A/N: It's been months! Very sorry :[ College has been a real pain in the arse as of lately. But, the semester is nearly finished and then I won't have to slave away over Calculus anymore! And, my apologies if this seems a little choppy. I felt like my brain was all over the place!

Chapter 11: First Thing's First!

Rosette turned over in her bed and looked at her clock. Her first class didn't start for another few hours. It was still dark outside, but she couldn't sleep. I can't believe that I'm finally here! She sat up and looked around the room. Her two roommates, Sylvia and Pricilla were still asleep. She hadn't know them for long, but she knew that she didn't want to spend more time than she needed to with these two. They were nice girls, but they were also unbelievably full of themselves. They reminded her of the creepy dolls that her parents bought her when they were still alive. Both girls had very fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Pricilla spent most of the night brushing her long hair a hundred times on each side. And Sylvia rearranged her makeup collection for three hours until she got it the exact way she wanted it. Rosette's hair was always a mess, and she was only eleven. The idea of makeup was foreign to her and not something she wanted to try anytime soon. Maybe it's a pureblood 101 thing that I didn't know about…

She quietly got ready for the day and went to the common room. For a dungeon, it was very cosy and well decorated. The emerald green colours throughout the room made her feel calm. She sat down on one of the couches by the fireplace, opened up her bag, and moved the sleeping Apep out of the way to get to the Charms book she was looking for. She had already mastered most charms up to book five, but still found the first year book to be interesting. She sat there and read for an hour, until she hear a door open. Out of the boy's dormitory walked her new friend. He spotted her by the fire instantly and waved before making a beeline to the exit.

"Good luck on your first day," he said quickly.

Rosette could barely get a thank you out before he bolted out of the room. She shrugged her shoulders and continued to read until her stomach made a loud gurgling noise.

"I know that sound," came a drowsy voice, "Someone is hungry. So am I."

Apep poked his head out of her bag.

"When are you NOT hungry," she laughed. She gently placed her book next to him and stood up.

"When I am sleeping, obviously. Are we going to breakfast?"

"Of course! You have to stay in my bag, though. I hope Siobhan will be down there!"

"You plan on sitting with her? I heard that Slytherin and Gryffindor are rival houses," he yawned.

"It's not like I went to bed and woke up hating her. I don't see what the big fuss over the houses."

Rosette walked out of the common room and towards the Great Hall. Inside, a handful of students were already in the middle of eating. Everyone else was still asleep, including Siobhan apparently. Oddly enough, she didn't see Severus among those at the Slytherin table. I thought he left before me. She picked a spot at her house table and started to fill her plate.

"Ooh I want ham, bread and jam, maybe an egg, and-"

"I would like a banana and ham, please."

Rosette rolled her eyes and stuffed a banana and a slice of ham in her bag.

"Needing a snack in between classes?" came a voice. Rosette turned around and saw a drowsy but smiley Siobhan clad in Gryffindor robes.

"Good morning!" Rosette greeted, giving Siobhan a hug. "You look...tired. No sleep last night?"

Siobhan frowned a little. "No. I was so anxious about class and my roommates and I stayed up and talked all night. It's like I forgot how to sleep. Maybe I'll get a nap in at lunch or something. How did you sleep? Roommates ok?"

Rosette thought for a moment, "Yeah…They're alright. They're really into themselves, though. Kind of boring. Why don't you sit down with me?"

Siobhan looked around, "Weeeell I would, but your seniors are giving me dirty looks right now."

Sure enough, at the far end of the table were a cluster of what Rosette guessed were fourth or fifth years giving Siobhan disapproving looks.

"I'm not very hungry right now anyway, and OH LOOK! There's the guy I was talking about! The cute one!" Siobhan pointed in the direction of the "Oh so dashing Gryffindor" she told her about the day before. Rosette's eyes followed where she was pointing and filled with loathing when she figured out who Siobhan was pointing to.

"Merlin, you've got to be kidding me," she sighed.

