The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

As the next several weeks passed, excitement mounted among most of the female population of Hogwarts. Passing by a group of fifth year girls, I distinctly heard them, through their giggles, contemplate on who would ask them to the Yule Ball. I nearly gagged when I heard one say, “Oooh, I hope Hugo Weasley asks me. Isn’t he so cute?”

The gaggle of girls started giggling and talking about my younger brother, and I swept on by, noticing Lily detaching herself from the group with a grimace. I waved when she looked up, and she came over to me.

“I would’ve walked away if I were you, too.” I told her.

“I would hope so,” Lily said, shuddering. “If you were my age he’d be your twin.”

It was my turn to shudder, but then we both laughed. “So…who’re you hoping to be asked by?” I said teasingly.

“No one in particular,” Lily shrugged, “I’ve already turned down a Hufflepuff sixth year, though.”

I looked at her curiously. A smirk found its way across my features, and I scanned the prefect table as I made to sit down by Scorpius and Lily sat across from him. “You know what,” I said, standing back up, “I’ll be right back. I had something I wanted to ask Zack.”

I made my way down the table, glancing back once to see Lily watching me with curiosity and a bit of confusion.

“Hey, Zack,” I slid in beside him - luckily he wasn’t by Boyd this time around.

“Hi, Rose,” he said, and if he was shocked at my sudden appearance he didn’t show it. “What’s up?”

I leaned over and teasingly whispered, “I think I know who you fancy.”

Just as I suspected, his face turned a barely noticeable red. “O-oh?” he asked, trying to be nonchalant.

“Yeah. And I think she kind of wants you to be the one to ask her to the Yule Ball. But you’ll have to do it quick, because she’s already been asked by a Hufflepuff sixth year - she turned him down, don’t worry.” I flashed him a grin, stood, and walked back down to Scorpius and Lily.

“What was that about?” Scorpius asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, nothing much.” I just grinned, ignoring the looks that he and Lily were throwing me, as I dug in to my lunch.

A few weeks even farther on, I realized that I needed a date. Not just as in, it’s a ball and I want to go - no, as in, I’m a champion and therefore I help open the ball. It had occurred to me that perhaps the champions open with their actual tournament partners, so I had asked Uncle Percy, and his reply was only if the champions had come to the ball with their partners - which they could do if they pleased, but didn’t have to.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t been asked - I’d been asked by six people. I just turned them all down. I mean, seriously - was I supposed to take the third year that asked me? No. He’s way to young, therefore I am way too old for him and it’s weird that he even asked! Unless he just wanted to go to the ball, in which case he could just go with a fourth year. And the others weren’t my type at all.

I groaned, unable to concentrate on my potions essay.

It took just a few more weeks before I felt really out of it. The Yule Ball was in three days, and I still didn’t have a date. I was starting to get anxious - I would look so stupid if I was the only champion who didn’t have a dance partner! Not that I really cared much about looking stupid at Hogwarts, because I had Potters and Weasleys for cousins, but I didn’t want to be the only person there who was stag. And I’m sure Professor McGonagall (who had come to watch and talk to the Gryffindors when we were learning the waltzes and such) would be very disappointed in me if I had no partner. I didn’t want to find out how thin her lips would go when she was angry.

My dilemma only got worse. I hadn’t thought to pick out a dress, so now I was down a date and a dress. The date could wait a day or two longer, but the dress I needed now. And there was only one way to get it.

“Bombardo,” I said to the Fat Lady, who swung open to admit me. The common room was much fuller than ever over the winter holidays, I couldn’t fail to notice. I pulled in a lungful of air to shout, “Hey!” over the talking. It got silent enough for me to then ask, in a more normal tone, “Is Lily in here?”

“I think she’s up in the dorms.” Hugo gestured up the girls’ staircase.

“Thanks, bro,” I said, ruffling his hair as I walked past. He brushed it down, glaring at me and sticking his tongue out.

I bounded up the steps to the top, where the fifth years have been situated since their first year, and pounded on the door for about three seconds.

