Rose spent much of the Hogsmeade trip catching up on how everyone else's proper Valentine's Days had gone. Lily had gotten Scorpius a box of chocolates, which he was slowly working his way through.

"You accepted them?" asked Rose, frowning. "I don't think that's going to help things with her."

"What was I supposed to do, tell her I wouldn't take the candy?" asked Scorpius incredulously. "It's not like she asked me on a date, Rose. Lighten up."

Things with Lysander had returned to normal following the book exchange, which Rose had decided not to tell any of her other friends about. It wasn't like it was a big deal, after all. People gave her books all the time. It was kind of her thing.

When she thanked Lorcan for the Valentine's Day card, however, he was clearly confused. Lysander groaned and smacked the table of the Three Broomsticks where they were sitting, waiting for lunch.

"That's what I meant to ask," he said. "Rose, what card were you talking about?"

"The one with the lion on it," she said slowly. "I got it with the others Thursday morning."

"I thought Mum had sent you something about the book," said Lysander, earning a confused look from both Scorpius and his twin. "We didn't send you a card."

"Is that something we're supposed to be doing?" asked Lorcan earnestly.

"No," said Rose immediately, feeling her cheeks flush, "it was just- it had a sketch, and it said it was from- oh!"

She realized her mistake as soon as she was about to say it aloud. For the card hadn't said it was from Lorcan and Lysander. She had merely assumed that it was the Scamanders since it mentioned twins.

"I think it was from Gemma and Genna," said Rose as the others looked at her in confusion. "They think they're my favorite twins."

"Well they're not," said Lorcan simply. "Anyway, what's going on with Professor Evariste and Clare?"

Rose nearly choked on her Butterbeer. "What?"

"The woman who works in the library?" said Lysander.

"Yes, I- never mind," said Lorcan, his eyebrows pinched together. "Probably nothing."

But as the conversation continued, Rose continued to watch Lorcan and realized what he was doing. She nudged Lysander with her leg, who jumped in alarm, then followed her gaze to his twin.

"Lorcan," he snapped, "what are you doing?"

"Nothing," said Lorcan quickly.

"You're not supposed to be trying to See anything," said Lysander angrily, "I thought we all agreed it was-"

"But it's not!" said Lorcan. "My head feels so much better right now. I felt it the whole walk down from the castle. It just kept feeling better and better. It's like there's no pressure at all right now."

"That doesn't make it safe," says Rose gently.

The argument continued until the food arrived, at which point everyone was too busy eating to bicker. After the meal Rose was tempted to break away from the others and find some peace and quiet in one of the bookshops, but Scorpius steered the conversation back into safe waters. The rest of the afternoon was tense but not unbearable. As they walked back to the castle, however, the strain began to reappear on Lorcan's face.

"Are you alright?" asked Rose quietly.

"Fine," said Lorcan shortly, "my head just hurts. It'll be fine."

She fought the urge to walk him back to Ravenclaw Tower. She knew that if she returned to hovering around him, it would drive him mad. Lorcan needed his independence. She had to trust that he would be alright.

Instead, she and Lysander began climbing the stairs that would take them back to the Gryffindor common room. She was relieved that amidst all of the Valentine's Day glitter and confetti, nothing had changed in their interactions. She dismissed the way her stomach had turned when he gave her the book as reader's excitement- she finally got to find out what happened next!

"Pendulum," said Rose when they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

The large woman looked down at the two students and let out an enormous sneeze.

"So sorry dears," she said, sniffling daintily. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"The rest should be back by now," said Rose as they climbed through the portrait hole, "and then we can-"

Rose let out a short shriek of surprise. This was not the Gryffindor common room. It had been the common room from the outside. She had seen the fireplace through the portrait hole, and two of her housemates chatting by the window as she passed through. But as soon as both of her feet were on the other side, the room had changed.

They were in a bedroom. It was simply furnished, with a leaning stack of books next to the neatly-made bed. A few copies of the Daily Prophet sat on top of the writing desk, partially covered by parchment and a broken quill.

"Rose," said Lysander slowly, then stopped, clearly unsure of what to say next.

A door to their left opened, and Professor Evariste flew into the room, looking startled. He stumbled to a halt and looked at his students, mouth hanging open in comical confusion.

"Professor," squeaked Rose.

"How did- why- Rose," said Professor Evariste, "Lysander, might I ask why- no, let's start with how you got into my chambers?"

