A/N: Well here you all are, the newest chapter of Rose Prince. I hope that you all enjoy after waiting so long for it. Let me know what you think.
Chapter Eight
Rose swam out of the darkness feeling no pain but feeling very groggy, her eyes felt like they weighted a tonne, her body felt stiff like she hadn't moved in hours. She faintly heard the murmur of voices and tried to focus on them.
"I finally got her fever down, her leg is back to pre portkey condition, though she will probably limp very badly for a few days…when she wakes." Poppy was telling some one sounding very worried. "I'm concerned about mental damage…Her fever was so high for so long…"
"Do you think she will wake Madame Pomfrey?" Harry's voice asked sounding frightened and upset.
"I honestly don't know, the first few days I wasn't that concerned because it mean she wasn't conscious to feel the pain she was in…but now…all we can do is hope." Poppy replied quietly.
"There is no way to tell if she took any other damage from the fever until she wakes…the rest is up to her." Her Uncle's voice was cold and empty.
"Do we know who attacked yet?" Poppy asked.
"No, we found no traces by the time we got there." Severus sounded angry. "They are supposed to be safe here, because of this they can't go out now…Rose is in a coma, Harry broke his arm and Draco dislocated his shoulder…and there is nothing I can do about any of it." He sounded suddenly very frustrated, angry, worried and very tired. "She's been unconscious for two weeks Poppy, that's even longer then when she first got the injury…school starts in a two and a half weeks, I'm not going to have the time to help her when she does wake up to get back to where she is and neither will the boys…I don't want some stranger in here either." He was nearly shouting at the end of is rant.
"Unca' Sev' dow shout…" Rose managed to mumble.
The entire room entered a shocked silence.
"Rose?" Severus's voice shook a little and a hand rested on her cheek, feeling nice and cool. She leaned in slightly to the cool touch that felt so nice.
"Hot." She mumbled, her throat was dry and raw. "Wa'er" She felt water brushed against her lips, and then spooned into her mouth. It wasn't long before she was sipping slowly at a glass of water.
"Rose can you open your eyes?" Poppy asked from near by.
"'oo heavy."
"Are you in pain?"
"No, stiff, no pain." Her voice was slowly gaining strength.
"Understandable. Can you move your right leg carefully?" Poppy requested. Rose wiggled her foot cautiously before bending the knee a little and it locked up at the usual point and she slid it back down again. "Good, no loss of movement, any pain with the movement?"
"No." Rose's eyes began flickering until she finally managed to get them open properly and keep them open and watched as Poppy's wand flicked over her.
"Good, you had us worried dear." She looked at Severus who was sitting next to Rose's head. "Full deep scan reveals no damage that wasn't already there before the portkey slammed her into ground."
"Wasn't the best idea giving her that." He sighed and stroked her hair back.
"Better then her getting injured by spell damaged or killed." Poppy chided him gently. "Severus, remember you have at least two weeks where your attention isn't needed else where to help her get back to where she was. The boys can help while you are busy else where, and in two weeks when I run the tests again and she is still having troubles then you can start worrying about having some one down here to help out."
"One steady step at a time." Rose nodded slowly in understanding.
"That's it exactly." Poppy gave a soft smile. "Now, you are chair bound for at least a few more days, I won't bother confining you to bed cause I know you'll find a way to sneak out." She pointed to a wheel chair near the bed. "The only walking you should be doing is getting in and out of bed and using the bathroom." She looked at her sternly. "That understood?"
"Yes ma'am." Rose nodded.
"Good, but you stay in bed for the rest of today at least. Eat the broth and drink plenty of fluids." She nodded. "Tomorrow you can get out of bed, I'll be back in a few days to see how you are recovering."
"Thank you Poppy." Rose smiled slowly, grateful that she wasn't going to bed bound, at least this way when she got restless she could nip over to her workroom and do something for a little while.
"Don't abuse the privilege I've given you." Poppy warned before she left.
"Harry and Draco?" Rose asked looking at Severus as he wrung out a wet cloth and laid it over her still warm forehead.
"Harry had a broken arm and Draco dislocated his shoulder. Both have been healed and have spent the rest of their time distracting each other from worrying over you." He replied quietly as he sat back in his chair.
"I won't be going outside again will I?" She asked quietly as she slowly shifted so she was sitting up slightly propped up by pillows.
"No, you won't be." He sighed. "You should have been safe on the grounds, but as we've seen that is not the case." He stared at her steadily for a moment. "There maybe another way around that but I'm still looking into it, until then you are once again confined to quarters."
