The Sunrise of My Heart

Draco had been right. At dinner, I received three more roses, bringing the number up to forty. No one else seemed to even notice that I'd gotten the roses. Because no one else cared. For a moment, I thought I saw someone with dark grey eyes staring at me, but when I looked again, all eyes were turned away from me.
Later that night, I was sitting up in my bed, staring at the roses and trying to figure out who had sent them and what they meant. As I began to drift off, a memory played itself in my mind. Exactly two weeks before Roxanne's wedding, a bouquet of roses had been sent to her house. There had been no card, but no one paid much attention to them. After all, Roxanne and Sirius had been receiving flowers for two weeks at that point. It didn't bother anyone that fourteen days before the wedding, fourteen white roses with yellow tips had been sent to Roxanne. And no one had made the connection that Roxanne had been killed on the fourteenth day.
"Oh, shit!" I said, jolting awake again.
"Shut up," Pansy grumbled tiredly, rolling over and going back to sleep.
I wished I could just lay down and sleep too, but I was freaking out too much to even try. That was why the roses looked familiar. I had been sent a similar bouquet as Roxanne. So then was this a warning, telling me someone wanted to kill me? My blood ran cold as my groggy brain finally started thinking clearly. Whoever had sent these roses knew about me. They must know that I was Roxanne Dove. But who knew?
Crawling quietly out of bed, I made my way to a calendar and held up my lit wand tip. It was December 8th. What was in forty days? I frowned, adding up the math in my head. January 17th. That date didn't mean anything to me, so I doubted the day was important. So why now? Actually, why at all?
"Riley, will you go to bed now? I can't sleep with you making annoying whimpering noises and whimpering!" Pansy snapped, sitting up in bed.
"Sorry Pansy, next time someone's trying to kill me, I'll plan it around your sleep schedule," I snapped back sarcastically.
"God, you're such a drama queen," she said.
"No, you're a drama queen. I'm on a hit list. Now shut the hell up so I can try and figure out who wants to kill me and why."
"Wait, you're serious? Someone's trying to kill you?" She had the decency to mostly hide her enthusiasm at the thought.
"Yes, Pansy, someone's trying to kill me. Now go back to sleep." I turned and left the room then, not really knowing where I was going. I just had to get out and walk around. Being still wasn't an option at that point.
As I quietly made my way to the common room, I could hear a voice talking. I hesitated, not wanting to walk in on something private. What I heard made my heart stop beating.
"All right, my part is done," someone was whispering. Definitely a guy. "He should be pleased with me. Yes. He'll be pleased." Judging by the tone of voice, I could clearly picture Mystery Man smiling to himself. "I gave her the roses. Now he just has to take care of the rest of his plan. He never expected me to do so well. He'll be proud." There was a low laugh, creepy and dark.
I was pressed against the wall, hardly daring to breathe. Silently, I peeked around the corner, trying to see who was talking. Whoever he was, he was hidden in shadows. There was just enough firelight left for me to tell that he was grinning, looking half mad, and that he had dark gray eyes. I pulled back behind the corner, glad he had been too distracted by his little speech to notice me. After a few more moments, I heard him retreat and go back to the boy's dorm.
Breathing deeply, I stepped out into the common room, thinking through everything. So more than one person was in on it. But who were they, and why did they hate me? I admit I'm not always a very likable person, but killing me seemed a bit extreme. Whoever the student was, he was clearly desperate for some kind of affection from the other man involved. It didn't seem to be in a homosexual way, though. It was like he looked up to the other man and wanted his approval.
I sat down on the couch, frowning at the floor. For hours, I sat there, staring intently at the ground as if it could tell me who wanted to kill me. Not until I knew dawn was only about an hour away did I finally get up. I went back to my room and put on some running pants and a light sweater before sneaking back out. I made my way out of the castle and started to jog, letting the cold winter air clear my head.
While I was running, Mystery Man's gray eyes were pulling at the strings in my mind. They were so familiar, just like the roses. And his voice... I was certain I'd heard a similar voice before. Who had I known as Roxanne that had gray eyes? The entire Dove family, Sirius and Regulus had blue/gray eyes, random kids at Hogwarts. The list was too high. I sighed and headed back into the castle, accepting that no brilliant answer would come to me. Little did I know, the answer would present itself to me at lunch.
Up until lunch, nothing very interesting happened. Classes had everyone working hard, teachers had everyone on edge, Snape had everyone on the verge of a meltdown. Same old, same old. But then I got to lunch. At first, everything was totally normal, but then I happened to overhear a bit of conversation between Blaise Zabini and one of his friends.
"Brendan was talking to me today, and he said that his dad has some plan for a girl who's family has long caused theirs lost of trouble. He's pleased because his dad's letting him get involved in their revenge. Apparently Mr. Dove doesn't involve him in many family affairs." He was smirking, looking like he thought he was so superior, but I wasn't paying attention to that part. I very nearly choked on my drink when he said "Mr. Dove."
"Wait, did you say Dove?" I asked, interrupting whatever his friend had been about to say.
He gave me a cold look. "I don't believe I was talking to you, Carson."
"Just answer, please," I said, my heart hammering. "By Mr. Dove, do you mean Adrian Dove?"
"Of course," he answered with a smirk and an eye roll. "Everyone knows the Doves. They can trace their Pure-blood lineage back to--"
"The fourteenth century, yeah I know. Adrian Dove has a son here? How did I not know that?"
"Yes. His name is Brendan Dove. He's a seventh year and doesn't waste his time with people of a lower status."
"Can you point him out to me?"
He stared at me silently for a moment before pointing boredly to a boy sitting further down the bench from him. He had sharp, high cheekbones, an aristocratic nose, full lips, and dark gray eyes. Eyes very similar to Adrian's. That was why they had been so familiar. They weren't exactly like Adrian's, which was why I hadn't recognized them at first, but I could definitely tell that he was a Dove now that I was seeing him in good lighting. There was no denying that he was the boy from last night.
"Oh, my," I said softly. The hand that was still holding my drink began to shake so violently that it spilled over onto the table. Not until someone reached over and pulled the cup from my grasp did I even notice. I looked into the unreadable eyes of Draco, silently begging him to tell me I was hallucinating.
"Calm down," he hissed. "You're making a fool of yourself."
"My brother's trying to kill me," I whispered back.
"He isn't your brother," he reminded me. "He was Roxanne's brother, but he's not yours."
"The point is that he's trying to kill me!" I whispered frantically. It's not that I'm particularly afraid of death. Not after so long. I simply couldn't fathom why Adrian wanted to have me killed.
He stared at me silently, his eyes dark with some hidden emotion. After a few moments, he turned away from me, acting like I wasn't even there. I was freaking out too much to care that he was being weird. Adrian wanted to kill me. I couldn't understand why. We had been close as kids, even after I'd gotten into Gryffindor. Not until we were fifteen did we start falling apart, but I didn't think he disliked me enough to kill me. Especially not twice! None of it made any sense to me.
"Blaise," I said, getting his attention again. He looked at me in annoyance. "Did Brendan say what the girl's family had done to scorn his?"
"Not really. Just that she would never forget their wrath. She'd remember it for the rest of her life." He smirked and turned away again. I took a deep breath, wondering how long the rest of "her" life was going to be after they exacted their revenge.