“What?!” Lily asked, her head appearing in the gap between door and frame. “Oh, Rose. Come on in.” She opened the door a bit wider, letting me into the room where she and her closest friend, Bethany Howard, had dresses and shoes and makeup scattered everywhere.

“What’d you do, scare off your other roommates?” I asked, looking around at the organized chaos warily.

“No, I asked them if we could use their beds for more room,” Beth said quickly, “and they said it was okay, but they’d be doing the same tomorrow.”

I laughed.

“So what is it we can help you with?” Lily asked me, hands on her hips and a businesslike look in her eyes.

“Um…something like this…?” I said tentatively.

“Well, let’s go to your room --” Lily began.

“Lily,” I interrupted, “I still need a dress. And a date, but I’m not worrying about that right at this moment. So I say we head up, borrow Al’s cloak, and go through the humpback witch.”

Beth looked confused. “Huh?”

“Just a minute, Beth,” Lily waved her off for a moment, turning to me, “Rose. You don’t have a dress?! The ball is in three days.”

“You don’t think I know that?” I retorted, sighing. “That’s why I came to ask you for help. And Beth, if she wants to know a well-kept Potter/Weasley secret and see the head dorms.”

“Well?” Lily sighed, turning to Beth. “D’you wanna come to Hogsmeade with us, to that fairly new dress shop?”

“Won’t we be in trouble…?” Beth asked slowly.

“You’re a Gryffindor,” I told her, “be brave! And we shouldn’t, because one of our aunts owns it.”

Aunt Penelope, Uncle Percy’s wife, owned the new dress shop in Hogsmeade. I say ‘new’ but it was really about four years old. Professor Collins had started up a tradition when I was a second year that we had a Christmas Ball on the last day before the holidays (so people didn’t have to stay at school rather than with family). Aunt Penny had decided to build a store there (borrowing a bit of money from Uncle George, but she’s paid him back - her store does rather well), because she knew that some people, like me, wouldn’t want to carry an extra dress in their trunks, or be sent one in the Great Hall, where food or pumpkin juice could be spilled all over it.

“Oh, that’s right!” Beth said, smiling. “Then I’m in.”

“Well, first…Lily, where’s Al, d’you know?”

“He said he was going to study with Scorpius, since you told them you had something else to do.”

“Good. Let’s hope they’re not studying in his room, then. Just in case, though…which one of us should go get the cloak? Who d’you think he’d believe more if they said they just wanted to borrow it?”

“You can come up with excuses quicker,” Lily told me. “You go. We’ll be waiting in the empty classroom by the passage.”

“All right. See you in a few.”

Lily and Beth started cleaning up a bit, piling possible dress choices for Beth on Lily’s bed, and vice versa, before throwing all the others in their trunks haphazardly. I let myself wonder briefly as I left the room, how they got so many dresses to fit, but I shook my head and continued down the steps. When I reached the bottom, I casually turned and walked up the boys’ stairs to the second room - the seventh year dorm. I knocked gently, got no answer, looked to make sure no one was watching, and slipped in the room.

I rolled my eyes at the mess in here. Dirty socks littered the floor, a clean shirt hung from a lampshade, three of the trunks were left wide open (not including Al’s, thank goodness), and there were jeans - most likely dirty - by a few beds.

Striding straight across from the door, I kicked Al’s trunk open, rummaged for a second, pulled out the folded up Invisibility Cloak, glanced around again, and stuffed it in my bag (which I’d brought mostly as a precaution, and found that it was the perfect place for the cloak, rather than stuffed up my robes). I closed Al’s trunk, then left the room casually. As I closed the door, a voice behind me said, “What’re you doing up here?”

Nearly jumping out of my skin, I turned to the fourth year with a grin, “Oh, I was looking for Al, but he’s not here.”

“I thought you were looking for Lily?” he asked confusedly.

“I went up and talked to her already,” I replied. “Sorry, I really need to go now. Nice talking to you, Sam!”

I hopped down the steps as calmly as I could, smiling at the few people who looked my way as I pushed out of the portrait and headed to where Lily and Beth would be waiting.

“You all in there?” I called, and Lily peeked out of the room.

“C’mon, Beth. You’re about to see something we haven’t shown anyone else.”