"It's understandable." She nodded and let out a small sigh.
"Rose…did you see anyone?" Severus asked.
"No, I just saw movement in the trees and then a spell flying at us." She shook her head slowly. "I think I only noticed because it was in the section I was painting." She frowned a little. "Did the painting survive? I might have painted who ever was there."
"No, it was destroyed by what ever the spell was." Severus shook his head.
Binky then popped into the room with a tray with a bowl of broth and a mug of tea. "Binky is glad Mistress is awake." The little elf said as she set the tray carefully on Rose's lap.
"Thank you Binky." Rose smiled faintly and slowly began to feed her self once she was sure her hand was steady enough to hold a spoon. "I was unconscious for two weeks?" She asked eating between her words.
"We think that between the reinjury of your leg, shock and the large doses of pain potion your immune system was lowered, you caught a mild case of Wizards Flu on top of everything else." Uncle Severus sighed. "It was a high fever for nine days that didn't want to lower no matter what we did. You'll be a little shaky and weak for a few days because of it, we are just hoping that the injury to your leg won't set you back too far." He grimaced. "Classes start in a little over two weeks, and it will most likely take you that long just to get back to getting around like you were before."
"Better injured then bloody or dead." She pointed out softly. "I wonder if the Congelo Portkey would be better to use...I'm not even sure if it passed all the testing's to be made into a public spell."
"Never heard of it." Severus frowned.
"It was a new or newish spell that a spall maker was working on a few years ago for emergency portkeying for medical personal. If the person was too injured to be moved about roughly like a normal portkey would then they could use the Congelo instead. It freezes the person in place as it transports them to their destination so their injuries weren't jostled." She frowned. "Why didn't I think of that before."
"I think if it exists it might be a good thing to look into." Severus agreed. "You can't be expected to think of everything, we adults should have thought of it as well, we knew that there would be a chance of you not being able to land properly." He sighed. "We just never thought you'd have to test that theory so soon." He shook his head. "I'll look into it, for the rest of today you are on bed rest if you can manage it, tomorrow you can think about getting out of your room." He smirked as they both heard fidgeting outside her bedroom door. "I believe the boys would like to keep you company for awhile."
"Plenty of room for them to spread out." She smiled slightly. "If I am bed bound for the day then company for awhile will be good."
"I'll let them know that they can stop skulking around doorways then." He chuckled as he rose to his feet. "I'm not going to be around much, I have staff meetings and classes to prepare for...did you want a tutor to go over your courses see if you can bring your averages up on other classes?" He inquired. "You ran at your own pace that way."
"Well I do have to finish this year up." Rose nodded slowly. "It's my last year, may as well get it over with and do the best I can."
"I'll tell Albus to start asking around, see if we can get someone in a few days a week to tutor you." He nodded and headed for the door, opened it and shook his head at the two boys waiting outside. "She's agreed that you can study in there if you want to keep her company for awhile, just remember that she will drift in and out of sleep a bit today."
"Yes sir."
Rose chuckled as they hurried in with text books and settled down on her couch as she pulled her own fiction novel off her bedside table and settled down for a lazy day.
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Rose spent the next few days moving around carefully, and spending a little time working on her backlog of requested items from Gems that they were running low on. She took things slowly only spending a few hours each day in her work rooms before returning to her bedroom to work on her school work.
By the fourth day Poppy cleared her cautiously to go back to her work rooms full time if she felt up to it but to use her common sense and not to overdo things.
Rose was covered in paint within a few hours of Poppy releasing her from her room, she didn't know exactly who she was painting but as she added more details she knew that she was doing another conclave painting but she didn't recognise any of the coats of arms she was placing in the painting. It was also one of the largest paintings she had done, she had to get Blinky to go and buy it specially. It was near six feet across and four feet high.
So far it appeared to be a large common room, or meeting room. She also had four other canvas's on easels waiting nearby, all were three feet by four feet, backgrounds already painted in, just waiting for the person to be painted in.
"Rose?" She heard the faint call through her closed door as she washed out another paint brush and glanced at her pots of paint and glared at them when she realised that they were all nearly empty. A glance at her shelves also told her that she was out of paint.
She flicked her wand at the sealed door. "Enter." She called still glaring at the empty pots. How had she missed that they were so low? She sighed, she'd been distracted with other things that's how. "Blinky." She called as the door opened.
"Yes mistress?" The small elf popped in.
"I'm out of paints, all of them. Is the lab free?" She asked washing out her brushes properly, the paintings would just have to wait until she brewed up some more.