"The Fat Lady let us in," said Lysander evenly. "We gave her the password, and she opened the common room. And we went through the portrait hole. And here we are."

Professor Evariste looked between the two of them, back to a state of mute shock.

"Hazen?" called a voice from beyond the open door. "If you're hiding another woman in there, now's a good time to bring her out."

Professor Evariste's cheeks turned red. He gestured mutely to Rose and Lysander, who followed him into the adjacent room. It seemed to be a small sitting room where a romantic dinner had been set out. There were bottles of elf wine, candles, music floating through the air, and Clare the librarian sitting on the couch, holding a thin-stemmed glass in one hand. Upon seeing the students following Professor Evariste from his chambers, she nearly dropped the glass but caught it between her fumbling hands.

"Rose Weasley, Lysander Scamander, you remember Clare Deveraux," said Professor Evariste, running a hand through his tousled hair. "Clare, it seems that the Fat Lady has begun to let students into my chambers instead of their own."

"The Fat Lady- she's the one for the Gryffindor common room, right?" said Clare.

Professor Evariste nodded.

"So are all the other house heads getting visitors as well?" she continued. "Are the Ravenclaws walking into Randor's chambers?"

"I hadn't even thought of that," said Professor Evariste with a groan. "I'm sorry, I need to try and bring them back to their rooms."

"Don't apologize," said Clare with a soft smile.

Professor Evariste seemed locked in that smile for a minute before remembering that Rose and Lysander were still standing next to him.

"Right," he said, "let's— let's try to get you two back."

They followed him from his chambers silently, emerging down a side corridor on the seventh floor. It made sense for him to be close to the Gryffindor common room, Rose realized. She had always assumed his room was closer to his classroom.

"So," said Professor Evariste awkwardly, "I'd like to apologize for- about all that. Meant to be private, you see."

"We won't tell anyone," Rose reassured him. "Don't worry."

"Sorry for just barging in like that," said Lysander.

"Yes, well- this whole deal is a nightmare," said Professor Evariste, yanking at his hair again. "We're taking steps to secure the castle but it doesn't appear to be working. Clare thinks we're looking at the wrong problem, but no one will listen to her."

"Because she's not a professor?" asked Rose.

"Because- well, she didn't go to school here," said Professor Evariste slowly.

Rose suddenly remembered when Clare had first started working at Hogwarts and some of the students mocked her for being a Squib.

"They don't believe her because she can't do magic," supplied Rose.

Professor Evariste's mouth tightened and he said nothing until they rounded two more turns.

"She's a brilliant woman," he said suddenly. "She reads more than anyone I know. And if Clare thinks we're going at this the wrong way, then I believe her. But no one else will."

They had arrived at the Fat Lady. She was now seated behind her oversized writing desk, gnawing on the tip of a large peacock feather quill. She didn't notice the three standing before her until Professor Evariste cleared his throat.

"Oh goodness!" she cried. "Hello there. Oh, you two again. Didn't we just...?"

"About that," said Professor Evariste. "The situation the Headmistress informed you of has gotten... a bit more complicated, I'm afraid. Are you able to access the connection to the Gryffindor common room?"

The Fat Lady leveled a steely glare at him.

"My dear boy," she said, chuckling, "I am the connection."

"But can you- oh never mind," sighed Professor Evariste. He drew his wand and snapped it sharply at the portrait. A scarlet rope whipped out of the tip, barely missing The Fat Lady, who let out a shrill shriek.

"Now really!" she cried.

"Sorry about that," said Professor Evariste insincerely. "Now, this should work. Rose, Lysander, you hold on to this end," he continued, handing Rose the loose end of the rope. "I'm going to go through the portrait hole first. The connection should be enough to keep me from going astray. When I tug on my end, that means it's safe to come through. You follow?"

Rose nodded mutely.

"Excellent. Now- pendulum, if you please."

The Fat Lady gave him a disapproving look, but swung aside without further comment or complaint. Again, Rose could just see the light of the fire through the hole, but she knew better than to trust what she was seeing at this point. Professor Evariste ducked through first, a firm grip on the rope that had sprung from his wand. Rose and Lysander edged closer to the passage as he passed through, peering into the darker room. After a moment, there was a tug on the rope.

"Ladies first," offered Lysander, holding onto the rope behind Rose. Neither released their holds as they entered the passageway. Two steps later, they were beside Professor Evariste again, on display in front of a room full of confused Gryffindors.