“Cool,” Beth said, grinning as she edged out to watch.

“Would you like to do the honors?” I asked Lily.

“Dissendium,” Lily muttered, tapping the hump of the statue as I kept glancing around.

“Whoa!” Beth said, looking down into the hole. “Where --?”

“Hogsmeade,” I said, “Lily, go down first, and follow her, Beth. I’ll come right after.”

I leaned back against the statue casually, just in case, and after both had gone, I slipped into the passage and found Lily already leading the way. I caught up quickly, and Lily and Beth now started shooting questions at me - like what kind of dress did I want, or how do you want your hair done (because they’d taken it upon themselves to show up the day of the ball and help me), what color d’you think you should wear, and others.

When we got to the trapdoor, I went up front to listen, motioning the others up after me. I pushed gently on the door, scanning the room beyond before pushing it up completely and ushering the others out. When we were all in the cellar, I pulled the cloak from my back, dropped my bag into the tunnel, closed the trapdoor a little louder than I should have, and threw the cloak over the three of us.

“A cloak…?”

“Invisibility Cloak,” Lily and I whispered to Beth simultaneously, and we worked our way up the stairs. We froze when a balding man stuck his head into the cellar, looking down the stairs, but he shrugged and seemed to think nothing was wrong, returning to the counter where a young girl was buying some pepper imps and sugar quills with her mother standing beside her.

We rushed out of Honeyduke’s after the girl and her mother, so we didn’t have to open the jingling door ourselves, and went three doors down to Aunt Penny’s shop, Penelope’s Women’s Wear for All Occasions. I looked up and down the street when we got there, seeing no one looking and no one inside, and I opened the door. We took off the cloak when we stepped in, and Lily stuffed it in her robes.

Quick footsteps announced the arrival of a stern looking witch, but her eyes lit up and she smiled when she saw us.

“I should have known,” Aunt Penny said, “always forgetting something, aren’t we? And you’ve brought a friend. I’m Penelope Weasley, but you can call me Penny.” She held out her hand to Beth.

“I’m Bethany Howard,” she said, smiling and shaking Aunt Penny’s hand. “But everyone calls me Beth.”

“Good, good. Now, what are you three here for today? Surely not a visit, as you look a bit rushed and the Yule Ball is in three days. Which one forgot to get a dress?”

“Not only did she forget a dress, Aunt Penny,” Lily said accusingly. “Rose still hasn’t got herself a date.”

“I don’t see why not!” Penny said, looking me up and down. I fidgeted slightly. “Lovely girl like herself, and a champion to boot!”

“I…didn’t like the blokes who asked…?” I supplied, smiling slightly nervously.

“Well, how many asked?” Aunt Penny was already perusing her own racks, glancing back at me as she pulled one out, but shaking her head and putting it back on the rack.

“Last I heard, eleven,” Beth supplied willingly.

“Fourteen,” I corrected, looking out the window at the snow beginning to fall. “Can we be kind of quick, Aunt Penny? It’s starting to snow, and I don’t want our footprints to be seen when we’re not. Under the cloak, you know.”

“Yes, yes, quite. Well, try this one…this one…”

Aunt Penny began walking around the racks, tossing me dresses of varying shades of blue or blue-green. When I had my arms full with nine dresses, she ushered me to the changing rooms while she and the two fifth year girls sat down and waited. I tried on the first six dresses, deciding myself they weren’t right and getting the same reply from the others, but the seventh…I liked the seventh.

It was a light turquoise in color, strapless, and tied in the back (which I used magic to help me with), crisscrossing most of the way up - most of my back was, therefore, visible. It was of a light, silken material that felt wonderful against one’s skin. The skirt was what I’d call layered, starting in the back and slanting downwards in a spiral. In design, each layer was slightly ruffled, not gaudily, and I loved it. There was a bit of beaded trim, in varying shades and tints of turquoise, but nothing that was too noticeable unless you had been looking for it.

“This is it,” I told myself, looking at my reflection. “I want this one.”

“What, Rosie dear?” Aunt Penny’s voice called. I opened the door.

“I think I want this one,” I told them, twirling in a gentle circle, the layers of the dress spinning gracefully with me.