"Yes mistress, Master Draco is bored may Blinky ask if he be willing to do Mistress's paints?" Blinky's ears flopped as she nodded.
"Save me a walk so soon, see if he wants something to do, if not I'll do it myself." Rose nodded turning her attention to the Headmaster who was waiting patiently in her door way. "Headmaster, what can I do for you?" She inquired wiping her hands on a paint stained rag.
"I wanted you to meet with your tutor before you got too lost in your paintings, my dear. Severus and I discussed things over the last few days and have decided after getting a few of the professors to look over your summer work that it would be best to just prepare you for your NEWTS, you could easily pass them with everything you do every day." He gave her a smile and his eyes twinkled in delight. "So your tutor will just being going over things with you to make sure that you understand everything, I've put in a request for a private sitting of the NEWT exams and have been told there is a sitting in November."
"I have Three months to make sure I don't flunk." She nodded slowly.
"My dear girl no one here thinks that you will flunk." He chided her. "Come, he is waiting in the lounge."
"Headmaster you do realise that I have no control when these paintings hit me, I must paint them when I see them or I get grouchy." She warned him as she followed him out leaning heavily on her cane. "as the others, they tend to avoid me."
"Yes, Severus did warn me and your tutor but I don't think that it would be much of a problem, if you are in a painting daze as he calls them then you can reschedule for another day." He inclined his head in understanding. "Ah here we are, Mr Weasley I would like you to meet..."
"Rose." Bill Weasley's face brightened when he spotted her which faded a little as he spotted the cane and faint scar on her face.
"William." She inclined her head and poked her tongue at him as he grimaced.
"I hate it when you call me that." He scowled at her.
"That's why I do it, Bill." She grinned cheekily at him. "You know that."
"You two know each other?" Albus raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"For two years." Bill nodded. "She was Ginny and mine's rival at our dance competitions."
"Ah yes, the dancing." Albus chuckled. "I had forgotten. Well since you know each other when would be a good time for you William to tutor her?"
"I'm free Thursday's and Monday's, if that works for you Rose." He grimaced again but answered the question. "I'm free most weekends but I think my Fiance would like to see me some time." He grinned.
"That should work." She bit her lip. "There is something you should see to help me explain my hesitation." She gestured for him to follow her and led him to her work room and stood in the middle of the room as he gaped for a moment at all the paintings before studying them.
"These are amazing Rose," He breathed looking over them carefully. "You painted the one you sent me?"
"I did." She nodded. "I'm a Master Painter with no control when a painting calls to me to be painted, there are days when I can't leave what I am doing until they are completed." She chuckled. "Uncle Severus calls it the Painting Daze, and every one avoids me when I'm in them or I tend to get grouchy." She glanced at her paintings with a small smile. "I enjoy my work but it can take it's toll on me."
"Understandable." He nodded in understanding. "Curse breaking can be the same. There may be days where I have to cancel for that reason."
"Then everything should work out fine." She hesitated. "Please don't tell anyone that you know who Jewelled Rose is, I like the anonymity of it."
"I won't. Flur, my fiancé loves your work, the few pieces that are placed up for sale are gone before most people can even view them. The owner of Gems is ecstatic that pieces just seem to walk out the door." He grinned at her. "Why so cheap? Some of those pieces could go for thousands."
"Because I am an unknown artist, I don't really want the money for them, I do them for the joy of it, not the money. I make enough to make a small profit to replace what I use and that is enough for me." She shrugged taking a seat on her stool. "In time I will be taking commissions for portraits, once I'm settled in properly, I'll be make more then enough off those when the time comes."
"How much do these go for?" He gestured to one of the medium sized soul portraits.
"Small to medium go for 100 gallons, large ones are around 200 gallons, ones like this one." She gestured to the large conclave she was in the middle of. "Goes for 300 gallons. That is standard for a new Master painter, as they become more well known and more experienced they can charge up to a hundred more each size." She explained.
"Impressive." He gave a silent whistle. "You'll be making a lot considering that the British Wizards no longer have a Master painter, and most of the old ancient magics of creating a portrait when a Lord dies has been lost."
"I know, there are only five in America and two are still apprentices, and nowhere near my talent according to the Masters that taught me." She smiled shyly.
"Alright, well I'll be here Monday morning at eight to start your tutoring, if you go into a daze, try and find some way of warning me and I'll reschedule." He changed the subject getting back to their original topic.