"Good work everyone," said Professor Evariste with a grin. Rose thought his praise was unnecessary since all she and Lysander had managed to do was follow his simple instructions, but she still found herself speechless at the absurdity of the whole situation. "I need to report back to Professor McGonagall, but I'll be back in the morning to discuss any, ah, procedural changes that may need to occur. Have a good night, now."

And without further explanation to any of the gaping students, Professor Evariste ducked back out of the common room.

Lysander coiled the rope, which Professor Evariste had left behind, and weighed it in his hand.

"Well," he said, "that was... interesting."

Before Rose could think of anything remotely appropriate to say, they were swarmed by other students wanting to know why they had arrived in the common room led on a rope by Professor Evariste. Lysander began to explain, giving Rose the chance to duck out of the crowd and head upstairs to her dormitory. She had had enough excitement for one day.

Thankfully the procedural changes Professor Evariste had though possible were not deemed necessary by Professor McGonagall. The other students, including the Gryffindor Quidditch team out past dark for practice, made it back to their common rooms without incident. Professor McGonagall announced over breakfast that while she was aware of some anomalous events occurring within the castle, she wanted the students to know that it was being handled by the staff and there was nothing to be concerned about.

"It is natural to have some fluctuations with magic," she concluded, "especially magic as old as what built this school. Any further anomalies, please report to your house prefects so they can be properly documented and addressed."

"I don't know what everyone's so worried about," said James. "I haven't noticed anything weird going on here. Weirder than normal, I mean. It's Hogwarts.

—

Thankfully in the days leading up to the next Quidditch match, Cameron decided to let his teammates rest instead of running them ragged. Rose joined Albus in a few homework-cramming and essay-writing sessions in the library where he tried to catch up on everything he had been neglecting to prepare for the game.

True to her word to Lysander, Rose had been keeping up with her schoolwork. She hadn't been doing all kinds of extra assignments, or reading ahead, but she was absolutely keeping pace with her peers. She hated the fact that this was making people uncomfortable. Even Albus acknowledged it during one of their essay writing sessions.

"Does this have anything to do with what we're doing next?" he asked, setting his quill down in a clearly angry yet gentle move beside his parchment. (Rose had already scolded him for breaking two quills the day before, and he was doing his best to show that he wasn't going to ruin his entire set before Easter.) "I don't see why I would need to know about the effects of Wormwood coupled with Fairy Moss. And this is starting to read like a History of Magic essay anyway. Where's all the practical bits?"

"I'm sure we'll get to it," said Rose blandly, flipping through her Potions textbook.

"Have you not read the next chapter?" asked Albus. He didn't sound judgmental, merely curious.

Rose shrugged, not looking up from her work.

"It's just not like you," said Albus gently. "Is everything alright?"

Rose sighed, finally setting her quill down and rubbing her forehead.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I would be wonderful if everyone stopped asking why I wasn't farther ahead in my schoolwork."

"Sorry," mumbled Albus.

"I'm getting perfectly wonderful marks," said Rose, ignoring the fact that some of them had slipped below her previous standard of perfection. They were still high, she reasoned. "I just have better things to do than get weeks ahead of where we are in class. What does it matter to everyone?"

"We're just-"

"I don't need to be the brightest witch of my age!" snapped Rose, slamming her hand onto the table.

An awkward silence followed her words. Albus seemed intent on looking anywhere but her face. Rose felt her cheeks reddening with embarrassment.

"We do that a lot, don't we?" asked Albus softly.

"Everyone does," said Rose, her voice just as quiet. "It's like they're expecting me to be some sort of genius just because Mum was the best at everything when she was here. And that's all well and good, but- but there's so much more to do, you know? I'm tired of trying to be the best. It doesn't matter."

Albus nodded, and the two of them sat in uncomfortable silence. Finally Rose picked up her quill, dipped it in her ink well, and returned to her essay. Twelve inches on the discovery of Wormwood wasn't going to write itself.

They didn't discuss what she had said again, but Albus stopped using her as a reference point for his schoolwork. He stopped looking to her when there was a silent moment in class and no hands went up, nudging her to provide the answer. He no longer asked her what they'd be covering the next week in class so he could decide if he could chance skiving off. And like that, one less person stopped expecting Rose Weasley to be Hermione Granger.