“Yes,” Lily said at once.

“Perfect,” Beth agreed.

Aunt Penny stood up to examine it closer, and nodded her agreement. “Yes, yes, I think this is perfect. Now - no, no, don’t take it off yet! - now we find shoes, and hair ornaments. Maybe a necklace?”

“Not a necklace,” Lily blurted. I looked at her funny, but she just whispered something to Aunt Penny with a twinkle in her eyes, and Aunt Penny grinned.

“You’re sure you can convince him?” Was the only thing I think I understood, and it was Aunt Penny asking Lily. Lily nodded, grinning, as we walked over to the shoes.

Half an hour later, we were back in the Honeyduke’s cellar, climbing back through the trapdoor. Aunt Penny was going to send the dress and the shoes and the hair things I’d purchased over to the school in the next half hour. Lily and Beth were going to wait in my room while I returned the cloak to Al’s trunk.

Well, as it turned out, I returned it to Al directly, because he was in his dorm playing exploding snap with my brother and Fred.

“Whatcha doing, Rose?” he asked as I stepped in.

“Returning your cloak,” I replied nonchalantly, shrugging as I opened his trunk and dropped it in. “I took the liberty of borrowing it earlier. I had something I needed to do, and I didn’t want to be seen.”

“Wha…?” he asked, as he and the others looked at me in shock. I just grinned, waved, and left.

It was seven that night when Lily and Beth left the Head dorms, after spending three hours making slight adjustments to the dress, and trying to decide how my hair would be done. Lily assured me that the dress would look no different, other than hug my curves more. She said it would feel exactly the same, that she’d just altered how it would appear. I trusted her - she was, after all, more fashionable than I was. The most I ever did with my appearance was curl my hair slightly…and make sure I didn’t have any pimples or anything. Yuck.

The next day, I was really starting to wonder if any of the guys didn’t have a date yet. I might have to resort to taking a third year who had stayed in the hopes of being asked nearer to the ball! Oh, that would just drive me mad. A third year, of all the people for me to show up with. That would almost be more embarrassing than going stag, even as a champion!

I sighed, pushing my incomplete Transfiguration essay away across the table. I was sitting on a pouf on the indoor balcony of the Head dorms, trying to do my homework. I’d started all of my essays, but I fell dismally short of being able to complete them. Groaning, I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. I had two days left. I had to get a date by tomorrow night - so basically, a little under two days, as it was morning. Exactly two days would’ve been when Lily and Beth left last night.

“Something wrong?”

I jumped at Scorpius’ voice as he joined me at the table, taking the pouf right beside me.

“Uh…sort of? Not really. Er…yeah?” I tried, grinning slightly.

“Oh?” he prodded, smiling at me. It constricted my speech for a moment, that smile of his.

“Um, well…” I scratched my nose nervously. “I kind of…don’t have a dance partner a.k.a. date for the ball?”

“Lily told me that,” he said, grinning. “Yesterday.”

I flushed. “Well, yeah. And I bet I’ll have to man up and ask some third year or something, and I really don’t want to and --”

“Why don’t you come with me?”

I choked on my words, then said, “What?”

“Here, let’s try this the right way,” his cheeks turned slightly pink, but he was still smiling. “Rose, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?”

“D-don’t you already have a date…?” I asked, cursing myself for it.

“No,” he replied, “but if you don’t want to, I can ask someone else. I just thought --”

“I’d love to go with you, then,” I said, trying not to say it too quickly, but inside I think I was melting.

The grin on his face, which had faltered when I’d asked if he had a date, grew again. “Great,” he said, pulling out his Charms essay. “Now, maybe we’ll both be able to work, eh?”

Glancing at the one sentence he had on his essay, the introduction, I chuckled and agreed. “Maybe.”

My heart was beating faster than normal, and I glanced out of the corner of my eye for just one more look at the rare flush on Scorpius’ pale features (I say pale, but he does have a nice tan for being a Malfoy - and I’m not Malfoy-bashing here, just saying). I felt the heat in my cheeks rise back up again, and I quickly tried to focus my full attention on the essay in front of me.