"I'll send Blinky, my house elf if I enter a daze, hopefully I'll be able to finish these five over the weekend and won't have to cancel on the first day." She nodded. "I should be able to give you an hour's warning, sometimes I come out of the daze in the afternoon."
"Then if you're not too tired we can pick up from there." He nodded in agreement and then hesitated. "We missed you at the championships, Richard was there asking if we'd heard anything since you'd been released from hospital."
"I haven't had any contact with America since I left." She sighed and then smiled. "I'm glad he's alright, did he compete?"
"No, he was only watching, he didn't have time to find a new partner. He said he'd left a few moments before the explosions to get something from home, he returned to find the alley in ruins." Bill shook his head.
"I'll have to write and let him know that I'm getting better then." She sighed and stared at the dancing paintings. "I'll miss it."
"We'll miss you there, you were the only real challenge we had." He gave her a small smile. "Maybe when you are more settled you could watch me and Ginny practice for next year, if you don't think it would be too hard to see."
"We'll see how things go." Rose smiled.
"Good, then I had best get back and I'll see you Monday." He reached out and gave her a gentle hug. "I'm just glad that you are still here."
"Me too." She murmured as she watched him leave, and looked back to her empty pots.
"Rose?" She looked up to see Harry standing in her door way. "Malfoy asked me to drop these off." He gestured to the tray he was carrying. "Said it would keep you going until he finished up."
"Great, thanks." Her face lit up as he came in and placed the eight pots in the empty places as she pulled out the empty ones and put them to one side. "I hadn't realised that I was that low on paint."
"He did, he has he brewing them all morning." Harry grinned. "We've got nothing else to do today so he said he might as well do something useful to keep you from getting snappy."
"I'm sure." She chuckled. "He just doesn't want me to snap at him like I did the first few days he was here."
"Don't blame him, I've only seen it from a distance, it's only then that I can see you are related to the Professor." He shuddered. "You both know how to cut people down with words."
"It's a gift." She smirked at him. "Thanks for this, I'm going to have to get Blinky to keep track of my supplies so I know when to restock." She pulled the top off the eight pots and looked at the colours she'd been given and picked out a brush and picked up where she left off.
"I'll leave you to it." Harry chuckled leaving, closing the door behind him shaking his head in amusement.
Rose flicked her wand at the corner of the room and began humming along with one of the musical pieces she had recorded with her parents and lost herself in it and the painting.
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Rose leaned back from the painting she was leaning towards and stretched carefully wincing as her body protested as her eyes looked over the finally completed conclave.
It was a large meeting area inside a library with large comfy looking couches, desks scattered with paper work, book cases around the walls overflowing with books and a large cheery fire burning away, but no people.
Rose groaned in relief as her cramping back slowly relaxed and began casting the needing spells, while wondering who the conclave was for. Shaking her head in puzzlement she looked at the four portraits and blinked when she realised that she hadn't been working on them while taking a break from the conclave like she normal would while working on multiple portraits.
Frowning she slowly left her work room and sat down at the dining table pouring herself a cup of tea, absently listening to the other three in the room, while her wand twirled in between her fingers as she thought.
"How big is the painting?" Severus asked again sounding stunned.
"Six by four feet." Harry repeated. "Plus she has four others she's been working on."
"She was half way through when I went in to deliver more of her paint pots a few hours later." Draco added. "Looks like a conclave."
"I don't think she knows who it is for, she keeps muttering about unknown people." Harry shrugged.
"What about the four portraits?" Severus asked.
"Backgrounds are done, bodies are partly done but they have no faces." Draco shook his head and frowned. "Though I swear I could hear movement in her back room, when I checked it was just Blinky tidying up muttering about Mistress Rose's magic."
"What about her magic?" Severus frowned, his eyes locking on his niece who was staring into her mug of tea, wand still twirling around her fingers.
"Blinky wouldn't tell me, said she wasn't telling Mistress's secrets." Draco shrugged.
Rose blinked and slowly set her mug down and looked at Draco. "Blinky was tidying up the wood craft area?"
"Yes." Draco nodded.
"Blinky." Rose called and looked to her left as the elf arrived looking dusty. "Again?" She asked sounding surprised.
"Again Mistress." Blinky pouted. "Yous magic doing multiple things again."
"Jewellery?" Rose inquired sighing. "Or is it sculpting?"
"Sculpting, Blinky thinks it doing frames for new pictures."
"Rose?" Severus's eyebrow was raised.
