious conversation in the corner as was rare between them. Hugo had many beautiful girls trying to help him though he respectably waved them off as he seemed fine. She noticed that a few of her friends had also taken hits from the fight. Isaac Fisher had a swollen eye, Micah had a busted lip, and all three of the Merik boys had bruised cheek all on the same side. Many more had bruised from flailing elbows and knees as they had all tackled the pile of people at the same time.

A few Gryffindors insisted that she go to the hospital wing but she sternly refused. She wasn't too keen on the hospital wing and didn't want to spend the night on a flat cot beside Mary though Frits offered to banish her. She also insisted on sleeping on the couch that night not wanting to be in the same room with Danielle. Rose really wanted to rip the girl's hair out. The Gryffindors brought soft pillows and blankets to make her a bed and though this was all appreciated, Rose was red with embarrassment. She was being treated as though she were uncappable, though she reckoned she really was.

The lights went out with the last student to bed, Pippin Mcsquire. Rose laid on the couch, staring at the ceiling where she just noticed had spots of slime and ink splatters. The faint blue glow from the moon through the window illuminated the room to look ghostly and deserted. The fire had gone out and the elves had already come and gone. Yoman wasn't with them so they didn't stop to talk to her. They did, however, fluff her pillow and straighten her blankets.

Cromwell came from nowhere to nestle against Rose's legs and fell asleep. She wished that she had her magic hand mirror; Rose wanted to speak to Al though he was probably asleep and her mirror was all the way upstairs, so far away. Finally, after hours, her eyes began to droop and she dozed into an uneasy sleep.

'SLAM!' The portrait hole swung forward, and footsteps fumbled inside. Rose's eyes shot open, and she listened.

"Won't you talk to me now?" Danielle wined and Rose felt anger surge through her. "I already said I was sorry and I'll apologize to Rose. Oh Please, Max!"

"I don't want to hear it!" Max barked in a whisper with the sound of something hit the ground. "You think I'll forgive you that easy? What you did was terrible! And why you did it was ludicrous!"

"Oh, Max," she cried. "I said I was sorry. It was for you. She wanted to be stay away from you! She was being completely unfair!"

"You hurt her!" Max called. Rose stayed low to the cushions and tried to muffle her breathing; it would be rather awkward if they found her there now. "You hurt her!"

"Give me a chance! I will be whatever you want!" she cried.

"Let go of me!"

"I-" she sniffed. "I love you."

Rose listened with bated breath as a silence followed. Finally, Max broke it.

"You are twelve!" he called in exasperation. "What do you know about love? You are infatuated and to be honest, I have no idea why! You know nothing about me!"

"Your name is Vladimir D'artagnan Everard!" she gasped trough sobs. "You go by Max! Your favorite color is indigo! Your birthday is December 5th! You are thirteen years old! You don't like liquorish and you hate mushrooms! You don't know your mom and you like mint leaves! You love Astronomy and you are dreadful at transfiguration!"

"Danielle, stop," Max mumbled.

"You don't enjoy playing Quidditch but you are supportive of your house! You are not house biased! You like animals!"

"Danielle,"

"You live in a small wizard village just outside Dingle Ireland! You were bit by a platypus when you were two and you were born with electric blue eyes, and-!" she caught her breath.

"Danielle, that's enough."

"And- and you're in love with Rose Weasley!"

Rose didn't move. Another long silence followed with only Danielle's sobs to break it.

"She's my best friend," Max whispered.

"She's more than that!" Danielle sobbed. "I see the way you look at her! It's a way you have never looked at me."

"Danielle, go to bed," he whispered weakly.

"I will make you love me, Max. See if I won't!" Danielle welled and ran up the stairs, covering her face.

Max lingered for a moment. He took a deep sigh, started toward the boy's staircase. Rose panicked and tucker her head under the blanket though she doubted he would have been able to see her regardless. She watched him trudge up the stairs looking exhausted.

Rose pulled her head from the blanket and sat up from the couch. She gasped as her rips ached. Cromwell crawled up her legs to settle onto her lap and stare up at her with his huge eyes. Rose stoked his feathers thoughtfully.

"She's wrong," she whispered to him. "Danielle is insane. Max doesn't look at me in any special way," she laughed weakly. Cromwell hooted. "No." She laid back down and stared at the ceiling. "That would be weird. He is my best friend after all."

It took nearly an hour before Rose finally dozed back into a difficult sleep and had a very bizarre dream that she would remember nothing of the following morning.