Siobhan raised an eyebrow. "What? You see him?"

"Yes, I see him. I also remember him pointing his wand at me yesterday, too."

Siobhan's face flashed from confusion to anger. Rosette had no time to react before her friend stomped over to the Gryffindor table and grabbed the boy by the front of his shirt. She quickly grabbed her bag and followed.

"You threatened my friend?" she seethed.

The boy's eyes widened at the sudden assault. "What? What are you talking about?! I haven't…" He saw stunned Rosette coming up behind Siobhan. "Oh, it's you ag-ACK!"

Siobhan yanked on his shirt again, "Did you, or did you not point your wand at my friend?" she yelled.

Rosette looked around and was surprised at the lack of professors in the room. Here Siobhan was, about to bloody up this boy, and no one was around to stop her.

"Ok ok! Yes! I did! But, what does it matter to you? She's a Slytherin! She's just going to stab you in the back later on. That's what they all do. If I were you, I'd pick some better fri-"

That was all he could get out before the forceful union between the side of his face and Siobhan's fist.

"Don't touch my best friend. Come on, Rosey. Let's go find our classes," she muttered darkly before making her way out of the Great Hall. Rosette followed closely behind her. The boy's friends were absolutely dumbfounded. After staring at him long enough with their mouths gaped open, the one with the glasses spoke up.

"Wow, Sirius. First day back and you've already made a girl mad at you. A new record!"

"Shut up, James," he mumbled, rubbing his face.

Siobhan and Rosette were excited to find that their first class would be in the same room.

"Transfiguration… Oh! Like how you use to turn our green beans into butterflies at the orphanage! That was awesome."

Unfortunately, the entire class period consisted of nothing but lecture and textbook reading. Charms, however, was full of excitement. Three Hufflepuffs managed to make their feathers explode during the levitation lesson. A Slytherin boy was "accidently" tossed up into the air by his peers. Someone made bubbles seep from the walls. By the end of the period, the entire classroom was in complete chaos, and the professor was more than eager to shoo all of the first years out of the classroom.

Rosette sighed with relief as she and Siobhan entered the Great Hall. Finally, time for lunch. She parted with her friend after spotting a familiar mop of black hair and headed towards it.

"Hi, Severus!"

He looked up and scooted over. "Hey there. How are you?"

"Great! And you?"

He stifled a yawn. "I'm fine."

She looked at his face and frowned. His eyelids were heavy and practically screamed sleep deprivation. Upon further inspection, she saw that his robes were wrinkled and his hair was slightly tousled. Did he look like that this morning?

"No offense, but you look far from fine," she said bluntly as she absentmindedly tried to fix his hair a bit.

The second her hand touched his hair, he froze. He was waiting for her to shriek and shout, to complain how greasy his hair was. But, that moment never came. She finished doing what she could from where she was sitting, then surveyed her work.

"All better!" she smiled. She taped her finger on his shoulder and most of the larger wrinkles disappeared.

"Thanks," he said quietly. She didn't say anything.

They continued to talk about their classes over lunch. Rosette listened intently to Severus' advice regarding a few of the professors.

"And Slughorn will probably ask you to join his cl-" He stopped and turned his head towards a familiar voice. Rosette furrowed her brow and turned, too. All she saw was a couple of Gryffindor girls walk in, but something about the must have been important enough to get Severus' attention.

"Lily!" He shouted and waved.

One of the girls, a red headed one with green eyes, gave him a small smile, while the other girls turned their noses up at him. Rosette was confused. She watched the girls walk down to the end of the Gryffindor table and sit next to the boys from this morning. The boy with the glasses looked at Severus with a haughty smirk. Then he saw Rosette and gave her the finger. Rosette looked to see that Siobhan, whom the boys must not have noticed was siting so close, was looking between her and the boy. She then stood up, walked over to the boy, grabbed and bent his finger back, and calmly walked back to her seat. Professor McGonagall saw the entire spectacle, but looked away from the now-howling boy as if nothing had happened.