"When I get really involved in a project that is going to be important my magic not only focuses on the painting but the frames too, I can be completely absorbed in the painting and my magic will craft the frames, I can't control it, it is all subconscious." She shook her head. "Usually happens when I am doing my best work."
"Do you know who you are painting?" Severus inquired.
"Not a clue, I don't recognise the coats of arms on any of them." She shook her head. "I don't think I am going to get anything else done until these five paintings are done."
"You've been in there all day." Severus sighed. "You missed lunch and most of dinner."
"Blinky makes sure Mistress eats and takes her potions." Blinky spoke up twisting her ear.
"Yes you do, though next time make sure it's not something sticky." Rose requested. "I got jam all over my paint brushes."
"Yes Mistress." Blinky seemed to be flushing in embarrassment.
"I think I've got to get a better chair then the stool I have." Rose sighed stretching again. "I cramped up this time."
"Can't you just transfigure a chair?" Harry asked curiously.
"Not if my magic has been working on it's own." Rose shook her head. "Not wise to have too much magical things in one room when your magic is fooling around without your knowledge."
"True. Something with a back?" Severus inquired.
"Yes, I used to have the perfect chair for doing long hours of painting in back home but Lucus's accidental magic blew it up when he got mad at me for not playing with him." Rose sighed.
"If you could give a sketch of it maybe we can find a replacement." Severus suggested.
"Sure." Rose pulled a pencil and piece of parchment out of her pocket and quickly sketched what it had looked like and slid it towards him. "Less magic in it the better."
"I'll keep that in mind." Severus nodded. "Did you get dinner?"
"Umm..." She looked at Blinky.
"I fed Mistress." Blinky nodded.
Rose nodded and gulped down the last of her tea, grasped her cane and made her way back to her work rooms, this time leaving her door open, as the closed door didn't seem to keep any one out when they needed something.
She just sat on the stool looking at the conclave wondering what she was going to do with it once she finished putting the frame on it. She had no idea who it was supposed to go it, Hogwarts wasn't being all that cooperative right now just urging her on to finish them.
She shook her head and turned her focus to the unfinished soul portraits, giving Blinky instructions to check over what her magic had done with the frame for the conclave and see if it was ready to be attached to the picture.
She was in the middle of changing brushes, nearly finished with the portraits all they needed were faces and a few refinements once they were done when she sensed some one watching her.
"You need something Draco?" She asked softly so she wouldn't startle him.
"Do you know how pure blood politics works?" He asked after a moment.
"I know that a lot of the time the public face is not the family private face." She replied diplomatically as she changed colours and began putting details on the blue lady's face. "I know that their mottos are show no weaknesses to your enimies." She glance up at him and raised an eyebrow. "What does your father wish to know?" She asked seeing the hesitation on his face.
"I'm not sure exactly, I know he is privately proud of me for standing up for my own choices but publically he is furious and disappointed. He's heard rumors that there is a soul painter here in England, probably because of your paintings at Gems. I think he wants to commission a piece, though I'm not sure I am getting his questions right." He sighed. "some times with father it is hard to read between the lines."
"Can you ask Severus to double check for you?" She inquired. "Or don't you want him to know that you are communicating with your father?"
"I should probably ask him as it deals with you, I just don't know if he's inquiring for himself or some one else." He looked lost.
"Talk to Severus, Draco, he'll help either way." She told him with an understanding smile. "It's not easy balancing private and public not for anyone, probably more difficult for your father because of the situation he is in." As she finished speaking she stared at the unfinished portrait and scowled before glaring up at the castle. "That was not nice to keep that a secret for so long." She growled. "Some warning would be nice, are you trying to give people heart attacks?" Her eyes narrowed. "And how exactly am I supposed to get them to where you want them missy huh?" She asked sarcastically. "Just stroll down the hall?" She snorted. "There are people here who do know what I do, you know. They will come straight to me and no doubt grill me as to who, why and how!" Her eyes narrowed. "That is not funny." She grumbled.
"What did Hogwarts do?" Draco asked looking curious.
"She going to get me into trouble that's what she's doing." Rose grumbled as she continued painting. "This is going to send ripples through the wizarding world it is." She muttered shaking her head. "You should go to bed, I know it's late, warn Uncle that my door will be locked until these are finished please."
"Of course." Draco nodded and left closing the door behind him.
Rose flicked her wand at the door sealing it and continued muttering to herself as she put more details on the face.
"No wonder Blinky said that the frame was too big for the conclave I gotta expand the painting first." She grimaced. "Hardest part is to do it with out destroying the painting." She shook her head and immersed herself into the music once more.