Rosette grinned and turned around. Severus was finishing his lunch with a bit of irritation. He stabbed at pasta.

"You twirl the pasta, not gore it. Are you alright?"

He put the fork down and grabbed his bag. "Yeah, I'm fine. I need to go study. See you later," he mumbled. She didn't get a chance to say "bye".

Rosette's first year went by like blur. She had managed to do well in her classes, and was even invited to join the "Slug Club". Why? She didn't know, but she enjoyed the meetings (mainly the food), and that was a good enough reason to stay. She made a few friends from different houses there. She was surprised to see two Hufflepuffs there that weren't complete bampots, only a little.

She had grown, too! She was now 152 centimetres. Many items on the top shelves in the library were still inaccessible, to her dismay. She blamed her hair for the lack of growth in her bones, as it had grown fifteen centimetres. It was a battle to keep it down each morning. One day, she had gotten up late and hadn't had time to do anything but put a charm on it and pray that the charm held. It didn't. Professor McGonagall could only unsuccessfully stifle her amusement as she pretended to not notice that Rosette looked silver sheep. Siobhan experienced the exact opposite, for she had grown like a weed over the year, standing at a whopping 177 centimetres. But, her flaming red hair had hardly grown at all.

Rosette had also grown a bit closer to her friend, Severus, as well. She didn't think he would ever be one for conversation. She was dreadfully wrong. They had once stumbled on the topic of whether a pirate or a ninja would win in a fight against each other. The two of them debated for hours, almost to the point of an argument before they stopped, realised how silly they both sounded, and laughed away.

Rosette also made it her mission to learn about this "Lily" girl. She found out from Siobhan that Lily and Severus had met before coming to Hogwarts and were friends. But, Rosette scoffed at the "friends" part. Severus was obviously disgustingly in love with the girl, and she hardly ever gave him the time of day. It made Rosette sad to see her friend trailing behind someone who didn't like him the way he liked her. To make matters worse, the boy with the glasses, whom she learned was named James, did everything but shag Lily in front of Severus. On many occasions, Severus came storming into the common room, searching for Rosette so he could vent.

Almost the same thing each time. "He's such a prick! Why does she insist on being around him?! And he purposely does things! In front of her! In front of me! Snogging her, clobbering me! But, she does nothing…"

Rosette would sigh and put down her book, "Severus, I keep telling you. She doesn't want you. And, I don't think she's your type anyway."

He would throw his hands up in the air and groan, "I don't understand. We were friends before Potter," the name tasted like bile as it passed his lips, "showed up."

She would listen and nod until he calmed down. Then they would switch roles and she would complain about how Sylvia and Pricilla did this or that. They were each other's therapist.

"And they keep spraying their rancid perfumes! It smells TERRIBLE Severus! And they talk and talk and talk and talk! About nothing!"

Before she knew it, it was the end of the school year and time to go home. On the train ride home, she could barely contain her excitement. In a few hours, she would be home with her brother and be able to talk his ear off, like usual, with recaps of the entire year. She would also be able to chew him out in person, as he was not available during the Christmas holiday, and she was forced to stay at Hogwarts.

Finally, the train came to a stop. She eagerly looked out the window, searching for Tom. Her eyes widened with glee as she spotted her Polyjuiced brother standing towards the back of the crowd. She pushed her way into his mind.

Tom watched as the train came to a screeching halt. He would finally be reunited with his dear sister. Their time apart had been a long one, thanks to his lack of preplanning. He knew before he sent her the apology owl, and after her howler reply, that she would surely give him a piece of her mind when she returned. No matter. Tom looked around for any sign of his sister, but could not find her. Maybe she's still gathering her items. And that's when it hit him. Something…no, someone was forcefully entering his mind. Whoever it was, this person was frighteningly experienced in Legilimency.

"Tom!" a voice said inside of his head.

He paused for a moment before a slow smile formed.